ANCONA – The Marche region announced this morning that the 15th has become fully operational Territorial Operations Centers financed by the Pnrr. Present at the press conference held at Palazzo Raffaello, the vice president and councilor for Health Filippo Saltamartinithe undersecretary to the presidency of the regional council Aldo Salvithe director of Ars Marche Flavia Carlethe director of the Department of Health Antonio Draisci and the general managers of the Local Health Authorities who have operationally created and started the Cot activity in the territory. In total, through the Next Generation Eu fund, better known in Italy as Pnrr, the Region has obtained 2,596,125 euros for the creation of the Cot which have the task of coordinating all the territorial activities of the districts, carrying out the role of ‘control room’ between the various actors involved in the network, with the aim of ensuring accessibility, continuity and integration of health and social health care.
The Territorial Operations Centers, as announced by the main representatives of the Marche healthcare system, coordinate and optimize interventions, activating subjects and resources of the healthcare network, organize and coordinate the taking charge and transition of people residing in the district between services and healthcare professionals involved in the different care settings such as territorial, health and social-health activities, hospital activities, emergency emergency network and in the different organizational levels of the health, social-health and social-welfare system. The Cot, for example, are able to monitor the movement of patients from one place of care to another and from one clinical-care level to another, the availability of places in local or hospital structures, and to organize the services of Integrated Home Care, better known as Adi. Furthermore, through the Cots, social welfare, social and health services and pathways are activated, and the transition processes of patients between hospital and territory, territory and hospital, territory and territory are managed. The 15 Territorial Operations Centers activated in the Marche are organized into two levels: a regional Cot, known as Cot-R, identified in a Cot of the Ast of Ancona and 14 district Cots, the Cot-D. The Regional Territorial Operations Center is in operation 7 days a week for 12 hours, extendable to 24 hours, while the 14 District COTs are in operation 6 days a week for 12 hours and are strictly interconnected with the regional one.
«We have created a system capable of coordinating all health services – declares the Councilor for Health Filippo Saltamartini – a big step forward to overcome the deficiencies in the field of local assistance and waiting lists. The 15 COTs are all operational, not only from an infrastructural point of view – he specified -, but also from a staff point of view. Each of these Operations Centers has the necessary staff to guarantee their coordination activity. We are working to guarantee healthcare that is closer to citizens and is also capable of providing answers to fragility and chronic conditions linked to the aging of the population. This new organizational model, which makes use of the most cutting-edge technologies to support the management and coordination of the various services, contributes to alleviating the pressure on hospital structures and reducing improper admissions, by networking professionals and services in a optimization logic. After having carried out a courageous and epochal reform for the reorganization of the Regional Health System and defined the strategies in the Regional Social Health Plan, we are giving concrete implementation to community medicine. We are starting to see the fruits of a healthcare system that is radically changing its face and from 2026, thanks to the investments made by this Council for the training of specialists, we will finally also have the doctors we were lacking until now due to the lack of turnover planning in the past.” Furthermore, a further 1,066,071.88 euros of Pnrr funds finance an information system for the interconnection of the Cot with other health services. Key figures of this new organizational model which intercepts the care and assistance needs of citizens are the District Director and the Nursing Coordinator, together with the nursing staff, from 3 to 5 units, and the administrative support staff. In this case 1 or 2 units are expected.
The Ast of Ancona will have two Cots in the capital: in via Cristoforo Colombo 106, one in Jesi in via dei Colli 52, one in Senigallia in via Campo Boario 4 and one in Fabriano in via Marconi 9. The Ast of Pesaro Urbino in Pesaro in via Vatielli 5, in Fano in via Quattro Novembre 63 and in Urbino in viale Comandino 21. At the Macerata Ast in Macerata in largo Belvedere Sanzio, San Severino Marche in via del Glorioso 8 and Civitanova Marche in via Abruzzo. At the Ascoli Piceno Ast the COT is active in Ascoli Piceno in via delle Zeppelle 84 and in San Benedetto del Tronto in via Silvio Pellico 32. At the Fermo Ast there are the Fermo COT in via Zeppilli 18 and in Montegranaro in Contrada Santa Mary. All the Cots make use of a dedicated common technological IT platform, integrated and interoperable with the Regional Health System Companies and with the regional information systems, with the possibility of consulting the Electronic Health Record 2.0. Telemedicine will also be implemented. The Cot is accessed by health professionals, access or a direct request for activation by the citizen is not foreseen. Undersecretary Salvi underlined how «these structures are the real innovation in patient management: a control room that guides the hospital-territory care path. These structures will facilitate discharges from acute hospitals by finding an appropriate care placement. Another fundamental step will be the strengthening of home care.”
