International SOS opens an Assistance Centre in Italy

The Assistance Centre, based in Milan, will provide further support in managing risks to the health, safety and welfare of personnel of Italian companies operating abroad.

At a time of increasing global instability, International SOS, a leading global provider of health and safety risk management for the workforce, becomes the only international provider of both medical assistance and security services with an Assistance Centre in Italy. This is essential to further strengthen the level of quality of services provided to Italian companies operating abroad, as well as to international clients with a presence in Italy.

Daniele Grassi, Sales Director & Operations Liaison, Italy, said

The opening of the Milan Assistance Centre represents an important milestone for International SOS. This investment is the result of our constant growth in the Italian market and testifies to our commitment to provide high quality, customised and timely assistance. Our direct presence on the territory allows us to better understand the needs of Italian companies and to respond more quickly and efficiently, making a real difference at critical moments.

Over the years, International SOS has opened offices, clinics and Assistance Centres to support the increasingly complex needs of international markets. For more than 20 years it has been supporting the Italian market where, in the last four years alone, it has recorded an annual growth of more than 25%, thanks to the offer of medical and security services.

The opening of an Assistance Centre in Milan highlights the importance of the Italian market for the Group and brings the total number of operational staff in the country (medical, logistics and security) to over 50. At a global level, International SOS has 28 Assistance Centres (including the one based in Milan), offices in over 90 countries, 54 clinics in remote or at-risk areas, a workforce comprising over 12,000 medical and security experts, able to guarantee support in over 100 different languages, and a network of over 89,000 providers.

According to the World Trade Organisation, Italy is currently the fifth largest exporting country in the world, a circumstance that highlights the strong foreign projection and, as a consequence, the significant exposure of even thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises to the risks posed by conflicts, situations of instability, crime and epidemics. This entails the need for companies to set up prevention and management models that are effective and capable not only of protecting the safety of personnel employed in transfers or assignments abroad, but also of guaranteeing business continuity, even in situations of generalised uncertainty and instability. In fact, each employer has a Duty of Care that is increasingly regulated by law, with potential consequences of a penal and administrative nature, as well as possible damage from a reputational and business point of view. Attention to this area is also growing at the international level, as evidenced by the publication of the UNI ISO 31030 Guidelines, which regulate the management of travel risks in a precise and exhaustive manner.

International SOS is therefore the point of reference for organisations to fulfil their Duty of Care obligations, offering solutions such as:

• 24/7 medical and security support available in over 110 languages through our 28 Assistance Centres, over 13,000 medical and security experts, and a network of over 89,000 verified providers.
• Medical and security evacuations.
• Digital solutions to support your workforce employed abroad.
• Pre-training courses in digital or face-to-face format.
• Country guides with up-to-date risk assessment.
• Real-time updates on the situation in the country/area where your workforce is located.
• Support in the drafting of travel risk policies, travel risk management strategies and crisis management.
• Telemedicine and remote psychological support.
• Solutions for the health and wellbeing of the workforce.