Institutional analysis of health surveillance in a city in the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Abstract

The article aims to identify and analyze the
institutionalization of Health Surveillance
actions in a municipality in the metropolitan
region of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul,
Brazil, aiming to perceive its instituted and
instituting dimensions, as well as to characterize
the logic of this Surveillance’s performance.
The theoretical-methodological framework used
was Institutional Analysis, in the socio-analytical
aspect. The research was carried out in two
moments, using participant observation, group
meetings with the workers’ collective and the
diary of the first author as a tool for collecting
information. As a result, the following emerged:
the institutionalization of surveillance – due to
the analyzer “identification of all surveillance
with health surveillance”; the relevance of
networking – from specific situations; and the
fragility of the worker health surveillance, bearing
in mind the analyzer for the invisibility of this
surveillance in the system. Educational actions
were observed – especially at health surveillance –
instituting processes; partnership between health
surveillance and primary healthcare and between
the different surveillances. Finally, it was realized
that in intersectoral actions it is important to bear
in mind the cultural, historical and functional
differences of the different sectors involved.