Liguria at the forefront of hit-tech healthcare management even in the face of the cuts envisaged by the spending review. All this is possible thanks to a computerization project started in 2005 which has led to the creation of an integrated management system, which includes every aspect of assistance and care: from outpatient services to hospital services, also including the consumption of medicines and of medical devices.
To date, in the case of antifungals and antibiotics, comparing two quarters of 2012, a drastic reduction in consumption has been found (equal to 40%); while in the case of albumin, in 6 months, a high economic and consumption saving was measured (4,567 bottles used compared to 18,337, a saving of 24.9%).
These issues were discussed in Genoa in a meeting organized by Sifo (Italian Society of Hospital Pharmacy) entitled 'The public pharmacist and the appropriate use of resources in the era of spending review: tools for monitoring'. Liguria has been a forward-looking region since 2007 developing the 'computer brain' called Data Wharehouse, which makes it possible to share and analyze all the most important information on Ligurian health. Approximately 1.5 million patients are monitored each year and approximately 26 million services are managed in a traceable way. It can be consulted via the web by the Councilorship of the Liguria Region and by all the health structures connected to it (5 Asl and the Irccs S. Martino-Ist and Gaslini and the Galliera and Evangelico hospitals), through the Dwh the health companies have the possibility, for example, to consult data relating to the consumption of medicines used in hospitals, dispensed to patients on discharge and those dispensed by private pharmacies. Soon, this will also be possible for the consumption of medical devices. Indeed, thanks to this tool it was possible to monitor in 2012 regional hospital admissions (300 thousand), the number of direct drug administrations (350 thousand), visits to the emergency room (700 thousand), outpatient specialist services (the number of services provided is about 26 million) and other health phenomena, with the related costs. Another healthcare IT application is the one operating at the San Martino-Ist in Genoa. A software for the management of the unit dose drug, both for prescription and for administration. Created to reduce clinical risk, the system works on verifying the prescribing appropriateness of the drug, by monitoring: dosage, time and method of administration, dilution, reconstitution and infusion rate. The clinical pharmacist is entrusted with the control of this platform with which he can evaluate the therapy every day from his desk as if it were always at the patient's bed and authorise, through a special online form, the therapy and dispensing of the drug in dose unitary
