The International Conference on Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services (HPH) is the main event of the international HPH network. It is a forum of learning and exchange on health promotion in and by health services for health practitioners, consultants, scientists and politicians, with an average of 500 delegates each year. Topic: The Contribution of Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services to Health Equity When? NOVEMBER 6-8, 2024 Where? INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTER, HIROSHIMA, JAPAN Abstract submission Open until 15th of May. Click here to submit. Conference website Click here for more information on the conference.

Climate change is having far-reaching impacts on global health, causing harm and suffering on a massive scale. Despite this growing crisis, new fossil fuel projects and rising greenhouse gas emissions persist.

To combat this climate health emergency, we must put an end to the proliferation of fossil fuels. The World Health Organization has called for a ‘Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty’ and an end to fossil fuel subsidies.

We stand with the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) and various health professional organizations, representing 3 million health professionals worldwide, in supporting these critical calls.

Furthermore, WONCA has recently held a press conference at the #WONCA23 Conference in Sydney, Australia, publicly launching the call for world leaders to prioritize health in the face of the climate emergency.

For further read: WONCA Call to Global Leaders

The 32nd Meeting of the HPH General Assembly took place online on May 5th. HPH Coordinators, Task Force Leaders, single members, the International HPH Secretariat and Conference Secretariat, met to discuss many exciting topics such as plans for the upcoming 29th International Conference on Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services in Vienna, Austria and next year’s conference, which will be held by the Japan HPH Network in Hiroshima, Japan!

The Task Force on HPH & Environment, led by Dr. Ming-Nan Lin, and the Working Group on Health Literate Health Care Organizations, now led by Dr. Peter Nowak, presented on their group’s work and Coordinators Marianne Hochet (French HPH Network) and Dr. Cristina Aguzzoli (Coordinator of the Italian HPH Networks) reported on recent national meetings in their respective countries.

Overall, 16 countries were represented during the meeting, each contributing a unique perspective towards the implementation of health promotion into the hospital/ health service setting.

Read the full meeting report here.

 

Our 2022 annual report is out! See what steps we took towards operationalizing our vision and read the full report here!

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Pelikan 

1940 – 2023 

 It is with immense gratitude that we remember the life and career of Prof. Dr. Jürgen Pelikan, a pioneering figure in the establishment of HPH, a true visionary, leader, and mentor.  

Jürgen’s impact in the establishment of HPH was significant and he was instrumental in the network’s growth and success. As a prolific author, with numerous publications on health literacy, HPH, and health promotion, Jürgen’s insights have influenced and inspired many people in the field.   

He has made a lasting impact on the HPH community, and his legacy will continue to live on through the many friends, students, and colleagues he inspired. The International HPH Network will honor his memory by continuing to carry on his work for years to come.  

We would like to begin 2023 by welcoming two new and one returning HPH Governance Board member:

Learn more about Marianne Hochet, Ming-Nan Lin and Nina Peränen here!

Out with a bang!

We closed 2022 with the 31st Meeting of the HPH General Assembly. Highlights include the election of three new Governance Board members (who we’ll introduce soon), a presentation from Dr. Ming-Nan Lin of our Task Force on HPH and Environment, three inspiring presentations of best practice from Gabriella Szörényiné Ványi from the Somogy Country Moritz Kaposi Teaching Hospital in Hungary, Daniela Rojatz from the Austrian National Public Health Institute, and from Giulio Fornero of the HPH Network in Piemonte, Italy.

The HPH eCommunity platform was unveiled, which will provide our members with the opportunity to view and exchange best practice examples, articles, and tools related to implementing the 2020 Standards for Health Promoting Hospitals & Health Services.

The meeting closed with an official announcement of the location for the 29th International Conference on Health Promoting Hospitals & Health Services in Vienna, Austria in 2023! The hybrid format conference will be held from 20 -22 September 2023- save the date! More information can be found on the conference website, here.

We would like to thank Heli Hätönen (Finland), Cristina Iniesta-Blasco (Catalonia, Spain), and Nicholas Bonnet (France) for their service as Governance Board members and for contributing their expertise towards the development of the International HPH Network.

