Cruise Ships and Ferries’ Medical Facilities’ Requirements: An Operative Guideline Used in Authorization

Adequate medical facilities on passenger ships are essential to ensuring the quality of medical care and public health actions. Their design and construction is complex, as they have to comply with several regulations and recommendations from different authorities (IMO, ILO, EU, WHO), national flag legislation and advices from scientific societies. Therefore, proper authorization procedures become very important. The working guideline, developed in the light of our experience gained in new Italian cruise ships/ferries’ medical facilities’ authorization processes is presented. Innovative points are the participative continuous approach “from the board to the sea” and the Dynamic-Planning Method based on “what if” scenario model. A careful balance of the required features and standards against costs without compromising the quality of care is possible. The guidelines are open to be continually reviewed, updated, and expanded with the contribution of stakeholder’s. Readers are encouraged to provide feedback and to contribute material for further updates.