LHTC (Local Health Unit Tuscany Centre) is the new health unit born on 1 January 2016 from a merger of four previous Tuscan local health unit settled in Firenze, Prato, Empoli e Pistoia.
This important reorganization has been decided on regional level to reduce the 12 Local Health Units in Tuscany to only 3: one (LHTC) for Tuscany Centre zone, and the other two for North West Tuscany and for South West Tuscany zone.
This organization change has been decided to optimize the economic resources, to erase the duplication of bureaucratic and administrative systems, to make similar: health activities, systems and care paths up to fuse together ICT and purchase processes and mainly to give every citizen not only an essential level health system but a very good one.
With this goal, LHTC, from the beginning of this year, takes care of 1 million and half people’s health, who lives in 75 different municipalities.
LHTC will do this with 14700 employees, of which 2700 are health professionals and 7000 are nurses, technicians and health workers.
Stefania Bandinelli, MD, coordinates the Outpatients Clinics dedicated to frailty and mobility disability for elderly patients of LHTC. She is PI of the InCHIANTI study since 2002 (funded for 2nd and 3rd follow ups as a contract provided by the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, USA and for the 4th follow up funded by Tuscany regional health agency). She is co-author of more than 250 scientific publications.
Professor Marco Baccini (male) is director of Motion Analysis Laboratory (ASF) and he is coordinator of Degree Course in Physiotherapy (University of Florence). He is editor in chief of Archives of Physiotherapy, BioMed Central.