[Evaluation of the System of Sanitary Vigilance of Blood at the federal level, Brazil, 2007].

This study evaluated the Sanitary Vigilance System for Blood at federal government level (VIGISAN). This assessment included the following components: managerial system of registration of hemotherapeutic services; external evaluation program of quality of hemotherapy services; hemovigilance system; standardization and inspection of health services for blood and its components. Besides the description and the calculation of efficiency (cost-effectiveness ratio) of VIGISAN, the assessment consisted of two phases based on three methods. VIGISAN had a poorly defined structure, though it operated smoothly and its utility was acceptable for public health. From a total of four defined indicators to evaluate performance, one obtained a satisfactory result. Three out of the seven evaluation attributes achieved positive assessment in this study. The cost-effectiveness ratio was US$ 37,965.16 per activity performed, which resulted in loss of efficiency for the system. This study demonstrates the importance of conducting evaluations of vigilance systems in public health, which should be performed periodically in order to contribute to improvement of the system and thus improve public health in the country.