Home care in the Netherlands

The goals of this extraordinary training session? Learning by observation, finding ideas to develop the use of HaH in France, identifying managerial innovations that can be transposed into their own organization and strengthening the ties among the executive teams of the group.

Hospitalization at home and home care have been greatly developed in the Netherlands since the early 2000s, following a reform which has decentralized part of the health care responsibilities to the municipalities. The Dutch healthcare system is based on private health insurance, which has identified the home as the most efficient place of care.

At the organizational level, the delegates discovered very innovative structures, such as Buurtzorg, an agency founded on the principles of the liberated enterprise. The first teams were created in 2007 in Amsterdam, on the model of neighborhood care team who offered care locally. Buurtzorg works with independent teams of nurses who work independently, with the support of a high-performance computerized system. At SIGRA, the French delegation discovered the ins and outs of an integrated care organization that is developing an approach of population responsibility for the territories they serve.

The use of new technologies is very developed in the Netherlands. In The Hague, the delegation visited the IZI connected apartment, where the elderly can come and test new technologies before acquiring them for their homes. Connected to a research center, this structure develops a wide range of digital solutions. Allerzorg is a home care and hospitalization organization that uses many of these solutions in their daily operations.

The delegates ended their training with a long list of ideas to implement in their organization in France, and with the desire to set off on another study trip to discover more innovative solutions that can be transferred to their teams on the ground.