About NIAZ

Participation in the NIAZ accreditation program is on a voluntary basis. It always starts with a request by the individual healthcare organisation. The health care organisation signs a general Accreditation Agreement stating rights and obligations of all parties concerned. Click here to consult the general Accreditation Agreement. 

The survey procedure is performed using standards and assessment procedures that are published beforehand. These are disclosed through the NIAZ website. The NIAZ General Quality Standard for Healthcare Organisations is forged on the template of the INK model, which in itself is the Dutch version of the model of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM). Its content is mostly derived from standards that are developed by experts within the healthcare field.

NIAZ on its website publishes the accreditation status of the healthcare organisations that participate in its program, even if they did not pass the test for being accredited or continuing their accreditation status.

NIAZ is a member of the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua). NIAZ itself is accredited by this organisation for all three possible standards (organisation, standards, training).

For Healthcare, by healthcare

NIAZ was founded in 1998 by organisations of healthcare professionals and healthcare organisations. The predecessor originated in 1989 when the PACE Foundation was founded in order to prepare for a healthcare-wide institute for accreditation. This initiative was taken by the International Health Development Foundation - a cooperation of industries, universities and healthcare - and eight hospitals (four general hospitals and four university centers). Because of these 'hospital roots' NIAZ still works predominantly in hospitals, but ever more other healthcare organisations opt for the NIAZ program.

Assessing healthcare requires knowledge of healthcare. Therefore NIAZ uses a system of peer review, meaning that surveying is done by people who themselves are actually working in the healthcare field. People who are knowledgeable about what it is really about in healthcare and who know to distinguish between the vital few and the trivial many. The surveyors are experienced senior health care workers (senior management, medical specialists, nurses, other professions), who have had an additional training as a surveyor. NIAZ has strict rules for surveyors not having (had) ties with the institution they survey. This way NIAZ combines maximum expertise with objectivity. Medio 2010 NIAZ has 250+ trained surveyors, about 50 of whom are from Belgium (Flanders) and 5 from Surinam.

Assurance and improvement

NIAZ believes that survey activities must inspire the people in the organisation and stimulate quality improvement. It should as little as possible add to bureaucratic behaviour. The ultimate goal is better healthcare, not rearranging the bookshelves. Healthcare institutions and their associates need room to work well. There are usually lots of different ways to achieve that. Therefore the choice for NIAZ accreditation does not imply the choice for any particular 'system'. Healthcare organisations are free in that, provided they in the end meet NIAZ' standards. NIAZ evaluates healthcare institutions as little as possible on rigid detailed standards and as much as possible on 'band widths'. Does evaluate on 'What' not on 'How'. With regard to risk-critical issues, where the safety of healthcare is at stake, NIAZ is strict in its judgement.

NIAZ performs standards development and surveying activities. NIAZ sees those as links in a continuous circle of improvement that therefore belong in one organisation. Knowledge and experience generated whilst performing surveys remain available as input for a new phase of standards development. Knowledge generated in developing standards provides the know how during survey processes in order to assess not only in accordance with the (dead) letter of the standards but with its deeper meaning.

Sphere of activity

NIAZ is a healthcare-wide institute, working for all healthcare sectors, inspired by what is common to all care, led by what is important to healthcare consumers and other relevant third parties and with respect for the particular characteristics of each healthcare sector.

NIAZ works for healthcare organisations in the Dutch speaking countries. To these belong the Netherlands, Belgium (Flanders), Aruba, the Netherlands Antilles and Surinam. NIAZ sees this working in different countries as an impuls for being a knowledge institution.

Public domain

NIAZ works not for profit and without government grants. The costs of the program are covered by the contribution of the healthcare organisations that participate in its program. These contributions are based on the size and complexity of the organisation and are published on the NIAZ website. All NIAZ materials are accessible for free to any citizen and to any institution and they may freely be used for any reasonable purpose. This low threshold of disclosure of knowledge best contributes to the ultimate goal: better healthcare. Organisations that as their business survey other organisations for a fee are asked for a contribution in the development costs of NIAZ.

For healthcare consumers NIAZ has a regulation for complaints about the accredited healthcare organisations or about NIAZ itself.

The value of accreditation

Accreditation is an important but not the only quality instrument. Other entries are e.g. quality indicators ('past results') and specifications of consumers and healthcare insurers. Accreditation seeks to add value in two respects. One, offering confidence in a reproducible quality level ('future expectations'). Second, judging quality aspects that are essential to third parties bus as such can not be judged by them.

NIAZ assesses whether an organisation has robustly organised itself. This does not imply that in that organisation nothing can go wrong. Healthcare will remain in the hands of fallible people using fallible technology. The NIAZ accreditation therefore does not offer a guarantee for error free care. NIAZ does seek to exclude structural shortcomings. Furthermore at present NIAZ does not assess the quality of the individual healthcare professionals, but limits itself to checking whether the institution has an adequate management of this.