Canada-Netherlands seminar on health care report

Canada-Netherlands Seminar on Health Care The Hague, Netherlands September 5 – 7, 2007 In September 2007, the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport hosted a Canadian delegation of health professionals and policy makers for a joint seminar on Health Care Reform to study recent policy and program initiatives in the Netherlands toward improving health system quality, safety and efficiency, to [...] Seminar Origins On September 23, 2003, then Prime Minister Jean Chrétien of Canada and Prime Minister Balkenende of the Netherlands signed the Joint Declaration on the Strengthening of the Bilateral Relations between the Government of the Netherlands and the Government of Canada. [...] Facilitated debriefs of the Canadian delegation on site at the end of the Seminar and by teleconference after the group’s return to Canada, as well as the co-editing of this paper, identified areas for further study and discussion. [...] Fundamental to the changes have been (1) The January 1, 2006 revision of the Health Insurance Act which leverages the system’s private sector tradition toward increased market competition and which brings to bear select regulation in the form of public guarantees, and (2) a nationwide drive under the banner of the Faster Better program to improve hospital performance, and with it a drive for patie [...] In the second pillar the Health Care Inspectorate initiated the annual publication of 26 hospital indicators emphasizing safety and quality of care consistent with the belief that measurement, transparency and public accountability will generate a new attitude toward continuous improvement and contribute to improved hospital management.