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Review
. 2020 Dec 25;9(1):17.
doi: 10.3390/healthcare9010017.

Take-Home Messages from the COVID-19 Pandemic: Strengths and Pitfalls of the Italian National Health Service from a Medico-Legal Point of View

Matteo Bolcato  1 , Marco Trabucco Aurilio  2 , Anna Aprile  1 , Giulio Di Mizio  3 , Bruno Della Pietra  4 , Alessandro Feola  4
Affiliations
Review

Take-Home Messages from the COVID-19 Pandemic: Strengths and Pitfalls of the Italian National Health Service from a Medico-Legal Point of View

Matteo Bolcato et al. Healthcare (Basel). .

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) infection a pandemic on 11 March 2020. As of the end of October 2020, there were 50 million cases of infection and over one million deaths recorded worldwide, over 45,000 of which occurred in Italy. In Italy, the demand for intensive care over the course of this pandemic crisis has been exceptionally high, resulting in a severe imbalance between the demand for and availability of the necessary resources. This paper focuses on elements of preventive medicine and medical treatments in emergency and non-emergency situations which, based on the international scientific literature, may prove to be useful to physicians on a behavioral level and avert professional liability problems. In order to achieve this objective, we have performed a search on MEDLINE to find published articles related to the risks associated with the pandemic that contain useful suggestions and strategies for mitigating risks and protecting the safety of the population. The results have been collocated in line with these specific study areas.

Keywords: COVID-19; clinical risk management; ethics; medical liability; medico-legal evaluation; patient blood management.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart depicting the choice of studies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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