HEALTH PROMOTING HOSPITALS AND HEALTH SERVICES ( HPH )

HPH IN A NUTSHELL

The International WHO Network of Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services (HPH) promotes health promotion in and by hospitals as a strategy to improve the health gain of patients and relatives, staff, community and bystanders. HPH combines a vision, a concept, a set of 18 core strategies and 5 standards that can be linked with the organisation's quality management.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

In 1986, the re-orientation of health care settings was formulated as one of the major action areas of health promotion in the WHO Ottawa Charter. WHO-Euro initiated conceptual discussions around HPH in 1988, and in 1989 the first pilot health promoting hospital project was set up at the Rudolfstiftung Hospital in Vienna, Austria. Two years later, the International Network of Health Promoting Hospitals was initiated by WHO with LBISHM designated as its first co-ordinating centre. The Budapest Declaration >> on Health Promoting Hospitals was launched in 1991 as the first policy document of the network, and a European pilot project with 20 participating hospitals from 11 countries was conducted from 1993-1997.

PILOT HOSPITALS

The following hospitals participated in the project:

• Austria: Rudolfstiftung Hospital, Vienna
• Czech Republic: City Hospital, Prague
• France: Vaugirard Hospital, Paris
• Germany:
  • City Hospital, Chemnitz
  • Alten Eichen Hospital, Hamburg
  • St. Bernward Hospital, Hildesheim
  • St. Irmingard Hospital, Prien
  • Philipps Hospital, Riedstadt
• United Kingdom:
  • England: Preston Acute Hospital NHS Trust, Preston
  • Northern Ireland: Altnagelvin Area Hospital, Londonderry
  • Scotland: Stobhill NHS Trust, Glasgow
  • Wales: Prince Philip Hospital, Llanelli
• Greece: Areteion Hospital, Athens
• Hungary: Koranyi Hospital, Budapest
• Ireland: James Connolly Hospital, Dublin
• Italy:
  • Vittore Buzzi Children's Hospital, Milan
  • University Hospital, Padova
• Poland:
  • Upper-Silesian Rehabilitation Centre Repty, Ustron
  • Children's Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw
• Sweden: University Hospital, Linköping

At the end of the pilot project, a new policy document of the network was launched: the Vienna Recommendations on Health Promoting Hospitals >> (WHO 1997). In 1995, national / regional networks of HPH started to develop in 24 countries so far, partly supported by the European Commission (DG SANCO). The International Network consists now of more than 700 member hospitals in 35 national / regional networks:

HPH MEDIA

Many more countries and hospitals are regularly participating in the annual international HPH conferences which have been organised since 1993 in Warsaw, Padova, Linköping, Londonderry, Vienna, Darmstadt, Swansea, Athens, Copenhagen, Bratislava, Florence, Moscow, Dublin, Lithuania, Vienna and - in 2008 - Berlin. A semi-annual HPH-Newsletter has been issued also since 1993.

TASK FORCES AND WORKING GROUPS

International task forces and working groups support the continuous development of Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services: Health promoting psychiatric health care services; Health promotion for children and adolescents in the hospital; Migrant Friendly and Culturally Competent Hospitals (contact to coordinator: Antonio Chiarenza); Putting HPH Policy into Action (18 HPH core strategies); Standards for Health Promotion in Hospitals (self assessment tool); quality-based reimbursement.

GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE

The HPH network is currently developing into an internatinal association. It is governed by an elected international governance board and has a general assembly meeting once a year. The secretariat is based at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Evidence-Based Health Promotion in Copenhagen, Denmark. The International HPH conferences, the international HPH Newsletter and other scientific and technical functions are supported by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promotion in Hospitals and Health Care Services, Vienna.

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