Estudio Epidemiológico: Actividad Médica del Sistema de Salud de la Seguridad Social del Ecuador, 2013

Epidemiological Study: Medical Activity of the Social Security Health System of EcuadorBackground: The beneficiaries of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute were historically under the age of 1 and from 2001 onwards the health benefit was increased to those less than 6 years of age and later in 2011 the children under 18 years old were incorporated. The aim was to correlate the indicators of health mana-gement in hospitals, clinics and medical annexes peasants regarding demand, supply and population in four period’s dispensaries: I) 1978-1987; II) 1988-1997; III) 1998-2007 and IV) 2008-2013.Methods: It is an ecological epidemiological study that analyzed variables of the medical activity (exter-nal consultation, emergencies, surgeries, hospital stay, rate of doctors, clinics and peasant dispensaries/organizations) with respect to the population served. The Spearman correlation factor (Rho) and the Krus-kal-Wallis test were used to compare the 4 study periods. A p: <0.05 was considered a significant result.Results: In health insurance, the rate of medical influenced the amount of expenditures, reducing the days average stay from 9 days at the beginning of the series (1978) to 6 days at the end of the study (2013) effecti-vely using the existing bedding (Rho: -0.718, p: <0.05). In the Occupational Risks Insurance, during the third period the protected population grew while the number of attendances in the attached clinics decreased (Rho: -0.3995; p: <0.01). In the Rural Social Security, in period II, the group of beneficiary was the one that grew the most with respect to the protected population (Rho: 0.85, p:<0.01).Conclusions: Health management indicators in hospitals, outpatient clinics and peasant medical clinics had a direct and significant correlation with the increase in demand throughout the series (1978-2013), while supply increase not at the same speed required, for the incorporation of new protected population (affiliates, beneficiaries and pensioners) complying with the social security policies of the State of law.