(Rivista Internazionale - December 1994: The Activities of the St. John the Baptist Hospital - 2/3)

The hospital's welfare work is based on Faith and Charity, testimony to the Knights' Christianity. This work is even more important and socially significant when we consider the particular nature of the nervous diseases treated, highly disabling and of great frequency in industrialised countries. The importance and professionalism of the medical service carried out in St. John the ßaptist's has been widely recognized and appreciated by the Italian National Health Service with a specific agreement for admitting, assisting and rehabilitating patients with nervous diseases.

Rome. St. John the Baptist Hospital. Butterfly bath in the brain-damaged ward used in one of the most advanced therapies for reacquiring superficial and deep sensitivity, at the same time reducing spasticity.

The hospital has five departments with 48 beds each, divided into wards with six and rooms with two beds. The medical team for each department consists of specialists in neurology and physical medicine. Besides a large proportion of nursing staff, specially trained in nervous diseases, there are over 70 rehabilitation specialists providing kinesitherapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy.
The well-equipped radiology service is able to perform the most sophisticated diagnostic tests such as the most recent whole-body CAT (computerised axial tomography) scan, computerised bone density measurements, breast scans and mammography with the possibility of stereoscopic biopsy in real time. This service is able to meet all the hospital's inpatient requirements, as well as those of outpatients, who are making increasing use of it. The recently-installed eco-Doppler device is of great diagnostic utility for its specific and accurate evaluation of the blood circulation in the various arteries and veins of the body. An efficient analysis laboratory, equipped with leading-edge equipment for all haematochemical and bacteriological tests and radioimmunological surveys is one of the most up-to-date in Italy.

Rome. St. John the Baptist Hospital. One of the gyms used for physiotherapy.

A small department has also recently been inaugurated for patients with particularly serious brain traumas, needing specifically qualified medical assistance and costly and sophisticated rehabilitative equipment. This department fills a gap in the Italian health service, since no suitable possibilities of treatment are offered to these kind of patients in the various rehabilitation structures nation-wide. The hospital also has some clinical services of particular importance for the relative pathologies such as neurophysiology, neuropsychology, physical therapy, cardiology and ophthalmology, this latter also able to perform fluorangiographs (angiographs of vessels of the retina). Finally, there are the numerous specialist services provided in the day hospital, to meet the needs of a continually increasing outpatients' demand.

next page
back to previous page
back to summary