Survey maps organizational profiles of Italy’s bed-based intermediate care services

The findings, published as an open-access Brief Report in Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, come from a network-based cross-sectional survey distributed through the society’s intermediate care professional network.

Intermediate care is expanding, but services can differ substantially in organization, care goals and clinical capability. To characterize these differences, the survey assessed admissions, clinical stability criteria, care goals, length of stay, workforce composition and diagnostic support across three service types: rehabilitation and functional recovery intermediate care units (RFR-IC), Community Hospitals (CH), and subacute units. Fifty-eight facilities participated in total, comprising 29 RFR-IC units, 14 Community Hospitals and 15 subacute units.

Admission pathways emerged as one of the clearest distinguishing features. Admission from acute hospital wards was reported by 94.8% of participating facilities, making transfers from acute care the near-universal entry route. Direct admission from home, however, varied sharply by service type: 79.3% of RFR-IC units and 78.6% of Community Hospitals reported accepting direct home admissions, compared with only 26.7% of subacute units, a difference that was statistically significant (p = 0.002).

Clinical stability assessment also showed considerable variation. The most common approach, reported by 58.6% of facilities, was to assess clinical stability without using a formal tool, suggesting that standardized criteria for determining which patients are suitable for bed-based intermediate care are not consistently applied across services.

Beyond admissions, the three models showed distinct operational profiles. RFR-IC units emphasized rehabilitation, reported longer lengths of stay, and involved allied-health professionals more extensively. Subacute units, by contrast, reported greater access to diagnostic services, positioning them as the model with the strongest diagnostic capability among the three.

The authors conclude that these distinct access routes, objectives, staffing patterns and diagnostic capacities could affect patient selection, safety, and the interpretation of outcomes across services. Because the survey is exploratory and non-representative, the findings should be read as identifying candidate domains for standardized reporting in future mapping and benchmarking efforts rather than as a definitive national picture. The domains proposed for standardized reporting include admissions, clinical stability, care goals, workforce, diagnostic and escalation pathways, home-care integration, and patient-level outcomes.

Subject of Research: Organizational profiles of bed-based intermediate care services in Italy

Article Title: Organizational profiles of bed-based intermediate care services in Italy: a network-based cross-sectional survey

Article References: Presta, R., Salucci, C., Benvenuti, E., Bo, M., Caronzolo, F., Espa, L., Gelmini, G., Maina, P., Salini, S., Cherubini, A., Ungar, A., Leosco, D., Inzitari, M., Morandi, A., & on the behalf of the Italian Geriatric and Gerontology Society (SIGG) interest group on Intermediate Care (2026). Organizational profiles of bed-based intermediate care services in Italy: a network-based cross-sectional survey. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-026-03541-x

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s40520-026-03541-x

Keywords: intermediate care, Italy, cross-sectional survey, Community Hospitals, subacute units, rehabilitation, geriatrics, health services research, clinical stability, SIGG, Organizational, profiles