Cosenza ASL Announces Digital Transformation Plan to Reduce Waiting Lists: €8.6 Million Investment

Details

The Cosenza Provincial Health Agency (Asp Cosenza) initiated structural reforms by approving the 2026-2027 Medical Care Plan (Pagla). The plan involves an investment exceeding €8.6 million. A primary goal is to achieve comprehensive digitalization of services, based on the international interoperability standard HL7 FHIR, to address issues like 'management backlog.' This will ensure full visibility of all medical services within the information flows across the Calabria Region. In terms of organizational management, a rigorous scheduling governance system is introduced under the guidance of a single responsible manager (Rula). A key change involves clearly distinguishing between initial visits and follow-up appointments. The plan mandates that specialists handle direct booking for follow-ups, easing the burden on patients who previously had to return to general practitioners for new referrals. Furthermore, to tackle critical issues—some sectors reporting waiting times over 200 days—a 'Protection Pathway' mechanism is implemented. This formally obligates the agency to recontact the user within assigned clinical priority deadlines. Service provision hours are also extended, with outpatient clinics scheduled to operate exceptionally late into the evenings and on weekends. The plan also strengthens monitoring of in-house private practice (Alpi), ensuring that the volume of services provided privately cannot exceed those guaranteed by public institutional services.