Standards for health promotion in hospitals: development of indicators for a self-assessment tool, WHO/Europe 2004

Usually formal hospital accreditations and quality assessments do not fully consider health promotion activities. To fill this gap and to support the evaluation of health promotion activities in hospitals five standards and complementary performance indicators were developed. The standards address: hospital management policy; patients’ assessment, information and intervention; a healthy workplace; and continuity and cooperation with other providers of health promotion services. To support the assessment of standards and indicators, participants at the 4^th WHO workshop on standards for health promotion in hospitals agreed to prepare two documents: a self-assessment tool and a manual.

The purpose of the self-assessment tool is to provide concrete guidance on the operational aspects of standard and indicator assessment. It was agreed by the participants at the meeting that the self-assessment tool would be pilot tested to find out whether health professionals in hospitals are able to collect the information necessary to assess standard compliance and whether the documentation supports them in improving the quality of health promotion activities.

The purpose of the manual is to provide information in a comprehensive manner on the background, evidence, development process and terminology of standards and indicators for health promotion in hospitals.