HEALTH PROMOTING HOSPITALS ( HPH )

HPH combines a vision, a concept and a set of 18 strategies>> and 5 standards>> for implementing health promotion with networking activities for hospital development to improve health gain. 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 initiated conceptual discussions around HPH in 1988, and in 1989 the first pilot health promoting hospital project "Health and Hospital" 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 Vienna 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 the following 20 participating hospitals from 11 countries, was conducted from 1993-1997:

• 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
• Great Britain
  • 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, organised in national / regional networks:

Many more hospitals than the network member 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, and - 2006 - Palanga. A semi-annual HPH-Newsletter has been issued also since 1993.

International task forces and working groups support the continuous development of Health Promoting Hospitals: Health promoting psychiatric health care services>>; health promotion for children and adolescents in the hospital; and migrant friendly and culturally competent hospitals.

The network is coordinated by the network secretariat at WHO Collaborating Centre for Evidence-Based Health Promotion in Hospitals, Copenhagen>>. The WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promotion in Hospitals and Health Care Services, Vienna>>, provides technical support for the network especially by coordinating the scientific planning of the international HPH conferences, by editing the semi-annual HPH Newsletter, and by coordinating of and participating in international research, model and pilot projects.

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