Sustentabilidade em Medicina Laboratorial: Revisão Integrativa da Literatura

Abstract

The most relevant decisions related to clinical practice are grounded in laboratory diagnosis. Provide services with quality requires continuous improvement and the use of tools to objec tively evaluate the performance of the processes of the organization. The use of Indicators of quality is being valued in the management of clinical laboratories to optimize the qualification and quantification of the failures in different laboratory processes, as well as assist the deployment of corrective measures and preventive and pointing to the effectiveness of the actions taken. Today, many companies in particular clinical laboratories, seek to adopt sustainable practices in their management processe s. With the emergence of new companies, the competitiveness is more dynamic and complex, which makes the permanence of same within the competitive market, thus generating concerns and uncertainties in relation to the future. The sustainable development is inserted into three interdependent elements: economic development, the social and the guarantee of environmental protection, called Triple Botton Line. The emergence of this concept was fundamental for the paradigm shift in the companies, which had as its sole focus the profit. In addition, this study aimed to assess and analyze the scientific production on sustainability in the area of laboratory medicine in the period from 2000 to 2012. The evidence based practice represented the theoretical -methodological framework adopted. It was an integrative review of the literature in the following databases: LILACS, SCIELO and PubMed, totaling 1918 articles. After the inclusion/exclusion criteria 18 articles were selected for this integrative review, referring to su stainability theme in the area of laboratory medicine. Considering the factor in evidence stood out sustainability with total (72.2 %) 13 articles, followed by social responsibility and quality with (55.5 %) 10 articles each, later indicators and environmental responsibility with (50.0 %) 9 articles each, Triple Botton Line and competitiveness (44.0 %) with 8 articles each and finalizing benchmarking with (22.2 %) 4 articles. Changes to obtain sustainable development require responsibility, ethics and commitment. The sustainability today is more than a principle of management, it has become an essential element for the reputation of companies. The findings reinforce that sustainability contributes to the increase in the profitability in the company.