Evaluation of the Rede Cegonha: feedback of results for Brazilian maternity hospitals

Abstract

This paper describes and analyzes the process of providing feedback on the results of the second evaluation cycle of good practices of delivery and birth care in maternity hospitals linked to the Rede Cegonha, a Ministry of Health strategy implemented in 2011 to improve obstetric and neonatal healthcare and management. This is a qualitative study based on the documentary analysis of 27 reports from the states and the Federal District referring to the feedback workshops with 1.641 participants, 40% of whom were professionals and managers of the maternity hospitals evaluated, 25% of state representatives, 20% of municipal health secretariats and 15% of federal representatives. Around 46% of maternity hospitals’ action plans in 11 states were received from January to August 2019. The results show the challenge of incorporating the monitoring and evaluation processes in these maternity hospitals’ daily lives due to structural issues in institutional culture. This situation interferes with the local systematic analysis of information and the implementation of national evaluation cycles with the swift and continuous feedback of the results since access to secondary national data is non-existent in good delivery care practices.

Key words
Health assessment; Health management; Healthcare models; Rede Cegonha; Delivery