Work accidents identified in hospital records

Abstract

Occupational health problems can result from the way work is organized, from production restructuring and globalization, which have led to increasingly precarious work, characterized by deregulation, loss of labor and social rights and legalization of temporary work. These problems include Occupational Accidents (OA). The main goal of this study was to verify, in the files of patients victims of accidents at work, notes included by health professionals, in the attempt to discover the number of OA that occurred and their characteristics. The research was carried out at a teaching hospital in Ribeirão Preto-SP. We asked the Hospital Data Processing Center for the records of accident victim attended during a two-year period. Among the 6,122 patients who received care, notes in hospital records revealed 618 victims of occupational accidents. In this group, 85.11% were men, 22.17% were between 31 and 40 years old; 24.27% worked in civil construction and 19.42% were agricultural workers. As to the characteristics of these AO, 25.24% affected the upper limbs and 31.55% were due to falls. Prevention policies need to change and health professionals need occupational health care training, so that they clearly register information in the records.