The full General Assembly meeting report as well as other important documents can be found in the HPH Library.

Pictured L-R from top: Giulio Fornero (Italy), Keriin Katsaros (Germany/International HPH Secretariat), Bożena Walewska-Zielecka (Poland), Birgit Metzler Austria/ International Conference Secretariat), Oliver Groene (Germany/International HPH Secretariat), Ralph Harlid (Sweden), Diane Levin-Zamir (Israel), Ming-Nan Lin (Taiwan), Margareta Kristenson (Sweden), Mitsuhiko Funakoshi (Japan), Lina Twisselmann (Germany/International HPH Secretariat), Ilaria Simonelli (Italy), Gladys Wong (Singapore), Gabriella Szörényiné Ványi (Hungary), Stefano Visintin (Italy), Sally Fawkes (Australia)

Climate change is increasingly recognized as the greatest threat to future human health. Being responsible for 5.2% of global greenhouse emissions, the healthcare sector has a role to play in addressing the sustainability challenges at the organizational operational and strategic levels.

The International Hospital Federation’s (IHF) statement on addressing climate change as an integral part of healthcare delivery calls the Federation’s partner organizations to recognize this issue and accelerate the collective action at the global level. At the International Network of Health Promoting Hospitals & Health Services, we join our voice to the IHF’s and encourage you to do the same.

Read the statement here: https://www.ihf-fih.org/about/statement-on-sustainability/

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We are excited to announce the formation of a new Task Force on Health Promoting Built Environment (HPBE). This new Task Force, led by Elke Miedema PhD, will collect, select, and share knowledge and experience on building design for Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services. Thus, the design of buildings for healthcare which stimulates the health of patients, staff, relatives, communities and the planet, besides the traditional curative practices. The group will work to understand how health promotion is related to building design and how the design of healthcare buildings can support the incorporation of health promotion in hospitals and healthcare.

Read more about this task force on the group’s page here: https://www.hphnet.org/tf-hph-hpbe/

Share with your networks on Twitter and LinkedIn!

We are happy to announce the publication of the Handbook of Settings-Based Health Promotion by Springer. The abstract for Chapter 7 on Health-Promoting Hospitals, written by Jürgen M. Pelikan, Birgit Metzler, and Peter Nowak can be seen below.

Abstract (via Springer):

Health-Promoting Hospitals (HPH) as a concept, a project, a network, and a movement has its roots in the Ottawa Charter (WHO, Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, 1986). With its call for “reorienting health services,” the Ottawa Charter implicitly diagnosed that health services had a too-narrow mandate and mission on treatment of diseases, and therefore were in need of reform. Health promotion philosophy offered a widening of the understanding of health care toward disease prevention, health protection, and health promotion that goes beyond the hospital’s focus on cure and care. And that not just for patients’ health gain, but also for staff’s health and the health of the residents in the community a hospital serves. Yet, a concrete and comprehensive concept for hospitals as a health-promoting setting and for strategies to implement this concept into already existing hospital structures, cultures, and processes had to be developed and piloted, before a Network of Health-Promoting Hospitals could be established.

Along three parts, this chapter first reconstructs and describes the historical development of HPH, second reflects on how successful HPH has been so far in terms of its reproduction and production, and third concludes with some thoughts on the future of HPH and next steps.

Citation:

Pelikan, J.M., Metzler, B., Nowak, P. (2022). Health-Promoting Hospitals. In: Kokko, S., Baybutt, M. (eds) Handbook of Settings-Based Health Promotion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95856-5_7

The 30th meeting of the HPH General Assembly on June 1st, 2022, was a great success. The international culture of the network was represented with participants from 18 different countries in attendance: Australia, Austria, China, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, and Sweden! Biannual General Assembly meetings provide the International Secretariat, Conference Secretariat, Governance Board Members, National and Regional HPH Coordinators, Task Force and Working Group Leaders and single HPH members with the opportunity to come together and discuss important network developments.

