A LOOK AT THE PROCESS OF HEALTH SURVEILLANCE IN COSTA RICA ACCORDING TO HEALTH WORKERS

The health monitoring provides data for making decisions about the events that occur in populations. This qualitative study was conducted in 2015 in Costa Rica to know the opinion of 58 health workers or key informants regarding some aspects of the monitoring process of epidemiological surveillance and health situation analysis in 27 health areas (22 urban zone, 5 rural zone). Key informants are members of the local committees for epidemiological surveillance of each area and they were interviewed. Key informants commented on the particular composition of each local committee (number of participants in the committee, professions or occupations), they mentioned the main educational and preventive activities that contribute to health monitoring. They also expressed regarding the usefulness of the process of situational analysis of health and difficulties, needs and constraints that they have in monitoring. Key informants mentioned that there is no regulation regarding the amount and specificity of members of the local committee. They also mentioned the educational and preventive activities they perform, which help monitor events that affect population health, but key informants need technological improvements, more training, resources and more community involvement. Health workers perceive they face several challenges while conducting epidemiological surveillance and health situation analysis in Costa Rica.