This Quality strategy is an update to the 2009 quality strategy of the Federal Council. In accordance with the legal bases, the focus is on the quality of healthcare.
Introduction
The Strategy for quality development in health insurance builds on the overall Health2030 strategy and supplements the existing national strategies.
Through the strategy, the federal government seeks to develop the quality of healthcare by ensuring that it is delivered in an effective, safe, patient-centric, timely, efficient and coordinated manner. There should also be equal access to healthcare for all. These goals dictate how the quality indicators will be measured.
The federal government aims to develop the quality of healthcare, including patient safety, in a systematic and structured way. This also includes preventing adverse events. The goal is to foster a safety culture where mistakes are openly addressed. Only when mistakes are no longer taboo can lessons be learned from them, as is the case in other sectors such as aviation. In an organisation with an established safety culture, mistakes and incidents always lead to an improvement of the system. This requires mistakes to be reported in a transparent manner and systematically recorded.
Vision and overriding objectives
The vision of the Quality strategy is: “Treatment and care are safe, effective and integrated; they take place with the patients on an equal footing.” Seven quality dimensions that are commonly used internationally apply to the strategy and should be understood as general objectives:
- Safe
- Effective
- Patient-centric
- Timely
- Efficient
- Equal access
- Integrated
The strategy has four high-priority quality dimensions as overriding objectives: safe, effective, patient-centric and integrated.
Areas for action
The implementation of the overriding objectives defines thematic priorities for the strategy in what are called “areas for action”. The five areas for action are divided into two categories and form the core of the strategy: the system-oriented and healthcare-oriented areas for action.
- The system-oriented areas for action: Culture, governance and evidence-based decision-making related to the system as a whole. They serve as a basis for the healthcare-oriented areas for action and should ensure that quality management can take place and be implemented systematically at all system levels.
- The healthcare-oriented areas for action: Patient-centricity and patient safety are directly incorporated in healthcare provision and primarily have an impact on the quality of healthcare.
Quality development objectives of the Federal Council
The Federal Council sets its quality development objectives on the basis of the quality strategy every four years. These objectives can be broken down according to the strategy's defined areas for action.
Annual objectives of the Federal Quality Commission (FQC)
The FQC operationalises the objectives of the Federal Council in its annual objectives.
Implementation of the Quality strategy
All stakeholders must ensure the operational implementation of measures and achievement of the objectives within their areas of responsibility.
Last modification 07.05.2024
Contact
Federal Office of Public Health FOPH
Health and Accident Insurance Directorate
Tariffs and Principles Division
Schwarzenburgstrasse 157
3003
Bern
Switzerland
Tel.
+41 58 462 37 23