Accidents & emergencies and hospital admissions

• A&E
• Hospital admissions
• Departments

A&E

Function

The purpose of the A&E Department is typically to provide round-the-clock medical care for anyone arriving with an urgent medical problem that cannot be handled by the patient’s own general practitioner or by the out-of-hours medical unit.
The A&E Department receives, assesses, examines and treats all cases, whatever their severity.
Anyone needing emergency medical attention can go directly to the A&E, if they are able, or they can dial 118 for the emergency medical service, which will then arrange for an ambulance or helicopter to transport patients to the nearest A&E unit.
On arrival, the medical personnel will conduct an accurate examination to establish the patient’s priority for access to the medical services (which depends on the severity of their condition, not on their order of arrival), attributing a severity code (triage).
The personnel responsible for the triage can also provide waiting relatives with information on a patient’s state of health.

Hospital admissions

Emergency hospitalization

In accordance with principles of equality, impartiality and continuity, the CdC Pederzoli guarantees admission to hospital for anyone in need. Given its particular geographical location, with considerable numbers of tourists in the summer months and of foreign immigrants, and in the light of experience gained in recent years, a number of beds are reserved for patients requiring urgent hospitalization.
Any need for emergency admission is decided by the physicians in A&E after consulting the appropriate specialist. If patients need a diagnostic assessment or prolonged observation, there is a brief intensive observation service (Servizio di Osservazione Breve Intensiva, OBI) available, either at the A&E Department or in the appropriate ward, until the case has been thoroughly elucidated.

Scheduled admission to Hospital or Day Hospital / Day Surgery

A scheduled hospital stay may be recommended by a specialist physician on the CdC staff, by physicians from other public health units, or by general practitioners and family pediatricians.
Their recommendations are always assessed by a physician on the ward asked to admit the patient, who decides whether to admit the patient for a routine hospital stay at the appropriate polyspecialist unit (Unità Operativa, UO) or at the independent polyspecialist Day Hospital/Surgery unit.
Should it prove impossible to arrange for immediate hospitalization, the patient is placed on a hospitalization scheduling list organized in accordance with the national and regional provisions concerning waiting lists.
Once the physicians at the CdC have assessed the need for hospitalization, they have to complete the hospital admission form for the main hospital or day hospital services, giving a copy of this form to the patient and another copy to the nursing offi cer at the unit involved.
Hospital admissions are scheduled in accordance with precise clinical priorities specifi ed by the medical specialist; within the same priority band, the programming follows a chronological order of patients’ inclusion in the list.

Hospital admission procedures

Hospitalizations may be scheduled or emergencies. For scheduled hospital admissions, patients must arrive with their GP’s prescription, their public health card (residents of the Veneto Region should bring both their printed paper version and their magnetic cards), and their copy of the form requesting a scheduled hospitalization prepared by the proponent specialist. An emergency hospitalization is requested directly by the physician in A&E.

Discharge

At the time of their discharge from hospital, patients are given a clinical discharge report to deliver to their own doctors containing details of the investigations conducted and treatments administered, their diagnosis on discharge and any therapy to continue at home.
The hospital ward generally also schedules any necessary follow-up visits. At the time of discharge, patients are also returned any clinical documentation that they produced on admission.

Foreign citizens

Hospitalization is free of charge for foreign citizens in the following cases:

• citizens of states operating bilateral agreements with Italy, providing they present the form specifi ed by such agreements;
• citizens from outside the EU who have registered with the Italian national health service;
• other foreign citizens pay boarding fees according to the type of hospital stay.

Mealtimes

Patients are served lunch at 12, and dinner at 18.

Visiting hours

• Surgery, General medicine, Neurology, Orthopedics, Urology:
  weekdays 15 -16 / 19 - 20.30
  holidays 10 - 11 / 15 - 16 / 19 - 20.30
• Intensive care: weekdays and holidays 15 - 16
• Cardiology and Coronary Unit
  weekdays and holidays 13 - 14 / 19 - 20.30
• Gynecology
  Mondays to Saturdays 14 - 15 / 19 - 20
  holidays 10.30 - 11.30 / 14 - 15 / 19 - 20
• Rehabilitation
  weekdays 12.30 - 14 / 19 - 20.30
  Saturdays 15 - 17
  holidays 10 - 11 / 15 - 17 / 19 - 20.30

Departments