Azienda Sanitaria Locale RM B (Rome, Italy) is part of the National Health System. It encompasses an area of 213.6 Km2 with 690.229 inhabitants. Inside RM B, Centro Assistenza Domiciliare (CAD; Centre for Home Care) of III District supplies home care services for 200.000 inhabitants. On average, 500 patients are in charge of the service, with about 20.000 nursing procedures per year and about 4.000 hours of rehabilitation per year. In addition, more than 2000 patients are followed through scheduled visiting of GPs. The regular staff includes a general coordinator, who is the chief of the structure and is a physician, a nurse coordinator, 6 medical specialists (geriatrics, community medicine, cardiology, and surgery), 7 nurses, 2 physiotherapists, 1 social assistant. Special services addressed to peculiar patients are: palliative treatment and pain therapy for oncology patients; treatment of haematology patients; geriatric assistance for a Community Centre; special service for “assisted discharges”. The medical staff is in charge of a centre for Alzheimer disease, which proposes a mixed, ambulatory-home, assistance. For both domiciliary and demented patients, EHRs are currently used to store clinical information.

Key people

Dr Dario Amici chief of the structure, is a geriatrician who is engaged since 1989 in the organization of health services inside the NHS, particularly addressing to home care.

Dr Fabio Campana PhD, is a geriatrician with interest in geriatric epidemiology and clinical application of EHRs to geriatric patients. He took part in the epidemiological branch of Progetto Finalizzato Invecchiamento and multicentric epidemiological studies. He was professor of geriatrics at School of Physiotherapy, Unv. La Sapienza (Rome).

Dr Gianni Pistillo chief of one the Home Care Services at ASL RMB, is specialized in Community Medicine and particularly engaged in the organization of health services inside the Italian NHS, focusing on the interaction between hospital and territorial services.