Profile
The Hospital “ASST di Lodi” subdivides its range of health services to a potential customer base of approximately 250,000 inhabitants. It is currently divided into four hospitals, each of which also includes related territorial out-patient wards.
Our Oncology Department is a Fuctional Department aimed at building cancer patient pathways and diagnostic and therapeutic protocols, which involves, depending on the type and stage of the disease, all units that deal with cancer in some way.
The department contains the following units: Oncology, Palliative Care, Breast Unit, Radiotherapy, Surgery, Gynaecology, Otorhinolaryngology, Urology, Plastic Surgery, Pathological Anatomy, Radiology, Lab.
The Medical Oncology Unit has 18 beds for inpatients at the hospital of Lodi, 10 beds opening soon at the hospital of Codogno, and an outpatient clinic and Day Hospital open Monday to Friday from 8am to 4.30pm in Lodi and Casalpusterlengo hospitals.
The Palliative Care Unit is a 12 bed hospice at the hospital of Casalpusterlengo providing residential assistance in hospice, as well as home palliative care and an outpatients clinic for simultaneous care, delivered in cooperation with medical oncology, exclusively to palliative care patients with a performance status allowing access to the clinic.
Palliative and Supportive Care
The department enhances continuity of care for advanced cancer patients no longer benefiting from anticancer treatment. A specific path of simultaneous care has been organised in cooperation between the medical oncology and palliative care units, in order to create a gentle transition for the patient from active to palliative care. The path is monitored by two case manager nurses who manage, at the appropriate time, the patients passage to home palliative care services or to the hospice.
The Palliative Care Unit is an organised, highly-structured system. Being patient and family-centred, it delivers care that focuses on the effective management of pain and other inadequately controlled symptoms, while incorporating psychosocial and spiritual care. The unit comprises a palliative home care service, made of two physicians and eight nurses who manage an average of 400 patients per year, and a Hospice with a doctor, eight nurses and house staff for 12 beds for around 320 patients per year.
Every patient with advanced stage cancer is also screened for any psychosocial needs, being supported by three psychologists and a dedicated social worker.
Alongside health employees, there are three NGO’s supporting both home care services by providing aids and devices, and supporting the hospice through music, performances, and occupational and pet therapy for patients and families.
Last update: July 2022