Highlights from the meeting include:

• The formation of the new Task Force on Health Promoting Built Environment, led by Elke Miedema PhD, which will focus on orienting the building design of healthcare facilities towards designs that support health and the formation of a Governance and Policy Working Group, led by Dr. Sally Fawkes, that will focus on supporting HPH network advocacy activities.
• Presentations from two HPH members in Israel: Adi Baumgarten MScPT of the the Herzfeld Geriatric Rehabilitation Medical Center and Dr. Yaron Watts, MD of the Loewenstein Rehabilitation Medical Center showcased how they implemented innovative health promotion programs at their organizations which had positive outcomes for patients, staff, and the community.
• The 2020 Standards for Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services have now been translated into 11 languages (and counting)! We would like to thank and congratulate our Networks and members who helped us reach this milestone. We are extremely proud to disseminate the many years of knowledge and experience reflected in this work around the globe. See all translations here. 
• Plans for collaborative development of the HPH eCommunity, which will facilitate the exchange of best practice examples, Task Force and Working Group outputs, articles, and tools related to each of the 2020 Standards for Health Promoting Hospitals & Health Services.

The 31st Meeting of the HPH General Assembly is planned for November 2022.

Pictured L-R from top: Margareta Kristenson (Sweden), Keriin Katsaros (International HPH Secretariat/Germany), Bożena Walewska-Zielecka (Poland), Ming-Nan Lin (Taiwan), Giulio Fornero (Italy), Oliver Groene (International HPH Secretariat/Germany), Astrid Loidolt (Austria), Diane Levin-Zamir (Israel), Ralph Harlid (Sweden), Yaron Watts (Israel), Adi Baumgarten (Israel), Cristina Aguzzoli (Italy), Jaekyung Lee (Korea), Róza Ádány (Hungary), Cristina Iniesta (Spain), Gladys Wong (Singapore), Marianne Hochet France), Gabriella Szörényiné Ványi (Hungary), Elke Miedema (Netherlands/Sweden), Tatiana Vader (Israel), Nina Peränen (Finland) Not Pictured: Sally Fawkes (Australia), Alan Siu (Hong Kong), Mitsuhiko Funakoshi (Japan), Zou Yanhui (China)

 

Dear HPH Community,

The first HPH annual report is here! We are very excited to present our work and achievements for 2021 to members and supporters of the International Network of Health Promoting Hospitals & Health Services. The report is organized based on three overarching goals that are defined in the Global HPH Strategy 2021-2025.

What else is in the report?

• Statements from our Chair and CEO
• The new definition of HPH
• a Detailed overview of our progress made in 2021
• Links to the new HPH Brochure
• Plans for 2022!

 

Click here to read the full report!

 

The International Network of Health Promoting Hospitals & Health Services (HPH) and Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) are proud to announce a new strategic partnership in which we have joined forces to improve healthcare delivery by well managed hospitals to optimize health gain for patients, staff, and the community. With a common set of goals, our partnership will work towards sharing and developing new knowledge, skills, and resources for hospitals and health services to adapt practices that reduce their environmental footprints.

“Through our partnership with Health Care Without Harm we will create a synergy to amplify the common goals of our networks.  We know Healthcare without Harm to be a global leader in recognizing and developing tools for healthcare services to support environmental health. With the release of our 2020 Standards, our partnership will provide our 600+ members with the tools needed to address the climate crisis and to promote health in their local community, by adopting best practices on the path towards net-zero emission health care.”

Dr. Oliver Groene, CEO of the International HPH Network

“It becomes increasingly evident that the health and wellbeing of people and their communities rests on the provision of a high quality natural environment. Hospitals and health services can show leadership by taking action to improve environmental quality for the good of patients, staff and the wider population. By joining forces with HPH we hope to advance environmental and human health more rapidly across an expanding network of hospitals and care providers, and make sustainability a mainstay of the way healthcare is delivered across the world”

William Clark, Executive Director of Health Care Without Harm Europe

About the International HPH Network

HPH’s mission is to work as a global leader, advocate, innovator, researcher, and trusted partner to accelerate the reorientation of health systems and services towards improving health, wellbeing, and health equity outcomes for patients and those who care for them, staff, and populations served, and to support sustainable societies. HPH’s vision is for hospitals and health services to orient their governance models, structures, processes, and culture to optimize health gains of patients, staff and populations served and to support sustainable societies.

