Government installs Apurasus to monitor healthcare spending.

Tocantins 247 - Health managers in Tocantins will soon have access to a tool for controlling the costs of facilities within the Unified Health System (SUS). The SUS Cost Accounting and Management System (Apurasus) is designed to aid in decision-making and is already implemented in three hospitals in Palmas, with plans to expand to the municipalities of Araguaína, Augustinópolis, and Gurupi in 2015. This information comes from the State Government.

The Project and Health Economics Coordinator of the State Health Secretariat (Sesau), Luisa Regina Noleto, said that there is a need within the SUS (Brazilian Public Health System) to understand the true costs of health units, especially hospitals, which concentrate a large part of the resources allocated to the sector. According to Luisa, the agreement signed between the Ministry of Health and Sesau guarantees the implementation of the system. "An agreement was signed that should release R$ 250 to strengthen the team and provide the conditions to put this cost center into practice and, with that, strengthen the area of ​​health economics," she explained.

According to the coordinator, Apurasus is already implemented in Palmas, and trained staff from the Palmas General Hospital (HGP), Palmas Children's Hospital, and Dona Regina Hospital and Maternity Center are expected to provide information to the system so that analyses can be carried out within three months. "In the next three months, we will be able to use the database generated by the system and, based on the processed information, we will be able to establish targets for cost reduction," she said.

For Luisa, the main advantage for the population is the analysis of resource allocation. "We will be able to analyze what we are using in the production of the service, how much, whether it is correct, ideal, sufficient or insufficient. We will be able to suggest improvements and analyze whether what is happening is appropriate," she emphasized.

Retired Leucilene de Castro said she believes the tool will bring benefits to the population. "During the visits we see patients of all types and, with this information, we will see how the money will be spent," she said.

The administrative director of HGP, Renata Duran, received training for the implementation of Apurasus and highlighted the importance of transparency in all services of the sector. "Even for the management itself to be able to identify within its health unit the costs and where it needs to pay attention to waste and improvements, in order to use public money efficiently and effectively," she said.

According to Renata, the costs will now be entered into a system and presented in detail. "There were already some services focused on cost, but not in such detail. Now, after analyzing the registered data, each sector will know exactly how much it costs, and these numbers will help in decision-making," she assured.

According to sales representative Alari Couto de Souza Santos, the work to guarantee transparency for SUS (Brazilian public healthcare system) users must be constant. "I believe that to correct something, this type of attitude is necessary. From the moment you show the population what really happens, it will be very beneficial for the population in general," he commented.

The initiative was conducted through coordination and partnership between the National Center for Health Economics of the Department of Health Economics, Investments and Development (Nunes/Desid) and the state health departments, through the Health Economics Centers (NES) of the states.