Quality of assistance of acute chest pain patients in the State of Ceará, Brazil

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Chest pain is a major reason for hospitalization in the public network due to its subjectivity, non-specificity, lack of nurses and physicians’ qualification, quality of assistance and the fact that chest pain patients satisfaction is still far away from ideal. This study aimed at evaluating the quality of assistance of acute chest pain patients in the State of Ceará, Brazil. METHODS: This is a descriptive, exploratory and analytical study. After applying a form, a sample of 430 patients and 50 professionals of a reference hospital was obtained. Non-parametric statistics was used for analysis and discussion. Dependent variables and users’ satisfaction were correlated for the development of tables and simple descriptive statistical analysis. RESULTS: Three hundred and eighty-one patients (65.65%) have looked for assistance more than once, returning for several reasons, even when there were other units for health follow up in their respective region. Most users (n=422) have not noticed assistance barriers with regard to materials and human resources (83.17). However, delay in assistance (9.0%) was the most important barrier perceived by those referring difficulties (n=38). CONCLUSION: The complex assistance to acute chest pain patients affects the analysis of the quality of assistance provided to users. The high number of patients makes the service chaotic because the relationship between health professionals and structure is not satisfactory, requiring the insertion of more professionals and improvement in assistance time.