Onda Foundation, National Observatory on Women’s and Gender Health, if theThe Pink Stamps for the two-year period 2022-2023 were awarded to hospitals that offer services dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the main pathologies affecting the female universe but also those that transversally concern men and women from a gender perspective. Compared to the previous two-year period, the number of awarded hospitals increased from 335 to 354. In addition to a numerical growth, we are witnessing a qualitative improvement in the services provided: the hospitals that have obtained the highest recognition, three stamps, have in fact gone from 96 last year. Call to 107 of this edition. 172 structures received two stamps and 75 one stamp.
The 10th edition of the ‘Pink Stamps’
“The 10a edition of the Bollini Rosa, which saw the participation of 363 Italian hospitals and the patronage of 27 institutions and scientific societies – he claims Francesca Merzagora, President of the Onda Foundation – renews our commitment to promoting a gender-oriented approach within hospitals, recognizing the importance of its promotion through services and paths tailored to women, in all specialist areas. Quality and appropriateness of the services provided by the National Health Service, essential elements to ensure uniform access to services, are highlighted by the hospitals with the Pink Badges which are evaluated and rewarded, highlighting paths inherent to both the specialties with the greatest epidemiological impact in the context of women’s health, both to those that treat pathologies that normally affect both genders, as well as the reception and accompaniment of women and the services offered for the management of victims of violence. The 354 awarded hospitals constitute a network for the exchange of experiences and virtuous practices, a scientific dissemination channel to promote the updating of doctors and health professionals and for the population, the opportunity to choose the most suitable place of care for their needs, as well as to use free services on the occasion of days dedicated to specific pathologies, with the aim of raising awareness and approaching diagnosis and appropriate treatments”.
The evaluation criteria
The evaluation of the hospital structures and the assignment of the Pink Stamps took place through a application questionnaire consisting of over 400 questions, each with a predetermined value, divided into 15 specialist areas plus a section dedicated to the management of cases of violence against women and health workers. A special Advisory Board, chaired by Walter Ricciardi, Professor of Hygiene and Public Health, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Rome, validated the badges obtained by the hospitals (zero, one, two or three) following the calculation of the total score obtained in the application, also taking into account the qualitative elements of particular relevance not assessed through the questionnaire (special services and paths, particular initiatives and projects, etc. ..).
Three evaluation criteria taken into consideration, the presence of: clinical specialties that deal with typically female health problems and transversal to the two genders that require differentiated paths, typology and appropriateness of diagnostic-therapeutic paths and clinical-assistance services in a gender-oriented multidisciplinary perspective, the offer of services relating to the reception of users in the hospitalization of the woman in support of diagnostic-therapeutic paths (volunteers, cultural mediation and social assistance) and finally the level of preparation of the hospital for the management of victims of physical and verbal violence.
Starting from 10 January 2022 on the bollinirosa.it website it will be possible to consult the cards of the awarded hospitals, divided by region, with the list of services evaluated.
“A high-level health service, a high specialized competence combined with attention to the patient and his overall well-being declined from a gender perspective, with particular regard to the management of cases of violence against women and health workers. This is the philosophy with which the Jury awarded the Pink Stamps promoted by the Onda Foundation again this year “, he has declared Walter Ricciardi, Professor of Hygiene and Public Health, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Rome and President of the Rosa Bollini Commission. “They are a concrete sign of the attention that medicine, health care and assistance give to women trying to practice modern medicine, aware of the complexity that gender specificity requires. I hope that more and more hospitals will be candidates for labels like this “.
“The path of the Bollini Rosa represents, for me, a cultural change of the health system towards gender medicine“, He declares Flori Degrassi, Hygiene and preventive medicine specialist. “A culture that involves health service professionals determined to highlight their good practices, the directions that see the Pink Badges as an improvement of the hospital image and the users / patients who, through the Pink Badges, discover the characteristics of the various structures being able to so make a conscious choice of the place to be treated “.
Particular attention is paid this year to the issue of perineal lesions during childbirth which affects about 85 percent of women who give birth, with 3 percent reporting grade III or IV perineal lesions that also involve the anal sphincter. For this reason, “special mentions” have been assigned to the “Friends of the Perineum Hospitals”, or 30 structures with the Pink Stamps that stand out for their commitment in the field of prevention and management of perineal trauma related to the birth event.
The “special mentions” to the “Friends of the Perineum hospitals” were awarded by Claudio Crescini, Vice President AOGOI, Italian Hospital Obstetricians Gynecologists Association who comments: “The attention to the care of the perineum for the prevention of the disabling consequences that can derive from a vaginal birth has already been alive and present in our birth points for some time thanks to the passion for their work that animates obstetric operators. Also in this particular area of the long path of birth, the new recognition by Onda is not only a certificate or a certification of merit but is a means of stimulating all operators in our country to realize what scientific research and clinics suggest to do for protection of the perineum before, during and after childbirth “.