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 Philip Saltmartinithe 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, the main exponents of the Marche health system make known, coordinate and optimize interventions, activating subjects and resources of the care network, organize and coordinate the care and transition of people residing in the district between the services and health professionals involved in the different care settings such as territorial, health and social health activities, hospital, emergency network and in the different organizational levels of the health, social health and social assistance 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 territorial or hospital facilities, and organize the Integrated Home Care services, better known as Adi. Through the Cot, moreover, socio-assistance, social and health services and paths 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 Ancona Ast 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, while the 14 District Cots are in operation 6 days a week for 12 hours and are closely interconnected with the regional one.
“We have created a system capable of coordinating all health services,” declared Health Councilor Filippo Saltamartini, “a big step forward to overcome the shortcomings in local care and waiting lists. The 15 Cot are all operational, not only from an infrastructural point of view,” he specified, “but also from a personnel point of view. Each of these Operations Centers has the necessary personnel to ensure coordination activities. We are working to ensure healthcare that is closer to citizens and capable of responding to fragility and chronic conditions linked to the aging of the population. This new organizational model, which uses the most cutting-edge technologies to support the management and coordination of different services, helps to relieve pressure on hospital facilities and reduce inappropriate hospitalizations, networking professionals and services in a logic of optimization. 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 proximity medicine. We are starting to see the fruits of a health 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 who have been lacking so far due to the lack of past planning of turnover”. 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 in this new organizational model that 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 foreseen.
The Ancona AST will have two Cot 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 Pesaro Urbino AST is 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 the Montegranaro Cot in Contrada Santa Maria. All Cots use 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. Health professionals access the Cot, there is no access or direct request for activation by the citizen. Undersecretary Salvi underlined how «these structures are the real innovation in patient management: a control room that guides the hospital-territory care pathway. These structures will facilitate discharge from acute hospitals by finding an appropriate care placement. Another fundamental step will be the strengthening of home care».
