30.03.2010Six hospitals team up under the name Santeon

Santeon, collaborating for innovation. Today, Fatma Koser Kaya, D66 politician in the Dutch Lower Chamber, revealed the new name of the Vereniging Samenwerkende Ziekenhuizen. As of today, six top clinical training hospitals will collaborate more and more intensively under the name Santeon. Each hospital will retain its familiar name and identity. The new quality mark Santeon is a supporting mark.

The new healthcare act of 2006 boosted the position of all persons insured. Collectives of insured people emerged that had a national organisation and spread. This includes patients’ associations, companies, but also organisations like the FNV. Organisations that are active nationwide and demand high-quality care across the Netherlands. To respond to these developments, the six top clinical hospitals joined forces in 2005. From today, they team up under the name Santeon.

Santeon represents the highest quality of healthcare, safety, hospitality and innovation. Maarten Rook, chairman of the association: ‘Our cooperation chiefly focuses on quality and safety; we jointly work on a safety management system, and we collaborate with health insurers to arrive at a system to measure and analyse customer experience in healthcare. You can use this to work out which hospitals are doing well and, within hospitals, which departments. It is an important tool to collectively improve the quality in a transparent way.’ 

Pooling resources pays off in other areas too. For example, the hospitals’ physicians and professionals exchange new treatments and examples of successfully applied scientific research. Within the hospitals, all files of deceased patients are additionally judged on avoidable incidents by an external commission. Furthermore, the hospitals are building a data backup facility and working towards an electronic health record. And finally, all Santeon hospitals have been granted the quality mark of Top Employer and in association with Verpleegkundigen en Verzorgenden Nederland (V&VN), they examine how they can attract and retain medical staff even better.

Cynthia Vogeler, manager of Gezond Leven (Living Healthily) at the Consumentenbond (consumers’ organisation): ‘The Consumentenbond considers the teaming up of these hospitals a perfect opportunity to start offering consumers more quality, transparency and safety.’ The Vereniging Verpleegkundigen & Verzorgenden Nederland (V&VN), the sector organisation of medical staff, is particularly enthusiastic about the possibilities this offers for training programmes and professional fulfilment. Atie Schipaanboord, managing director of Verpleegkundigen & Verzorgenden Nederland: ‘The cooperation of the six hospitals is a great initiative. It offers several opportunities, for professionals to exchange experiences in improving healthcare and for hospitals to create an adequate working environment for nurses. Already during the Excellente Zorg (excellent care) project, the hospitals proved that cooperation leads to inspiration and innovation and this in turn leads to a higher-quality healthcare.’

The Santeon brand name was derived from ‘sanitas /santé’ (health) and Pantheon (name of a temple in Rome for all denominations, boasting the world’s first dome). The blue and green circles in the Santeon logo represent medical excellence. The purple, red and orange circles imply that Santeon is people-oriented. When the circles merge, new forms and colours arise. This is the innovation Santeon is constantly seeking.