[Home care for patients with ictus cerebri. An observational study in the metropolitan area of Milano]

Health care assessment is a very relevant process in health services organization. Despite home care appears to be a very important tool in health care delivery system, its impact has been only rarely evaluated in this country. The observational study we performed in the ASL Città di Milano on patients affected by ictus cerebri was aimed at addressing some questions in order to assess whether services can be delivered more cost effectively. We chose to look mainly at the effectiveness and cost of services for the people in need and their caregivers selected in two years time. The results are showed according to different patients' profiles and precocity of recruitment. Their analysis shows that further improvements can still be made in order to achieve a better tailored profile of delivery. Moreover it can be seen how the burden of costs still falls largely on families and caregivers. The study can be seen as premises for further analyses as well as a follow up intervention.