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On Wednesday, I published an article about Italy's sunniest places. It responded to a British subscriber's question about where to relocate in Italy with two constraints: a sunny place and solid healthcare.
An astute commenter noticed that we quickly waved away the south on account of poor healthcare while going into rigorous statistical analysis about sunshine. So this article applies the same rigor to map healthcare service quality across regions.
Italian newspapers focus on the wrong number
Each year, the health ministry publishes LEA (Livelli Essenziali di Assistenza, Essential Levels of Care) scores for every region in Italy. These are split into three scores:
Prevenzione Collettiva e Sanità Pubblica (Prevention and Public Health)
Assistenza Distrettuale (District and Community Care)
Assistenza Ospedaliera (Hospital Care)
Each region is rated on these three care areas with a score from 0 to 100. 60 is the passing grade. If a region fails any of the three by obtaining a score below 60, Italy considers it to have failed to meet the NSG standards.
The NSG (Nuovo Sistema di Garanzia, New Guarantee System) is the evaluation and monitoring framework used to ensure LEA to all citizens across Italy.
Every year in July, and you could set your watch by it, Italian newspapers run headlines about healthcare in Italy. And what they usually do is a bit ridiculous. They take the three scores, sum them up, and then write “north good, south bad.” What’s actually going on is a lot more interesting.
Take a look at the three maps below.
