The community houses are an indispensable element of the new Sicilian territorial network to which the citizen will be able to access in order to come into contact with the health and socio-health care system. It is there that citizens will be able to find assistance 24 hours a day, every day of the week, with an offer of services made up of: general practitioners, paediatricians of free choice, internal outpatient specialists, family and community nurses, other professionals healthcare, supported by adequate technological and basic diagnostic equipment (ultrasound, electrocardiograph, spirometer, etc.).
The Asp i Catania is already operational on this front and the works for the construction of the first of the 29 planned Community Houses have been delivered to the former “Barbuzza” Hospital in Grammichele (in the photo), the others will be built in: Acireale, Adrano, Belpasso, Biancavilla, Bronte, Caltagirone, Castiglione di Sicilia, Catania (3), Fiumefreddo, Giarre, Grammichele, Gravina di Catania, Linguaglossa, Militello Val di Catania, Mineo, Mirabella Imbaccari, Misterbianco, Palagonia, Paternò, Pedara, Piedimonte Etneo, Ramacca, Randazzo, San Giovanni La Punta, San Gregorio di Catania, Scordia, Viagrande.
The Community Hospital is, however, an inpatient healthcare facility within the local healthcare network and performs an intermediate function between the home and hospital admission. They are aimed at patients who, following a minor acute episode or the exacerbation of chronic pathologies, require low clinical intensity health interventions that can potentially be provided at home, but who require continuous nursing care and health surveillance, even at night, without payable at home or in the absence of suitability of the home itself (structural or family).
The ASP of Palermo has activated the first Community Hospital in Petralia Sottana (in the photo the inauguration) on the second floor of the “Madonna dell’Alto” Presidium. It has 9 hospital rooms with 2 beds each, with en-suite facilities, air conditioning and TV. A room is dedicated to remote monitoring through a telemedicine service. A doctor, nurses, physiotherapists and social health personnel work there to ensure assistance to patients from Petralia Sottana. The objective of this and the new community hospitals will be to avoid improper hospital admissions and to encourage protected discharges more suitable for patient stabilization and functional recovery. Hospitalization lasts no more than 30 days which, only in particular cases, can be extended. Access takes place through protected discharges from an acute hospital or through the general practitioner upon proposal of the local network services.
