Inteligov invited Adelvânio Francisco Morato to talk about the challenges faced by the hospital sector during the crisis caused by Covid-19, in addition to providing an overview of how the market is dealing with the return of in-person work, regulation of innovations in the health sector and the impacts of technology on medical care.
Adelvânio currently chairs the Brazilian Federation of Hospitals (FBH) and served as vice-president and general secretary in previous administrations. He is also a partner and owner of the Goiânia Kidney Institute and current president of the Association of Hospitals of the State of Goiás (AHEG). He graduated in Medicine from the Federal oman mobile database University of Espírito Santo (UFES) and specialized in Urology at Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Goiânia. He also has a postgraduate degree in Administration in Medical Cooperatives from the Catholic University of Goiás.
Covid-19 has brought about changes in all sectors, especially in healthcare. In a short period of time, all players in this market have had to make difficult decisions to face this challenge. In your opinion, what was the most difficult moment faced by hospitals and clinics in the country during the pandemic?
Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have all been challenged in many ways. I always say that no hospital in the world is prepared to deal with a health crisis of this magnitude. I would like to highlight, among the most difficult moments, the widespread lack of supplies to care for the population, from the shortage of PPE, to the lack of respirators and the lack of oxygen in some cities, such as Manaus.
I would also like to draw attention to the time when intubation kits were no longer available and the difficulty in dealing with high absenteeism rates, due to the large number of professionals who were infected with Covid-19. For hospitals that were not on the front line of coronavirus care, I have no doubt that the worst moment was the suspension of elective care. This caused serious financial losses to the establishments.
The crisis has led to new opportunities emerging along the way, such as technological advances and the population's adoption of tools for remote meetings. What are the consequences of technological acceleration for the hospital sector?
We have certainly seen a huge explosion of new technologies that are helping to overcome important challenges that are not new. Telemedicine, for example, has provided great benefits by bringing care to remote regions.