[The health care through the critical eyes of the users: a survey]

Hospitalization is a condition, in which the individual ceases his daily normal acti- vities to be taken over by a hospital, in order to solve a health problem. The healthcare profes- sionals have the responsibility to make the event "admission" the least traumatic as possible. In this regard the welcome is a crucial moment - like a "business card" for the structure - and it will mostly define the satisfaction of the hospitalization experience.

Aim of this study is to explore the experience of hospitalization of the respondents, to outline the main issues that affect the quality of care provided in two hospitals in Rome and to detect the most common critical situations, in relation to the thematic areas identified.

Data collected through semi-structured questionnaires and following phenomenological approach focused on the analysis of experiences of respondents to extract the meaning themes with inductive technique of Van Kaam.

Thanks to the interviews about the users hospitalization experience, there were outlined four key-elements that affect the quality of care provided and the more obvious critical issues detected; therefore it is highlighted a relational and communicative asymmetry between the heal- thcare provider and the user and also a lack of awareness of healthcare professionals on the impor- tance of the "primacy effect", which is a preliminary element to strengthen the subsequent posi- tive perceptions of hospital care.

In the light of the results, that work can provide interesting insights and guidance to all those who, for various reasons, are active in the health professions in addition to contribu- ting to the improvement of the quality of care in our facilities.