Pay for Quality

120 Pay for Quality KCE Reports 118
outcome)
Type of indicators used (if any) Structure indicators (the following list is not complete): staff size,
scientific activity (total citation score of the team, clinical
research) quality of room, of food, additional services to patients
(psychological and social support, pain clinic, esthetical care,
revalidation).
Process indicators (the following list is not complete):
attractiveness index, safety index, check in- diagnosis delay,
diagnosis-treatment delay.
Outcome indicators (the following list is not complete): diseasefree
survival in cancer, quality of life.
Purpose of indicators used To publicly rank hospital performance
Type of incentives Selection as a centre of reference if selection criteria
demonstrate that a certain threshold is reached.
Results (if available) Not available
Sources (most relevant ones) Not available
Total budget Not available
Table 17: Hospital accreditation
XI. HOSPITAL ACCREDITATION
Initiated by Hospitals in cooperation with an accreditation body (Joint
Commission International, Nederlands Instituut voor
Accreditatie van Ziekenhuizen (NIAZ), International Office for
Standardization (ISO))
Overall objective To publicly recognize the level of quality of care offered by a
hospital
Date of implementation in Hospital specific (2000, 2006…)
Belgium
Target audience Hospitals, including both its managers as professional care
providers
Content Initiatives to externally assess hospital performance against predefined
explicit published standards in order to encourage
continuous improvement of the health care quality. Target
standards are applied as intermediate endpoints to achieve.
Primary focus (structure, process,
outcome)
These may cover the entire process model of a hospital.
Main focus on structure and process. There is a current lack of
using (intermediate) outcome measures to evaluate programme
results.
Type of indicators used (if any) Limited clinical indicator use due to a focus on organisational and
transversal aspects which are not addressed in current available
databases. The choice of indicators is mainly accreditation body
specific. Examples are the availability of guideline support
(structure) and the actual use of guideline support (process) in
medical decision making.
Purpose of indicators used To improve quality and to strengthen public accountability.
Accreditation results in a periodic ‘award’ of recognition.
Type of incentives An accreditation initiative often includes charging external
services to a hospital by a fee or subscription, next to a cost
increase working towards standards. There is no direct positive
financial incentive present. Indirectly, a positive public recognition
may improve the financial status through higher patient volumes.
Results (if available) Evidence is lacking.
Sources (most relevant ones)
258
Total budget Undisclosed and programme specific