METROLOGY RELIABILITY IN THE BRAZILIAN HEALTH SECTOR: A STUDY CASE IN THE PUBLIC HEALTH CARE AND METROLOGICAL CONTROL OF HOSPITAL MEDICAL EQUIPMENT

摘要

The present paper is related to laboratory quality in the Brazilian health care sector in general and to public health services in particular. Its purpose is to contribute to the development of reliable measurement practices in the hospital care section within the scope of at least 4 basic aspects: (i) identification of the available metrology legislation in Brazil which, as a rule, is sparsely organized and is not easily accessible to the end-user/practitioner, whose bibliographical research reveals an explicit lack of specialized literature; (ii) analysis of the compiled measurement standards and recommendations for the sector; (iii) diagnosis of laboratory quality in Central Public Health Care Laboratories as a means by which to implement an alternative strategy for introducing a quality system in a public health care laboratory based on a new approach that focuses on the quality of the laboratories that comprise the National Network of Official Quality and Health Care Control Laboratories; (iv) diagnosis of instruments that are employed in hospital services in terms of their conformity to measurement standards based on case studies of scales for controlling the mass of neonates, and of biomedical instruments for measuring blood pressure.