Il day service come strumento di riduzione dell’inappropriatezza: risultati dell’esperienza in un Irccs romano

The Day Service was established in Italy to promote appropriateness of care and consists in the\r\ndelivery of packages of complex outpatient services. A Working Group for the continuous improvement\r\nof pre-hospitalization activities of the Regina Elena Scientific Institute in Rome, Italy, established that the\r\noutpatient management of surgical patients in the hospital would occur in a Day Service, through a package\r\nof services identified at the regional level or appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic pathways. This article\r\ndescribes the experience of the hospital’s Day Service and compares results from the last four months of 2013\r\nwith those of the first four months of 2014. The introduction of a Day Service has led to a reduction in the\r\nnumber of inappropriate pre-admission tests (mainly computerized tomography, magnetic resonance and\r\nPositron emission scans and scintigraphy) and this has had a positive impact not only in terms of organization,\r\nreduction of hospital stay and overall hospitalization-related activities, but also from an economic standpoint.\r\nThe implementation of a Day Service has also improved the overall patient experience, from an organizational\r\npoint of view, and this is an important aspect, considering that patients at the Regina Elena Scientific Institute\r\nare oncological patients, they are often elderly and most reside in other Italian regions.