‘Visible Care’ – Insight into the quality of care

Visible Care (Zichtbare Zorg, ZiZo) has been established due to the increasing demand for insight into the quality of care by patients, health care providers, health insurance companies and the media. The goal of ZiZo is to give insight into the quality of care in various care sectors. HIV treatment centres have taken part in ZiZo since 2011.

In itself, investigating HIV care is not something new. Before the establishment of ZiZo, the Dutch Association of HIV-treating Physicians (NVHB), led at that time by Frank Kroon, had started a project to map the quality of HIV care in the Netherlands, in collaboration with Stichting HIV Monitoring (SHM). The analysis was finalised in 2011 and summarized in a quality report. The conclusions drawn from the analysis were positive and indicated that the quality of HIV care in the Netherlands is of a consistently high standard.

Four quality of care-related indicators were developed for ZiZo using existing guidelines for HIV treatment. In addition, the results of the quality of care analysis conducted by the NVHB and SHM provided an important contribution to the drafting of the ZiZo quality indicators.

SHM had a supporting role in delivery of the quality indicators for ZiZo because the data for all four indicators are available within the SHM database. For each HIV treatment centre, SHM collects data and calculates indicator scores, which are then sent to the principle physicians at each centre. The availability of SHM data makes it easier for HIV treatment centres to participate in ZiZo.

The ZiZo quality indicator results show that there is little difference amongst the HIV treatment centres in the Netherlands (link). http://zichtbarezorg.nl/mailings/FILES/htmlcontent/Dataplot%20HIV%20Aids%20ZKH.pdf). In the evaluation, ZiZo states that differences between HIV treatment centres can’t be substantiated because all centres score highly on the indicators and therefore, the scores on the indicators are not sufficiently discriminatory.

Colette Smit (SHM), Suzanne Geerlings (AMC/NVHB), and Frank Kroon (LUMC) contributed to this article.

For more information on ZiZo, please visit the ZiZo website, http://www.zichtbarezorg.nl.

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Stichting HIV Monitoring

Stichting HIV Monitoring (SHM) makes an essential contribution to healthcare for HIV-positive people in the Netherlands. Working with all recognised HIV treatment centres in the Netherlands, SHM systematically collects coded medical data from all registered HIV patients. SHM uses these data to produce centre-specific reports that allow HIV treatment centres to optimise their patient care and obtain formal certification. SHM’s data also form the basis for the yearly HIV monitoring report and are used in HIV-related research in the Netherlands and internationally. The outcome of SHM’s research provides tangible input into HIV care and prevention polices in the Netherlands.

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