Quality

General

Both the government and various agencies, including the Health Care Inspectorate, and health insurers supervise the quality of care provided in the Netherlands.
HuisartsenOZL must also comply with these frameworks and rules and is periodically tested for this.

HuisartsenOZL is working on a constant improvement process of primary care in the region. Everything revolves around the patient who is entitled to the best possible care, close to home. Promoting quality is done, among other things, by following national guidelines for care and having the care provided certified. This is tested against the recognised standard, ISO. The GP practices, the out-of-hours GP service and the chronic care programmes are assessed externally on the quality delivered.

HaZo24

GP care is characterised by 24-hour availability and accessibility for the patient. It is important that the patient can rely on the right quality care provided by the GP at all times, regardless of the location or the organisation where this care is provided.

Within the 24 hours of GP care, at least three types of organisations are active: the GP practice, the GP post and the organisation of Chronic Care.

The assurance of quality and continuity in 24-hour GP care has led to the  development of an integrated quality system, together with a number of other care groups (Cohesion (North Limburg), HONK (North-East Kennemerland), Meditta (Western Mining Region and Central Limburg) and ZIO (Maastricht Heuvelland)): HaZo24 (General Practitioner Care 24 hours).

The HaZo24 is a quality system that monitors and improves GP care from a 24-hour perspective:  the HaZo24 is based on the international ISO Healthcare standard NEN – EN 15224 and on the national field standards, as established by the profession. Certification according to HaZo24 helps to demonstrate that there is structured attention for quality of care and its improvement. The path to certification also helps the practice/organization to identify and realize improvement potential. Not only within patient care, but also within business operations and the organization of the practice/organization

Since 2016, the implementation of the HaZo24 has been rolled out within general practitioners Spoedpost OZL, chronic care and the day practices of HuisartsenOZL. The day practices are supported and facilitated by HuisartsenOZL.

Since the end of 2016, chronic care, the out-of-hours GP service and 43 practices have been certified on the basis of HaZo24.

HaZo24 certification – general practitioners Spoedpost OZL

GPEN Spoedpost OZL wants to be an organisation that effectively and efficiently carries out the tasks that are required of its patients at the right time with the right people and resources.

Through continuous improvement and continuous development of the employees and processes, the out-of-hours GP service wants to optimise the care provider relationship with patients. To this end, the organization uses a quality management system whose effectiveness focuses on leadership, information and analysis, quality planning and evaluation, quality assurance, quality results and ultimately a satisfied customer. Quality is pursued for the entire breadth of the organization, in primary and secondary processes.

Planning, implementation, measurement and improvement is focused on human resources and health and safety matters, on the safety of customers and employees, on financial matters and material matters and processes.

Since 2006, Spoedpost OZL has been in possession of ISO, later HKZ and now Hazo24 certification. This means that the organisation is regularly visited by certifier LRQA, which independently monitors compliance with the quality requirements in accordance with the nationally recognised standards.

Chronic Care Programs (via: Chronic Care)

The quality of care provided through HuisartsenOZL within the chronic care programmes diabetes mellitus, asthma, COPD and cardiovascular risk management is periodically assessed by the health insurers. This is done by registering various process and outcome indicators and annual evaluation interviews.

In addition, HuisartsenOZL assesses the quality of the care provided in the GP practices by means of annual visitations of the participating GP practices. This involves looking at both the medical care provided and the organization of the chronic care programs.

The organization of Chronic Care has been in possession of Hazo24 certification since 2016. This means that the organisation is regularly visited by certifier LRQA, which independently monitors compliance with the quality requirements in accordance with the nationally recognised standards.