The activism of patients associations, in decision making, about health and social services, is an expanding phenomenon in Italy and elsewhere. But the civic roles of these patients associations, in health care settin...The activism of patients associations, in decision making, about health and social services, is an expanding phenomenon in Italy and elsewhere. But the civic roles of these patients associations, in health care settings, remain largely unexplored, especially in the case of patients assuming oral anticoagulant therapy （OAT Patients） for various chronic and severe diseases （stroke, chronic arthritis, maintenance or substitution of cardiac valves）. This is a qualitative study, on a Civic Health Organization, the Italian Association of Anti Coagulant Patients （Associazione ltaliana Pazienti Anticolagulati, hereinafter A.I.P.A.） which promotes the rights of OAT patients. The study was carried out in the south of Italy at Cosenza＇s Hospital. Cosenza is a city in the north of Calabria, a poor Southern Italian region. The research, done between March 2010 and December 2012, involved focus groups, key-informant interviews with volunteers from the local A.I.P.A. unit and the hospital professionals （physicians, nurses, managers） of Cosenza＇s Annunziata Hospital. This essay mainly analyzes a micro-form of co-deliberative health care democracy： a stable partnership between AIPA members and the cited hospital professionals, based on a mix of advocacy, planning, and co-delivery service roles. In doing this, the paper sketches the development, aims, activities, internal structure and resources, and the role played by this specific citizen-user/patient/career organization in promoting and/or representing the interests of anti-coagulated patients within the legal arena of the Italian health policy. Finally, the paper comes to the point in which OAT patients refer their perceptions of relational rights.展开更多
文摘The activism of patients associations, in decision making, about health and social services, is an expanding phenomenon in Italy and elsewhere. But the civic roles of these patients associations, in health care settings, remain largely unexplored, especially in the case of patients assuming oral anticoagulant therapy （OAT Patients） for various chronic and severe diseases （stroke, chronic arthritis, maintenance or substitution of cardiac valves）. This is a qualitative study, on a Civic Health Organization, the Italian Association of Anti Coagulant Patients （Associazione ltaliana Pazienti Anticolagulati, hereinafter A.I.P.A.） which promotes the rights of OAT patients. The study was carried out in the south of Italy at Cosenza＇s Hospital. Cosenza is a city in the north of Calabria, a poor Southern Italian region. The research, done between March 2010 and December 2012, involved focus groups, key-informant interviews with volunteers from the local A.I.P.A. unit and the hospital professionals （physicians, nurses, managers） of Cosenza＇s Annunziata Hospital. This essay mainly analyzes a micro-form of co-deliberative health care democracy： a stable partnership between AIPA members and the cited hospital professionals, based on a mix of advocacy, planning, and co-delivery service roles. In doing this, the paper sketches the development, aims, activities, internal structure and resources, and the role played by this specific citizen-user/patient/career organization in promoting and/or representing the interests of anti-coagulated patients within the legal arena of the Italian health policy. Finally, the paper comes to the point in which OAT patients refer their perceptions of relational rights.
