The objective of this paper is to analyze the organization of a health team while rendering services in urgency and emergency situations in a hospital unit in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It was a qualitative case study. The data was collected through observation and semi-structured interviews with health professionals between June and September of 2007. The data analysis followed a qualitative approach: ordering, classification by relevance, synthesis, and interpretation. Teamwork is divided into death-risk cases, assistance to patients under observation, and attention to users with non-emergency cases. Thus, professionals are overloaded and patients quite often are not rendered the right service. The study offers support for reorganizing work processes, aiming to improve the quality and effectiveness of emergency service.
Emergencies; Emergency medical services; Patient care team; Organization and administration