[Hospital utilization in Brazil and effect of the measures to reduce hospitalizations]

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the increase and variation of hospital discharges in Brazil. In addition, the effects of recent governmental measures aiming at reducing the accelerated rate of use of in-patient facilities is discussed. A new case-based hospital reimbursement method, introduced late in 1983, was one of these measures, which seemed to have contributed to increase and not to decrease hospitalization. On the other hand, there has been a shift in hospital discharges from the private to the public sector. It is shown that there is a large difference in hospital workload between private and public institutions. While private hospitals in Brazil operate strongly in the specialties of internal medicine, public hospitals are treating more surgical patients. Consequently it seems that private hospitals are treating less complicated cases and public hospitals the most complicated ones.