Abstract

GUISANTES, Jorge A. et al. Hospitals as a way to dynamize and disemminate regional health: the case of the Hospital de Tacuarembó, Uruguay. Rev. Méd. Urug. [online]. 2021, vol.37, n.1, e801.  Epub Mar 01, 2021. ISSN 0303-3295.  https://doi.org/10.29193/rmu.37.1.9.

The study presents the case of the Hospital de Tacuarembó (HRT), located in a medium-size city in the north of Uruguay, which turned into a reference in terms of the dynamization of regional health, offering modern and effective healthcare services, serving the community and contributing to the improvement of national health.

All of this was possible as a result of an ambitious and optimistic management of objectives, based on collective and individual effort, as well as relying on the support of national and international bodies. This dynamizing and influential role played by the Hospital de Tacuarembó is based, on the one hand on a great improvement of its logistical base - that is, the hospital itself - in terms of its premises, equipment and upscaling of medical services, and on the other hand on the major support and stimulus to Primary Healthcare Services, not only in the city of Tacuarembó, but also throughout the entire province. Likewise, the HRT has played a significant role in the control of two parasite zoonoses that are extremely important for Uruguay: Chagas disease and cystic echinococcosis. This dynamizing actions have consisted in regarding the hospital as a "health organization" within the context of a certain territory, along with factors defined by the national health system. HRT may be considered as an innovative organization led by "social entrepreneurs" within the framework of social entrepreneurship, stemming from a departmental or province hospital.

Keywords : Hospitals; Primary health care; Public health; Tacuarembó; Zoonoses.

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