Communication:"low cost" strategic resource for efficient management and economic activities

The strategic role of communication in health care management is still not fully recognized, despite overwhelming evidence provided by the vast legislation created in the last fifteen years covering the Italian Health and Public Communications.
The PO of San Felice a Cancello, promoted a project of organizational communication with the intent to finalize the actions of individual professionals and simultaneously pursuing a "system policy”, aiming to achieve a balanced budget, which is the final goal of all economic management activities.
As a priority, an internal communication network was organized to facilitate a sense of belonging of the different "organizational segments”, necessary so that the operators could adopt behaviors consistent with the objectives of the macro-structures and management of the Company. First step was the establishment of an Office of Public Relations for horizontal and vertical management of the necessary interdisciplinary technical tables, periodic meetings for the verification of corporate reports, analysis of areas of improvement, and implementation of circulars and internal communication activities. The second step was aimed at improving external communication to increase the level of utilization of the structure by building a network with local practitioners, local Associations and Institutions, and the realization of systematized informational material, readily available and accessed by the citizens.
The clarity of the strategies and the actions utilized to achieve them, the explicit statement of them becoming assets of the community through an attentive, but not excessive and not partial, communication, the availability of a comparison, the resistance based on strong belief in an adequate idea, made it possible to manage a burning transition, and, at the same time, get continuous improvements that have strengthened the idea: Use of a “low cost but of great value” "strategic resource" , which is useful when the objectives assigned are complex and require substantial organizational and workflow management changes, and when applications to achieve Quality and Management Targets are requested, and the available time is limited.
For a hospital, whose most realistic prospect was that of a drastic downsizing, if not closure, this was a true revolution, taking into account that the region of Campania in 2007 had asked to reach and / or overcome, 70% of the cost/production ratio. The expected results were, and have been, an improvement in the principles guiding performance (learning through self-evaluation of the weight of the purely economic aspects and the quality and intensity, rather than quantity, of care), and improving the working environment.
The organizational communication has confirmed that it is, in itself, an added value to strategic and managerial skills, and has revealed to be a mechanism of exponential growth in the value of the project, replicable in most contexts, since it is a substantial objective capable of imparting a unified momentum to the macro-structures’ efforts.