Compliance of standard operating procedures for patient handling in university hospitals: assessment of prescribed work

Objective To analyze the prescribed work related to patient transport and manual handling tasks. Methods The three stages of content analysis were carried out: 1) pre-analysis; 2) exploration of the material; 3) processing of results and interpretation. The search for Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) was conducted on the websites of University Hospitals (UHs) and via email. A total of 33 SOPs from UHs administered by the Brazilian Hospital Services Company (EBSERH) were analyzed. The interpretation was based on the requirements of the Consolidation of Labor Laws, Regulatory Standards 17 and 32, and Resolution No. 63 of the Collegiate Board of the National Health Surveillance Agency. Results The analysis identified 55 associations or equivalences with regulatory requirements in 20 SOPs (60.6% of the documents). The most frequent items were related to recommendations for teamwork, workplace organization, use of technical aids, use of “proper body mechanics,” and encouragement of patient cooperation. On the other hand, of the regulatory items considered, six were not met by any of the SOPs. Conclusion The study identified heterogeneous content in the prescribed work and omissions in meeting certain requirements related to the transport and handling of loads.