The activity of the new Territorial Operations Center (COT) of Ferrara, located at the Cittadella S. Rocco Community House, has started, where this morning the general director Monica Calamai carried out an inspection, accompanied by the director of the Primary Care Department Franco Romagnoni, by welfare director Marika Colombi, the director of Technical Activities Giovanni Peressotti and their other collaborators.
The Territorial Operations Centers carry out the function of coordinating the care of the person and liaison between services and professionals, involved in the various areas of care (territorial, health and socio-health activities, hospital) and communicates with the emergency-urgency network, with the ultimate aim of ensuring continuity, accessibility and integration of health and social-health care.
A true “control room”, the COT, which – starting from the analysis of the patient’s needs – guarantees timely and global management thanks to the integrated response between services and professionals. At the moment the center is not contacted directly by users but all the players in the system, district and hospital staff, can request the intervention of the COT: family doctors and paediatricians, continuity of care doctors, internal outpatient specialist doctors, and other healthcare professionals present in company and district services as well as staff in intermediate, residential and semi-residential hospitalization facilities.
The new COT of Ferrara finds space in the Community House in Corso Giovecca. Carried out with an intervention financed with PNRR funds, which alone is worth around 500 thousand euros, it involved a complete renovation of around 350 square meters of space.
The redevelopment and subsequent activation of the innovative service involved the structural consolidation and redistribution of the functional spaces for the activities that will take place in the COT, also taking into account the historical importance of this building.
Two large “open spaces”, one of which is intended for staff work and equipped with systems designed to improve comfort and work functionality.
The articulation of the spaces was set up to allow modularity of use and ease of modification over time, “cuts” in the walls, windows between neighboring rooms favor group work. The secondary transport center and the Continuity of Care headquarters will also be located there. There are also some service and activity support spaces.
The recent “Guidelines for the implementation of the Territorial Operations Centers in Emilia-Romagna (Dgr n. 796 of 14/05/2024) identify three other COTs for the province of Ferrara – one per district – in addition to that of Cittadella S Rocco: in Argenta, Bondeno and Comacchio.
Specifically declining, among the activities of the Centre, the:
1. Hospital-territory transition: facilitating the transition from hospital to the most appropriate territorial care settings;
2. Territory-hospital transition: facilitating access to healthcare services for cases with healthcare and/or social needs, such as patients in situations of fragility, complex chronicity and non-self-sufficiency, regardless of age;
3. Territory-Territory Transition: facilitating transitions from one territorial service to
another such as, for example, from home care to the community hospital and vice versa, from the person’s home to the hospice and vice versa;
4. Activation of further care services: facilitate processes if the professional in charge of the patient deems it necessary to activate further services, for example: PDTA, telemedicine, physiotherapy, supply of prosthetic aids, incontinence aids, oxygen therapy.
5. Information and logistical support: the COT guarantees professionals an information service also to support the planning of the care path;
6. Data collection and management: through the application identified for access and management of the various transitions.
At least three nurses are assigned to each COT, a support unit and a corporate nursing coordinator of reference, also with a transversal role, who will be responsible for the functioning of the COT, the management and coordination of the staff. Social-health integration is ensured by the figure of the social worker, the regional health service and/or local authorities, and be guaranteed in presence or through close functional connection.
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