Follow HPH on Twitter and LinkedIn!

About Health Care Without Harm

HCWH’s mission is to transform healthcare worldwide so that it reduces its environmental footprint, becomes a community anchor for sustainability and a leader in the global movement for environmental health and justice.  HCWH is a network of thousands of hospitals, healthcare leaders and healthcare professionals, with members across the globe. From individuals championing sustainability in their workplaces to large hospitals pushing for sustainable practices, we stand side-by-side, sharing insights, inspiration, and innovation – and transforming how our healthcare systems work.

Follow HCWH on Twitter and LinkedIn!

The 29th Meeting of the HPH General Assembly met on November 19th, 2021 and concluded with National and Regional HPH Coordinators and participants from Australia, Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Hungary, Japan, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and Taiwan!

What was discussed? Highlights include:

• completed self- assessment forms and complementary tools for the 2020 Standards for Health Promoting Hospitals & Health Services (available soon online)
• presentations from our Task Force on HPH and Environment (led by Dr. Ming-Nan Lin)  and our Working Group on Health Literate Healthcare Organizations (led by Prof. Jürgen Pelikan)
• discussions about our conference location chosen for the 2022 International HPH Conference

We would also like to extend a warm welcome to our newly-elected Governance Board Member, Dr. Ralph Harlid, MD PhD (Sweden). You can read more about Dr. Harlid and the rest of our Governance Board here.

What’s the best way to keep up with what we’re doing? Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter!

Dr. Oliver Groene, CEO of the International Network of Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services, will speak on behalf of HPH in a parallel session at the International Hospital Federation’s 44th World Hospital Congress from 8-11 November in Barcelona, Spain.

During the session, How COVID-19 impacted universal health care: perspectives from global NGOs, major international NGOs will explore how the spread of COVID-19 has affected efforts to increase universal healthcare services and increased existing inequalities in healthcare delivery across the globe.

The 44th World Hospital Congress is an international gathering of leaders of hospitals, health services, and other healthcare organizations to discuss key drivers of policy, management, financial trends, and solutions.

Join us! For a detailed program and registration information, follow this link:

https://worldhospitalcongress.org/

In remembrance of Prof. Johannes Vang (03.01.1931 – 15.05.2021) the HPH community reflects on his significant contributions towards initiating the International and Swedish HPH Networks:

 

Dr. Oliver Groene, CEO of the International HPH Secretariat:

I had the privilege to meet Prof Vang during my appointment at WHO, where I worked as a young professional and – amongst other things – was responsible for the coordination of the International Network of Health Promoting Hospitals. I remember my discussion with Prof Vang still quite lucidly, meeting him in the context of a conference on health promotion. We talked about various research themes in relation to the development of standards for health promoting hospitals and Prof Vang was very supportive of the work that we were conducting then at WHO. As a senior academic he grasped every nuance of my plans in a split-second and rather than responding to my questions directly, he directed me in the best style of Socrates to the broader themes underpinning my ideas, and thus had an important impact on my thinking. Even twenty years later I still remember some of the questions that Prof Vang encouraged me to reflect on. Two of these are still extremely relevant today. The first point was the observation that most hospital performance statistics were no different if all patients died after discharge! The main reflection here was that, whilst progress in medical science has been remarkable in the last twenty years, hospitals – and most professionals working in hospitals – are still very much focused on processes that cause disease, rather than those that create health, and that hospitals have little impact over what happens with a person after he/she leaves the building. We now know that a huge amount of waste in health care is associated with the lack of prevention, lack of health orientation and highly fragmented care delivery. This observation has taken me to conduct an international comprehensive hospital performance assessment programme whilst at WHO and to continue an academic career in health services research using data-base linked national audits to investigate quality-of-care pathways. The second observation, and perhaps an implication causally linked to the first, is that in order to assess health care performance we should also ask patients through the rating of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures. This is again an idea that has become a very topical discussion in health services, both in the research context but also in implementation and indeed in the broader health care industry. The idea of assessing the quality through PROMs is fascinating and I am delighted that I can take this idea forward in a current international study with the OECD on the assessment of over 20 country health systems using a combination of PROM and PREMs (patient-experience measures). I am sure that Prof Vang “planted” numerous ideas in young researchers´ and managers´  brains which  provide a rich heritage to his work and continue to inform research, improve practice and most importantly have an impact on the lives of the people working in health care settings, or recovering from illness. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to meet Prof Vang.

