This article presents the experience with participatory planning in the Bonsucesso General Hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 2003 to 2004. The participatory and communicative characteristics and the resulting institutional format are identified for guaranteeing the implementation of collective decisions from the planning workshops. The limits of implementation in participatory planning and management proposals are argued from the perspective of change and power relations in these institutions. The results support the notion that projects involving changes in hospitals and failing to take into account the different internal rationalities and power relations end up having reduced potential for implementation.
Planning; Health Planning; Hospital Administration
