The Local Health Authority of Ferrara has published the resolution for the “Adoption of the Plan for the containment of waiting times for the year 2024-2025”.
Referring to the national and regional health legislation on the matter, to the regional resolution on waiting times (DGR 620/24) and also in light of the very recent Law Decree 73 of the Government “Urgent measures to reduce the times of waiting lists for services health services”, the Resolution formally adopts the Plan, largely already operational (and made known), aimed at implementing the number of services in the province, making their use more rational and appropriate, improving citizen access and monitoring their routes . With the final objective, as mentioned, of improving the times for services, both outpatient and surgical specialists. To this end, the resolution also incorporates the creation of a “Control Room” with the task of promptly following the application of the Plan itself.
In the introduction, the Plan recalls that there has already been a strong recovery of the services that could not be provided during the Covid period, but that critical issues remain. And to deal with it, it contemplates actions both on the supply side of services and on the demand side.
As regards the offer, the Plan reiterates some already known lines of intervention:
– Further increase in services carried out by company professionals even during holidays and evenings;
– Purchase of intramoenia freelance services;
– Purchase of services from an accredited private individual;
– Recruitment of staff, particularly in the most vulnerable branches;
– Push on telemedicine, capable of producing advantages both for patients with respect to the proximity of care, and for professionals who will be able to optimize their working time by traveling less.
An important commitment is also expected on the organizational front.
The implementation of the local specialist branches (pulmonology, rehabilitation, infectious diseases, oncology, On Connect Project) and their further development could have a positive effect on increasingly punctual patient care. Same principle for the Diagnostic-Therapeutic-Assistive Paths (PDTA). To date, breast Pdtas have been launched at the provincial health authorities (which recently obtained EUSOMA certification); ALS; Adult and juvenile dementia.
The following are also being discussed: Diabetes; Chronic – Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; Heart failure; Gastro-esophageal carcinoma; Hepatobiliary-pancreatic carcinoma; Colorectal cancer; Lung cancer; Parkinson.
As part of these programs, patients will no longer have to go to Cup to book services or checks related to pathologies related to their program but will have dedicated agendas. A reorganization which on the one hand will make treatment for these patients easier and on the other will allow for increasingly punctual planning of services in general.
In collaboration with professionals, the standardization of the performance timetable is underway and a specific “IT dashboard” will allow us to have the “productive” situation in real time so as to be able to promptly address any critical issues that may emerge.
To further protect the patient, the Plan provides for the Help Desk service, which allows the request to be taken care of if the appointment that the patient receives at Cup does not respect the times required by the prescription, in order to bring it forward without further obligations on the part of the patient. of the citizen himself.
New professional figures, specific flow managers for the specialty, will help to smooth out relationships between services to avoid slowdowns arising due to communication defects or organizational problems.
To coordinate everything, a special Control Room which, through weekly meetings, will:
– structure the analysis of activity data and verify the related monitoring;
– monitor the recruitment of staff and verify their use;
– dynamically plan and plan corrective actions;
– plan permanent meetings with the accredited private individual;
– identify extraordinary initiatives in order to further increase production.
But in addition to the supply side, there are also important actions on the demand side of services. Starting from prescriptive appropriateness.
Collaboration with prescribers is envisaged in the drafting of guidelines and protocols aimed at increasingly correct and appropriate prescriptions, and the creation of courses on this aspect.
There is also a strong push on the digitalisation of outpatient procedures aimed at facilitating patient certification (for example with respect to treatment plans) and on teleconsultation.
The second section of the plan is then dedicated to surgical interventions.
In December 2023, the health authorities of the province of Ferrara reached the regional objective of 80% on the recovery of interventions expired on 31/12/2022, obtaining 87% on a provincial basis, thanks to an increase of 7% on 2022 for general surgery and 37% for major outpatient surgery.
But in order to further improve surgical performance, the Plan contemplates the following further actions:
– Management of a single list for provincial pathologies, so that the citizen has the possibility to choose where to carry out the operation also in relation to the relative delivery time;
– Centralization of complex surgical procedures in the provincial hub hospital and definition of “Focused-Factory” structures: local hospital structures specialized in the care of patients suffering from specific pathologies for low and medium complexity surgery;
– Organizational measures for greater productivity of the operating blocks;
– Specific agreements on certain needs with the accredited private individual.
For both surgery and specialist outpatient care, the Plan provides specific monitoring indicators.
