23.05.2011Vervolg succesvolle meting CQI-Ziekenhuizen door Santeon

This month, the Santeon hospitals, in conjunction with health insurers, will again execute the patient experience survey CQI Hospitals (Consumer Quality Index Hospitals). By means of this survey, the six Santeon hospitals can unequivocally chart their quality on a hospital, speciality, diagnosis and DBC level, from a patient’s perspective. The hospitals use the information for mutual comparison and improvement. This year, other hospitals can participate in the survey as well.

In the coming period, 60,000 patients will be given the opportunity to participate in the survey, where they will be contacted by a single independent research agency with a short, digital questionnaire. The questionnaire is short and has been validated for both outpatient visits and hospitalisations. The questions address the entire healthcare process, from accessibility, outpatient visits, hospitalisation, quality of care by doctors and nurses, up to hospital release and aftercare.

Successful survey in 2010
In the first survey round in 2010, more than 60,000 patients were invited to take part in the study, over 20% of whom filled in the questionnaire. Evaluating this previous survey, it turned out it provided very useful information for improving healthcare. Health insurers and patients’ associations support this initiative, since hospitals can now show patients and health insurers whether and to what extent patients are satisfied.

Twice a year
The Santeon hospitals have decided to henceforth carry out the survey twice a year. Many other hospitals have shown interest in the CQI Hospitals. In the coming period, these hospitals can join in the survey, so more hospitals will be able to compare their levels of healthcare quality.

Advantages CQI Hospitals
Health insurers already carry out a paper version of the CQ Index biannually, but only among a limited group of clinical patients.  As Santeon Hospitals, we can now structurally measure the clinical and polyclinical experiences of a large group of patients: for the entire hospital, per location and on a speciality, (main) diagnosis and DBC level. We can compare hospitals on all these criteria. The results are immediately available online.

Transparency in healthcare
Santeon and the Miletus Foundation – a cooperative of health insurers for measuring patient experiences in healthcare – initiated the CQI Hospitals.  This initiative is supported by the Federation of Patients and Consumer Organisations in the Netherlands (NPCF). The online reporting tool was developed in collaboration with the Mediquest research group, and the methodology and questionnaires were approved by the Dutch Centre for Consumer Experience in Health Care (CKZ).