From care services to SUS repositories: a look at knowledge organization systems and health information standards

Abstract

Care records from the Health Care Producing Organizations (OPSAS) produce information for the repositories of the SUS Information Department (DATASUS). These records are fundamental for knowledge creation, management of national systems, care and administrative decision-making, the quality of care provided to users, access to digital archive repositories, and the elaboration of public policies for health promotion, prevention and care. It presupposes that DATASUS adopts knowledge management systems to disclose the records stored in the OPSAS repositories. Hence, this study sought to identify the DATASUS information and knowledge ordering systems, to unveil the representation processes and the information transfer mechanisms between OPSAS and DATASUS, and to explore how hospital managers and DATASUS managers perceive the standardization of health information. An applied, qualitative, quantitative, descriptive exploratory research was conducted with data collected by two semi-structured interviews. Results point out the mechanisms for information transfer from OPSAS to the DATASUS repositories, exploring the knowledge of different managers on the standardization of health information. Respondents failed to elaborate on the functioning and structure of the information and knowledge ordering systems used. In conclusion, the DATASUS digital repository seem to employ sorting systems, but we were unable to identify them.