Franco TB, Bueno WS, Merhy EE. O acolhimento e os processos de trabalho em saúde: o caso de Betim, Minas Gerais, Brasil. [User embracement and healthcare work processes: the case of Betim, Mina Gerais, Brazil .] Cadernos de Saúde Pública [Public Health Notebooks] (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) 1999 April-June; 15(2):345-353.

Objectives: To analyze the transformation of the technical care model in health based on user embracement (acolhimento).

Methodology: Qualitative-quantitative.

Results: User embracement proposes that health services be organized from a user-centered perspective, based on the following principles: 1) extending care to everyone who seeks healthcare services, thus guaranteeing universal access; 2) reorganizing work routines and processes, so that the central axis of the physicians work runs through a multi-professional team--a user embracement team--that charges itself with listening to the user and commits itself to resolving his or her health problems; and 3) improving the worker-user relationship, which should be bound by humanitarian concerns of solidarity and fraternity. The authors documented a significant increase in professional output and in the amount of care given by non-medical staff. Greater professional output led in turn to a remarkable increase in accessibility to healthcare services.

The problems evidenced were related to the difficulty that professional staff experienced in integrating themselves into the effort and to the difficulty of integrating work in the health services with work in the community.

Conclusions: As a device for transforming work processes and increasing access to healthcare, user embracement demonstrated its effectiveness.