The last photograph of Healthcare in Italy returns an already known picture, that of a country substantially divided in half: the five best local health authoritiestrue excellences, can be found at North while the five worst I’m at South. This is what emerges from the report Agenas on the “Performance evaluation of public, hospital and territorial healthcare companies”.
The National Agency for Regional Health Services examined the performance of local health authorities in 2023, compared to the previous year. Some areas in particular, such as prevention and outcomes, show significant gaps in the South. The data were presented at the Risk management Forum in Arezzo.
Monitoring takes all into account 110 local health authorities Italian (Ast, Usp, Ats, Ulss, etc…) and is based on the evaluation of 34 indicators classified into 6 areas, i.e. prevention, district assistance, hospital assistance, economic-financial sustainability and outcomes and 12 related sub-areas .
The five best local health authorities in Italy
- Ulss n.8 Berica (Vicenza);
- ATS of Bergamo;
- Ulss n.6 Euganea (Padua);
- Ulss n.1 Dolomiti (Belluno);
- Local health authority of Bologna.
The five worst local health authorities
- ASL Naples 1 Center;
- Asp of Crotone;
- Local health authority of Matera;
- Asp of Enna;
- Asp of Vibo Valentia.
Evaluations by area
On the field of prevention high performances are found in the North-East with regards to breast, cervix and colon screening. The Centre-South, however, lags behind with “low values on average”.
The level is homogeneous at a national level with regards todistrict assistancei.e. indicators that concern the provision of territorial services, primary care, care of the territory, avoidable hospitalizations and the consumption of specialist outpatient services. The majority of local health authorities appear to have an average performance level.
The picture relating to thehospital carewith levels of excellence that are not lacking in both the North and the South. This indicator refers to the average hospitalization times in the internal medicine and geriatrics departments, to the escape index for services of medium and low complexity, to compliance with deadlines waiting for cholecystectomy, hip, knee and shoulder replacement operations.
On the front of economic and financial sustainability the South remains behind compared to the better organized Centre-North. The average results show a slight worsening at a national level in 2023 compared to 2022.
Levels of investments relatively low. The indicator refers to the capacity for technological renewal and the state of the assets. In a situation that can generally be improved in many respects, the best performances can be found in the southern regions, in particular in Campania where all companies achieve a good performance score. In Lazio there is excellence.
As for the outcome (i.e. the outcomes), i mortality rates they are lower in the Centre-North with the sole exception of Lazio.
The Agenas report on the best local health authorities in 2023 completes the overview of the National Health Service, which began with the publication of the report on the best hospitals and continued with the analysis of the costs of hospital admissions in the various cities.
The best organization
As regards theorganizationtwo Roman and three Northern ASLs were awarded:
- Ao Santa Croce and Carle (Cn);
- Aou Padua (Pd);
- Aou Policlinico Tor Vergata (Rm);
- Aou Sant’Andrea (Rm);
- Aou Policlinico San Matteo (Pv).
The complete report is available on the Agenas statistical portal.
