OBJECTIVES In the light of future arrival of subcutaneous (SC) formulation of tocilizumab for the treatment of moderate to severe active rheumatoid arthritis, a multidimensional analysis has been performed in order to evaluate potential impact of introducing SC formulation vs. intra-venous (IV) one from the perspective of both patients and hospitals in Italy. METHODS The analysis was conducted in three Italian Rheumatology centers (AO-S.Anna-Ferrara, AO-Verona, UOS-Valeggio-sul-Mincio) through a questionnaire administered to clinicians and nurses. A 60 minutes day-hospital administration for IV and 20 seconds-1 minute administration for SC selfinjector or pre-filled syringe administered at home (excluding the first administration) were assumed. Monitoring visits were considered as 1 per month for IV and 1 every three months for SC. Four impact areas were evaluated: patient’s drug-administration time and costs (including transportation time and cost and loss of productivity), drug-administration related hospital-personnel time, drug wastage and patient risk profile evaluated through Failure Models and Effect Analysis. A one year time horizon was considered. RESULTS The analysis showed that the new SC formulation, compared to IV, could have a significant impact in terms of: patient time saving (- 91% of the time for the administration of therapy), patient costs  (-86%), clinicians and nurses time saving measured as Full Time Equivalent (- 59% for clinicians and -94 % for nurses), drug wastage (-100%), and patient risk profile (-93%). CONCLUSIONS The subcutaneous formulation of tocilizumab could have several organizational and management impacts. From the hospital perspective it could lead to reduction of medical resources consumption with the possibility to re-allocate them in other medical activities. From the patient perspective the new SC formulation could lead to time savings and costs reduction with a potential improvement of patient quality of life.