New European quality requirements for patient cooperation in health and medical care

This coming autumn, in response to an initiative from the Centre for Person-Centred Care at Gothenburg University (GPCC), the Swedish Standards Institute (SIS) is inaugurating a new European standardization secretariat, which will be tasked with developing clear guidelines for patient involvement in person-centred care. There is considerable demand for the establishment of a joint standard for the quality of healthcare throughout Europe – to determine an agreed approach to the measurement and comparison of patient involvement – with a view to facilitating the effective implementation of person-centred care.

“We are extremely pleased to be leading the process of developing clear guidelines and establishing joint standards for the quality of healthcare throughout Europe, standards which will subsequently be made available for implementation by companies, organizations and public authorities,” says Thomas Idermark, CEO of the Swedish Standards Institute (SIS), in a comment. “This will prove of benefit to service suppliers and European citizens, while also promoting the free movement of personnel and patients within Europe.”

As well as leading the European standardization process, SIS will establish a Swedish “mirror committee”, which will actively participate in and monitor this European standardization process. This work will focus on establishing an operative quality standard, featuring guidelines for patient-involvement in health and medical care and person-centred care. The aim is to ensure care that is both safe and of a high standard, by initiating and developing a partnership between the patient and/or relative and medical personnel, based on the person’s resources, capacity and needs.

Next step
The Swedish committee will be holding its first meeting in Stockholm in September. Work on the European standardization process will be started during the same period. Initial participants will be Sweden, Norway, Finland, Holland and Austria. We anticipate that a number of other European countries will also participate in the work over the next two years.

More data
Thomas Idermark, CEO, +46 (0)70-533 74 30
Emelie Robertsson, Press Officer, +46 (0)704 - 26 05 91
Kristofer Petraeus, Project Manager, +46 (0)704 - 80 44 76