Hospital management at Brazil’s National Health System: challenges in the study of health policies, planning and management

Abstract The objective of this study is to present the state of the art about hospital care, from the period before the SUS until the formulation of the National Policy of Hospital Attention. This is a national and international systematic review with the adoption of Prism Protocol and survey of the scientific literature indexed in Lilacs, Scielo and Web of Science. The 157 articles included, organized in three periods, showed increase in scientific production of 2003. The findings, among other aspects, point to incipient capacity for systemic management before the creation of SUS. It is worth noting the little investment for the adjustment of the hospital care model between the 1988 Constitution and Hospital Attention Reform Plan 2003. During the period of this governmental plan and the National Policy of Hospital Attention of 2013, a set of problems led to strategies of systemic management and hospital services, such regionalization, instances of governance and adoption of indirect management models. The scientific production analyzed allowed identification of important dimensions of hospital management in SUS, from the perspective of Health Policy, Planning and Management, pointing out gaps and possibilities for the research agenda.