HEALTH PROMOTING HOSPITALS AND HEALTH SERVICES ( HPH )

HPH IN A NUTSHELL

The International WHO Network of Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services (HPH) was initiated by WHO-Euro in 1990. 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 the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for the Sociology of Health and Medicine (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 25 countries so far, partly supported by the European Commission (DG SANCO). The International Network consists now of more than 700 member hospitals in 37 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, Berlin and - in 2009 - Hersonissos, Crete. A semi-annual HPH-Newsletter was issued from 1993 until 2007, and is now published bi-monthly.

TASK FORCES AND WORKING GROUPS

International task forces support the continuous adaptation of HPH concepts, strategies and implementation for specific types of health services or with regard to specific topics. At present, the following task forces exist: Health promoting psychiatric health services; Health promotion for children and adolescents in & by hospitals and health services ; Migrant Friendly and Culturally Competent Hospitals and Health Services; and Tobacco-Free United.

Temporary working groups produce specific outcomes like the 18 HPH core strategies which are the result of the working group "Putting HPH Policy into Action", and the 5 standards for health promotion in hospitals with a related self-assessment tool which were produced by the Working Group on Standards for Health Promotion in Hospitals.

GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE

In May 2008, by signing its constitution, the HPH network became an internatinal non-profit association (under Swiss law) with specific relation to WHO. The Network is now 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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