e149 Hospital Communication in Lazio, Italy Hospital communication between perception and cost savings: An Italian Case Study M. Pennacchini 1 , C. Pensieri 1 , P. Binetti 2 1 Institute of Philosophy of Scientific and Technological Activity, 2 History of Medicine University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, Italy, Original article Clin Ter 2012; 163 (4):e149-155 Correspondence: Dr.ssa Maddalena Pennacchini. Via Álvaro del Portillo 21, 00128 Rome, Italy. Tel.: +39.06.22541.9158; Fax:+39.06.22541.1961. E-mail: m.pennacchini@unicampus.it Copyright © Società Editrice Universo (SEU) Introduction Thousand of doctors (3,7 per 1,000 inhabitants), nurses (7,1 per 1,000), technicians and operators, competent and professional administrators work in the Italian health sector, nearly 13 million hospitalizations each year, 4,700,000 sur- gery, more than 79 million days of hospitalization for more than 1,337 public and private hospitals (1, 2). If we had an overview of the health-care system we could/should say that the “Health-care Company” in Italy, has thousands of employees and, each hospital is a territorial dislocation of the main Italian “Health-care Company”. As in any large company, if it is given much importance to the effectiveness and efficiency of services offered, at the same time it should be placed, first the relationship with its services’ users. But it is not always so. The question of the relationship between health-care system and its users, primarily from the perspective of the choices implemented by the health-care system itself, it’s rarely discussed and it’s unsatisfying if compared with a desirable relapse of applications intent to improve the often unsatisfactory communication flow that is established in this relationship. It often happens that users’ complaints about the services provided by the structure are not collected properly, because of lack of communication which usually is inflexible, not very focused on individual and unable to meet demands that go beyond pre-set responses. While the user feels that is not listened to by the com- pany, by the other side the company itself, lacking a full understanding, adopts measures which are unrelated and independent from the problems of users, in contrast with ideal performance of the service. Sometimes it’s a real waste of money. So, there is a double damage. The study of these dynamics is desirable, in or- der to fully implement the “Italian Health’s Right” (3) of all citizens, but also in order to avoid that the health-care system would become “a sell at a loss”. Abstract Background. Communication field is very much studied by Companies but not so much from the Italian NHS. We aim to study the “suffering communication” that patients, relatives and customers feel when they approach a hospital. The research was carried out in an Italian region: Lazio. The Objective was to take a picture of the current state of Regional Health-Care System (RHS) communication by local “Visual Communication” (VC), telematic, internal perception, com- munication propensity and perception of hospital’s “brand”. Materials and Methods. We have sampled 7 hospitals (114 items): Web-site’s analysis Location’s VC Urp’s manager interview Focus-group Analysis Valuator of the Hospital’s Brand (AVoHB). Results. WEB: 14% of web-sites had a positive score, 86% had an “Hospital Service Guide”, 43% hadn’t Urp’s e-mail, 29% had a ward’s map, 0% was W3C. Average: -17pt. on ±74pt. Visual Communication: 100% had a Help-desk at the entrance, 100% had readable signpost, 43% had a readable badge, 29% had chromatic signpost, 0% had an assistance signpost and none of them had the Toilettes signpost. Average: -10,42pt. on ±58pt. Focus-group: Staff underline their very high interest in interper- sonal communication. They report a lack of VC inside their hospitals that cannot help patients to be self-oriented. Lost users can only ask information to the first doctor they see, taking staff time, which is already lacked. AVoHB: Powergrid shows that the positioning of the “Aggregated Brand” (RHS) and of each hospital analyzed are in the III quadrant. Conclusions. By a “Corporate Communication” point of view we can see that almost all companies reach a good level in terms of effective communication but none of them excel in all critical areas for an effective communication. Clin Ter 2012; 163(4):e149-155 Key words: hospital communication, interpersonal, medical ethics, philosophy of medicine, visual-communication, web- communication