In Italy, since the 2000s, several classification tools have been designed and/or tested, in order to identify the severity of the clinical conditions in hospitalized patients and to figure out the whole variety of care needs, in context of hospital re-organization known as "intensity of care". The purpose of this review is to draw up an overview of the available literature on classification tools used for patients' allocation in clinical setting organised by intensity of care, and analyze them through synoptic tables. The present review highlight a substantial heterogeneity of the tools currently used; in addition, a small number of them is able to identify jointly the intensity of clinical care and the complexity of care needs