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Objective: To evaluate whether the rate of surgical complications is higher during the first semester of the General Surgery residency in the largest hospital complex in Latin America. During this period, students are expected to have less experience in carrying out procedures., Methods: During a period of two years, all General Surgery resident doctors at the Hospital das Clínicas of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo, made a notification of all the procedures they performed (n = 14.063), containing information such as name of the procedure, date, who participated, complications, among others. These data were analyzed with the purpose of evaluating the variation in the rate of complications throughout the year., Results: There was a 52 % increase in the rate of complications in the first academic semester when compared to the second semester. This phenomenon was observed in resident doctors in the first and second years of residency. Furthermore, it was observed that second-year residents remain with high rates of complications, in some procedures, for a longer time than first-year residents. Furthermore, the first three months (March, April and May) seem to have the highest complication rates of the entire year., Conclusion: The impact of these complications can affect several health services and the increase in surgical complications in the first half of the year must be monitored by institutions, in order to control this phenomenon., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 HCFMUSP. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with high mortality among hospitalized patients and incurs high costs. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection can trigger both inflammatory and thrombotic processes, and these complications can lead to a poorer prognosis. This study aimed to evaluate the association and temporal trends of D-dimer and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels with the incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE), hospital mortality, and costs among inpatients with COVID-19., Methods: Data were extracted from electronic patient records and laboratory databases. Crude and adjusted associations for age, sex, number of comorbidities, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score at admission, and D-dimer or CRP logistic regression models were used to evaluate associations., Results: Between March and June 2020, COVID-19 was documented in 3,254 inpatients. The D-dimer level ≥4,000 ng/mL fibrinogen equivalent unit (FEU) mortality odds ratio (OR) was 4.48 (adjusted OR: 1.97). The CRP level ≥220 mg/dL OR for death was 7.73 (adjusted OR: 3.93). The D-dimer level ≥4,000 ng/mL FEU VTE OR was 3.96 (adjusted OR: 3.26). The CRP level ≥220 mg/dL OR for VTE was 2.71 (adjusted OR: 1.92). All these analyses were statistically significant (p<0.001). Stratified hospital costs demonstrated a dose-response pattern. Adjusted D-dimer and CRP levels were associated with higher mortality and doubled hospital costs. In the first week, elevated D-dimer levels predicted VTE occurrence and systemic inflammatory harm, while CRP was a hospital mortality predictor., Conclusion: D-dimer and CRP levels were associated with higher hospital mortality and a higher incidence of VTE. D-dimer was more strongly associated with VTE, although its discriminative ability was poor, while CRP was a stronger predictor of hospital mortality. Their use outside the usual indications should not be modified and should be discouraged.

Objective: In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought a work and stress overload to healthcare workers, increasing their vulnerability to mental health impairments. In response, the authors created the COMVC-19 program. The program offered preventive actions and mental health treatment for the 22,000 workers of The Hospital das Clinicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (HCFMUSP). This paper aims to describe its implementation and share what we have learned from this experience., Methods: Workers were able to easily access the program through a 24/7 hotline. Additionally, a mobile phone app that screened for signs and symptoms of emotional distress and offered psychoeducation and/or referral to treatment was made available. Data from both these sources as well as any subsequent psychiatric evaluations were collected., Results: The first 20 weeks of our project revealed that most participants were female, and part of the nursing staff working directly with COVID-19 patients. The most frequently reported symptoms were: anxiety, depression and sleep disturbances. The most common diagnoses were Adjustment, Anxiety, and Mood disorders., Conclusions: Implementing a mental health program in a multimodal intervention was feasible in a major quaternary public hospital. Our data also suggests that preventive actions should primarily be aimed at anxiety and depression symptoms, with a particular focus on the nursing staff.

Objective: To evaluate the long-term outcomes and satisfaction of nonurgent patients who seek care in the emergency department (ED) and are diverted to primary health services (PHS)., Methods: Data were collected from 264 nonurgent patients diverted from the ED of a tertiary public university hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. The nonurgent patient definition was performed by Manchester triage system version II (MTS-II) associated to medical interview in the triage service. Satisfaction levels were evaluated by telephone interviews. The outcomes were assessed within 30 days after the ED visit., Results: Based on the MTS-II, 56.4 percent of the diverted patients were classified as green, 34.3 percent as blue, and 9.3 percent as white. Only one patient required a hospital admission and no deaths were registered within 30 days after ED diversion. After diversion, the majority of patients searched for PHS (62.7 percent), 14.4 percent sought out other EDs, and 22.9 percent did not seek out any other health services. Regarding patient satisfaction, 61.9 percent evaluated the triage team as fair, good, or very good., Conclusions: Our study suggests that diverting nonurgent patients from the ED to PHS may be carried out in a hierarchic system like the Brazilian public healthcare system. The MTS-II can be a useful triage system to support physician in the diverting process. In addition, patient satisfaction with the refusing was reasonable. Future studies should be designed to evaluate patient safety outcomes in a larger sample and in different healthcare systems.

Family Health Support Centers (NASF) were created in Brazil to increase the case-resolution capacity of primary healthcare. Prior to their implementation in the West Side of the city of São Paulo, Brazil, a series of workshops were held for primary healthcare professionals to prepare a proposal for such centers. Hermeneutic analysis was used to study the transcribed material. The thematic categories were: role, constitution, and functioning of the NASF, relationship with family health teams, and interdisciplinarity. The participants' expected the NASF to be an empowering device for comprehensiveness of care, intervening in an existing culture of unnecessary referrals while fostering linkage with other levels of care. The participants also expected the NASF to contribute to the discussion on health professionals' training and stimulating reflection with policymakers on health indicators based exclusively on the number of consultations. These indicators fail to reflect the impact on the services' activities and the quality of care offered to the population in the coverage area.

This article briefly discusses the teaching of humanities at the Medicine course and presents a proposal developed at the Center of Medical Education Development (CEDEM) of the Medicine School of São Paulo University (Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo - FMUSP) for the integration of this area in the curriculum. The curricular integration is a strategy of education, based on the systemic vision that involves actions of wide educational range. The teaching of humanities in Medicine aims at approaching the techniques and the look at the human condition, as well as develops didactic-pedagogical methods to its learning. The proposal of integration presented in this article consists of six strategic actions, in different states of development: (1) Elaboration of the terminal objectives of the area for the student's formation, (2) Integration of six humanity disciplines of the current curriculum, (3) Integration of the humanistic subjects with others disciplines in accordance with the terminal objectives of the area, (4) Planning of teaching development courses in medical humanities, (5) Development of evaluation system and supervision of the humanistic formation, (6) Spreading of the "Humanities and Medicine" area.