Publications IPH Magazine Annals of Summaries: 38th Congress of Hospital Administration and Health Management Interview with Santiago Venegas from Red de Clínicas Regionales - Santiago - Chile

Santiago Venegas - I'm lucky to have known the Hospitalar for 10 years. I come here almost every year as a lecturer to discuss different issues concerning health management. Both the Federation and the Hospitalar show great development every year. The greatness as well as the size of Hospitalar are impressive and it is very satisfying to be a part of the Brazilian Federation for Hospital Administrators (Federação Brasileira de Administradores Hospitalares) and the Congress. It was a very well organized Congress that raised relevant matters concerning the current hospital management situation and the issues that most interest managers. We have similar problems in Chile. In Brazil, the magnitude is different. We have about 300 hospitals, public and private, here, some people say there are 5.500 hospitals, and others say 7.000. So, we learn a lot by attending the Congress and the Hospitalar every year with the Federation. 

IPH - What are your thoughts on this last lecture we have attended? The discussion was about changing paradigms, changing the hospital's focus to primary care; and how governments are more concerned with building hospitals and with specialties and forget about primary care, family health and children's health. How do you see this matter in Chile as a way to alleviate hospitals that are overburdened with demands? 

Santiago Venegas - I think it is very relevant, very important, to define the right focus towards patients' ongoing care model. In Chile, 70% of our demands in health services are for low complexity primary care; 23% are for medium complexity cases and only 5 to 8% are high complexity cases. Therefore, the hospitals as a whole must focus mainly on primary care. Now, here is something I have learned over the years: a hospital cannot support itself if it is not part of a network. A high-complexity hospital must be permanently connected with unities that provide medium and low-complexity care.  This is of key importance for the success of the hospital and for the development and acquisition of knowledge and assistance flow.