The efficiency in the ordinary hospital bed management in Italy: an in-depth analysis of intensive care unit in the areas affected by COVID-19 before the outbreak

Fabrizio Pecoraro; Fabrizio Clemente; Daniela Luzi

is the (which was not peer-reviewed) The copyright holder for this preprint . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.06.20055848 doi: medRxiv preprint decade that led the regional health services to close a significant number of local small dimension hospitals that generally have higher costs [5] . This lack of beds is confirmed by a recent study of the OECD that reported that our country counts 2.6 hospital beds per 1000 inhabitants [6] , ranking Italy at the 19 th place over 23 countries with Germany having more than 6 beds per 1000 inhabitants. However, this data does not consider the number of ICUs. The most recent study reporting the number of beds specifically for the ICU was published by Rhodes et al in 2012 [7] . Also in this case the number of beds located in Italy are below the European average with 12.9 beds per 100000 inhabitants, while Germany is equipped with 29.2 beds. The analysis of the Italian National Healthcare Service should take into account that health services are organized and delivered under the responsibility of local authorities structured at a regional level, while the Italian Government has a weak strategic leadership.