page_title: Emergency medical services in Italy
section_title: Staffing
hierarchical_section_title: Emergency medical services in Italy / Standards / Staffing
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Ambulanza utilizzata in Italia e rispondete alle nuova norma Europea EN 1789
context_page_description: Emergency medical services in Italy currently consist primarily of a combination of volunteer organizations providing ambulance service, supplemented by physicians and nurses who perform all advanced life support procedures. The emergency telephone number for emergency medical service in Italy is 118. Since 2017 it has also been possible to call by the European emergency number 112, although this is a general police/fire/medical number.
context_section_description: How ambulances are staffed is determined to some extent by the location, and by the resources available to the community. For the most part, Italy follows the Franco-German (as opposed to Anglo-American) model of EMS service delivery. The basic model consists of Basic Life Support ambulances, Advanced Life Support ambulances, Modified Advanced Life Support ambulances, and physician response cars called automedica. BLS units are typically volunteer-based, and crews consist of a minimum of two EMTs called soccorritore (one of them is a dedicated driver); it is not uncommon to find three- or four-EMTs ambulance crews.
  ALS units are more likely to be based in large centers, are more likely to be staffed by paid, hospital-based personnel, and are commonly composed of a physician (usually an emergency physician or anesthetist) and a critical care nurse. ALS units can be found either on emergency response vehicles (automedica) or on intensive care ambulances. Some areas use a modified approach to ALS, with a volunteer crew supplemented by an emergency nurse who is permitted to perform some ALS procedures.
  The top end of the spectrum are the air ambulances, staffed by the same personnel of ground ALS units (physician and nurse) and by a mountain rescue specialist or another critical care nurse.
  Operation centres choose each time the most adequate vehicle to send on the basis of the seriousness of a patient's conditions.
caption: Italian ambulance
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