ROME (ITALPRESS) – In 2023, 65 percent of children born in Italy with cleft lip and palate were treated at one of the 8 Smile House Centers. This figure is enough to describe the crucial role of the Smile House Network in the treatment of cranio-maxillofacial malformations, revealing the value of a model that, acting in support of the national health service, puts the patient and his or her family at the center, minimizing health migration with the guarantee of the best possible care directly on the territory.A successful experience built over the years, but which has already allowed to assist as many as 1,698 patients, accompanied in their path from prenatal diagnosis until the end of growth. The numbers speak volumes about the importance of the Smile House network: to date, more than 45,582 visits have been made for inclusion in the program and 93,090 multidisciplinary consultations have been provided, including 27,459 in the orthodontic field. To these are added the 3,226 patients who have already undergone a total of 4,775 surgical procedures.These are the data presented in Rome at the 1st Smile House National Conference – held at the La Nuvola Congress Center – EACMFS – that give credit to the work of excellence carried out by Smile House ETS, which was also recognized by the outstanding speakers present on the occasion. These included Dr. Velia Bruno of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità , Dr. Giovanni Baglio, Director of the Office of Research of AGENAS (National Agency for Regional Health Services), Prof. Stefano Mezzopera, Vice-President of the Italian Society of Risk Managers In Health Care (SIGeRIS), and Prof. Vittorio Cesarotti, Chairman of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Italy. The latter, announced the awarding of the first Quality (EFQM) certification to Smile House Fondazione ETS, which was awarded two stars for excellence in the organization of care.This recognition pushes the Foundation to set even more ambitious goals for the future. “We want to consolidate and expand the integrated care model we have built over the years,” explains Domenico Scopelliti, vice president of Smile House Fondazione ETS. “This means continuing to collaborate closely with institutions such as the Ministry of Health, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità and AGENAS, so that every child born with cleft lip and palate in Italy can receive the necessary care without having to move from their territory. We are committed not only to improving accessibility to care, but also to ensuring comprehensive support for families, who often face enormous emotional and logistical challenges. We will continue to invest in the specialized training of our staff and the codification of Best Practices to ensure continuous improvement in the quality of care, and we will continue our fight against health migration, instead offering a network that is increasingly efficient and close to the needs of families. In parallel, we will strive to strengthen integration among the various Smile House centers, improving the sharing of skills and experiences among our multidisciplinary teams. This internal synergy will allow us to offer increasingly personalized and targeted care, accompanying patients not only in the surgical phase, but throughout the rehabilitation and social reintegration pathway. “The uniqueness of Smile House Fondazione ETS is in fact given by its approach, with which it follows the patient from the identification of the malformation to the planning of the treatment pathway, even preparing him and his family for the implications related to the pathology, both medical-surgical and psychological and economic. A point of reference in the field, as shown by the numbers of operations and visits carried out in the 8 Smile House Centers in Italy: 4 Hub Centers (Rome, Vicenza, Pisa and Monza), where primary surgical activities and secondary and multispecialty treatments are carried out, and 4 Spoke Centers (Cagliari, Taranto, Ancona and Catania), where secondary and multispecialty treatments are carried out. A network of excellence for the diagnosis and treatment of cranio-maxillofacial malformations in Italy.
– Photo Smile House ETS Foundation –
(ITALPRESS).
