Quaser

QUASER (Quality and Safety in European Union Hospitals) is a comparative study of five European countries and funded by the EU framework program 7. The QUASER study is a multi-level (macro, meso and micro-system), longitudinal comparative study of the ‘quality of hospital care,’ i.e. the effectiveness, safety and patient experience of hospital care. The QUASER project was launched in April 2010. Its participants - next to Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam –include the Kings College (London), the Centre for Patient Safety and Service Quality (Imperial College, London), the Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa (Lisbon), Qulturum (Jongkoping county Council, Sweden), and the Department of Health Studies (University of Stavanger, Norway). In total, ten acute hospitals in the five participating countries (two from each of the five participating countries) participate in this longitudinal study.

The project aims to deliver relevant and useful products to hospital leaders and purchasers of services based on the day-to-day realities of leading and implementing quality and specifically our findings will be used to design and disseminate the Quality and Safety Guide for Hospitals - an evidence-based guide to assist hospitals throughout the EU to implement effective organisation-wide quality improvement and safety programmes.

Summary final report QUASER: A research-based guide for implementing best practice and framework for assessing performance  

QUASER Guide for hospitals

This guide helps hospitals to gain insight in the strengths of the hospital and it helps formulate improvements for less developed sights.

QUASER GUIDE for payers

This guide is intended for payers and supervisors in the Dutch healthcare system of quality of hospital care. With this guide, they can evaluate the way the hospital is engaged to improvement of quality of care. Besides, they can use the guide to analyze how their own actions affect this improvement.

e-Book of QUASER & DUQuE studies to quality and safety in hospitals (Dutch only)

This e-Book gives a report about the closing conference of the QUASER project in co-operation with the DUQuE project. It shows the findings of both projects, but also specific recommendations towards patient participation, the involvement of professionals, knowledge brokering and performance management.

Publications

• Weggelaar-Jansen, A. M., van de Bovenkamp, H., & Bal, R. (2016). Zand in de kwaliteitsmachinerie. Medisch Contact, (15), 36-38.
• Wiig, S., Aase, K., von Plessen, C., Burnett, S., Nunes, F., Weggelaar, A. M., ... & Fulop, N. (2014). Talking about quality: exploring how ‘quality’is conceptualized in European hospitals and healthcare systems. BMC health services research, 14(1), 1.
• Weggelaar-Jansen, A. M., van de Bovenkamp, H., Quartz, J., Pöstges, H., Gomes, S., Wiig, S., ... & Bal, R. (2015) Quality improvement guidance processes in Europe. Learning to Improve Improved Learning.
• Burnett, S., Mendel, P., Nunes, F., Wiig, S., van den Bovenkamp, H., Karltun, A., ... & Fulop, N. (2015). Using institutional theory to analyse hospital responses to external demands for finance and quality in five European countries. Journal of health services research & policy, 1355819615622655.
• Vollaard, H., van de Bovenkamp, H. M., & Vrangbæk, K. (2013). The emerging EU quality of care policy: From sharing information to enforcement. Health policy, 111(3), 226-233.
• Hester van de Bovenkamp, Marleen de Mul, Julia Quartz, AnneMarie Weggelaar-Jansen, and Roland Bal (2013). Institutional layering in health care quality policy: introducing regulated competition. Public Administration: in press.
• Susan Burnett; Anna Renz; Siri Wiig; Alexandra Fernandes; Anne Marie Weggelaar; Johan Calltorp; Janet E. Anderson; Glenn Robert; Charles Vincent; Naomi Fulop (2013). Prospects for comparing European hospitals in terms of quality and safety: lessons from a comparative study in five countries. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 25 (1): 1-7.
• Robert, G. Anderson, J. Burnett, S. Aase, K. Andersson-Gare, B. Bal, R. Caltorp, J. Nunes, F. Weggelaar, AM. Vincent, C. Fulop, N. (2011) A longitudinal, multi-level comparative study of quality and safety in European hospitals: the QUASER study protocol. BMC Health Services Research 2011, 11:285.

Research Partners

This study was conducted bij Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, in collaboration with:

• Department of Applied Health Research, UCL, Londen, Engeland (coördinator)
• King's College, Londen, Engeland.
• Imperial Centre for Patient Safety and Service Quality (CPSSQ), Londen, Engeland;
• Department of Health Studies van de University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Noorwegen
• Culturum, Jönköping County Council, Jönkoping, Zweden
• ISCTE – Instituto Universitario de Lisboa, Lissabon, Portugal

For further discussion about this topic, please contact us via quaser@eshmp.eur.nl

Contact
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management
Quaser-project
Postbus 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
quaser@eshmp.eur.nl