ABSTRACT
Hospitals have changed considerably over the past 10 years, leading them to focus increasingly on dealing with emergencies and acute pathologies (where most patients are not mobile, due to the motor impairments determined by acute disease). At the same time, shorter hospital stays have led to greater reliance on outpatient services, day hospitals, and so on to provide patients with postcritical treatment and care. Consequently, ever larger numbers of disabled (D) patients are turning to outpatient services while the number of operators staffing them is often insufficient.
