Excellence in healthcare

HENS was founded on 22 June 2009 in the Hirslan- den Klinik St. Anna in Lucerne. The network aims to offer an exclusive knowledge transfer for the development of healthcare companies. The members of the network receive benchmark possibilities and practical examples and can exchange their experiences as EFQM users in the healthcare sector among like-minded people. The network is aimed at managers and quality managers of clinics, hospitals, care institutions and other service providers in the healthcare sector who would like to further develop their companies on the basis of the EFQM Excellence Model. Since the founding of the network, SAQ has awarded more than 100 companies in the healthcare sector. And time and again, the companies receive new input and can feed the knowledge from assessments and evaluations back into the industry via the network.

Importance of excellence increases
Quality management has gained noticeably in importance in the healthcare sector. Management systems and models such as the EFQM excellence approach are increasingly finding a place in industry courses - across all levels of education. Whether it is a course for medical practice coordinators at the Migros Klub- schule für Management & Wirtschaft or in the CAS Business Administration for Health Professionals at the Bern University of Applied Sciences: quality management and the excellence approach are increasingly being taught. Last but not least, the SAQ is increasingly perceived by the healthcare sector as an important source of impetus and contact partner for quality issues. At the same time, HENS shows a concrete implementation of the SAQ motto "We network quality".

Guide with a lot of practical knowledge
In order to deepen the quest for further penetration of the healthcare sector with the excellence approach, the HENS members have now compiled a guide to support companies in applying the EFQM model. This guide is ultimately a concentrated collection of know-how from the sector. Representatives of well-known health care companies were involved. In this guide, the authors make their industry-specific experience available to a broader audience in the healthcare sector. All criteria of the EFQM Excellence Model are explained briefly and concisely and illustrated by means of sample documents from various healthcare companies.

Particular emphasis is placed on the perspective of the "end customer", i.e. the patient: Continuous improvements and the development of innovative services are intended to serve the well-being of the patients, "so that a healing stay at the clinic becomes a lastingly impressive experience for everyone involved", as co-author Marc Aeberli, Head of Corporate Development and Quality at Privatklinik Hohenegg AG, puts it.

Demanding work
The guide lays the foundation for the EFQM Excellence Model to support the healthcare sector in effectively implementing improvements in clinics, hospitals, care institutions, etc., some of which are long overdue. This is a challenging task, as co-author Georg Schielke emphasized on the occasion of the presentation of the guide, especially the "translation" of the model into operational practice. The EFQM model is not an "instruction manual" and cannot replace the company's internal strategy work.