Exploring Italian healthcare facilities response to Covid-19 pandemic

Lessons learned from the Italian Response to Covid-19 initiative

Bibliographic Data

ID22068070
AuthorsEmanuela Parotto (0000-0002-6584-8251, University of Padua, corresponding author), Alessandro Lamberti-Castronuovo (0000-0001-7079-4457, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro”), Veronica Censi (Doctors with Africa Cuamm), Martina Valente (0000-0002-8599-2162, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro”), Andrea Atzori (0000-0002-6910-206X, Doctors with Africa Cuamm), Luca Ragazzoni (0000-0002-2528-4375, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro”)
Year2023
Volume10
Pages1016649-1016649
Publication date2023-01-09
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFrontiers in Public Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2296-2565 • E-ISSN: 2296-2565
PublisherFrontiers Media SA (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3389/fpubh.2022.1016649
PMID36699915
OpenAlexW4313909680
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited31

The COVID-19 pandemic exerted an extraordinary pressure on the Italian healthcare system (Sistema Sanitario Nazionale, SSN), determining an unprecedented health crisis. In this context, a multidisciplinary non-governmental initiative called Italian Response to COVID-19 (IRC-19) was implemented from June 2020 to August 2021 to support the Italian health system through multiple activities aimed to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. The objective of this study was to shed light on the role of NGOs in supporting the SSN during the first pandemic wave by specifically exploring: (1) the main challenges experienced by Italian hospitals and out-of-hospital care facilities and (2) the nature and extent of the IRC-19 interventions specifically implemented to support healthcare facilities, to find out if and how such interventions met healthcare facilities' perceived needs at the beginning of the pandemic. We conducted a cross-sectional study using an interviewer administered 32-item questionnaire among 14 Italian healthcare facilities involved in the IRC-19 initiative. Health facilities' main challenges concerned three main areas: healthcare workers, patients, and facilities' structural changes. The IRC-19 initiative contributed to support both hospital and out-of-hospital healthcare facilities by implementing interventions for staff and patients' safety and flow management and interventions focused on the humanization of care. The support from the third sector emerged as an added value that strengthened the Italian response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is in line with the Health—Emergency and Disaster Risk Management (H-EDRM) precepts, that call for a multisectoral and multidisciplinary collaboration for an effective disaster management

Business · Disease · Geography · Health care · Medical emergency · Multidisciplinary approach · Pandemic · Personal protective equipment · Political science · Psychological intervention · COVID-19 and healthcare impacts · COVID-19 and Mental Health · Disaster Response and Management · Medicine · Nursing

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