Mila García-Barbero:

When I arrived in Copenhagen in 1991 Johannes was in charge of hospitals and as I was the technical officer for Human Resources Development, our lives only cross in the corridors of the office,  but nevertheless his presence was noticeable. He radiates security, personality, and knowledge. He was what we would define as a gentleman.

We started working together when I became the Regional Adviser of Health Care Services which included primary care and hospitals. His knowledge on the field contributed to the support of the programmes and the development of the hospital policies in Europe which were very much needed with the collapse of the USSR.  We did not agree all the time, but always reached an agreement based in the and analysis of the situation and what we thought was best for the project or the country, his Ideas and points of view were always enlightening. The time has given him the reason on his innovative ideas.

He was a great professional and a great person.  It was an honor to know and work with him.

 

Please contact the International Secretariat at info@hphnet.org if you would like to make a contribution to this page.

Click here to read more about the development of the HPH Network and Prof. Vang’s contributions.

The call for abstracts is open for the 28th International Conference on Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services. Topics within this year’s confernce theme,” Development of health-oriented health care management systems,” as well as those related to the new 2020 Standards for Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services and those related to the HPH Task Forces and Working Groups are welcomed.

The deadline for abstract submission is May 16, 2021, 6 p.m. CET. Submitters will be informed about the acceptance of their abstracts until August 16, 2021.

Cick here for more information and to visit the conference website

The International Network of Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services joins the International Hospital Federation in recognizing extraordinary hospitals, heath service providers and healthcare workers who have gone beyond the call of duty amid the coronavirus pandemic. Special recognition is being given to over 100 hospitals from 28 countries who have shown agility and initiative despite facing this extreme challenge.

Among these hospitals include the Manila Doctors Hospital in the Philippines who trained their healthcare works in Filipino Sign language to make sure that the deaf community could overcome communication barriers despite wearing masks. Click here to view the full list of recognized organizations and read more about their innovative solutions to fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

Read the full statement here.

 

HPH Networks in the Baltic Sea Region had a very productive (virtual) meeting with members from  Sweden, Estonia, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Finland, and Norway. Members exchanged best practice and ideas for further collaboation opportunities.

A highlight was a keynote speech given by Dr. Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, from WHO-Euro in which attendees learned about the restructuring of the WHO-Euro’s European programme of work, four priorities guiding activities for the next five years, and the hospital and health services’ roles in these actions.

Thank you to the Finnish HPH Network for hosting the meeting and for making all presentations available on their website!

To view these, please follow the link:

https://www.steso.fi/cooperation-between-hph-networks-8.-9.10-materials

The International Network of Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services and Planetree International participated in a ‘pop-up’ coalition of over 60 organizations to preserve family presence during pandemics. The international group represented patient and long-term care advocates, quality and safety professions, and global healthcare policy makers. To view the guidelines and read the full statement, follow this link:

HPH Planetree Joint Statement on Preserving Family Presence During a Pandemic

Let’s get connected!

To stay up to date on our activities and hear about events and information we promote,search for our handle: @hphnetwork

or click here to go directly to our Twitter feed.

 

The HPH General Assembly has requested to revise the HPH Standards. Until now, important progress has been made in reviewing the different HPH standard sets available and moving towards the formulation of a set of ‘umbrella’ standards, which will be launched at the next HPH conference in Seoul, Republic of Korea. The original HPH standards have had a major impact on the HPH network and have been very positively received by external partners (scientific associations, health authorities, researchers, professional bodies). The HPH expects the new ‘umbrella’ HPH standards to be even more impactful and serve as a yardstick for HPH implementation as part of the new Global HPH Strategy. During the General Assembly a beta version of the first modules for this new international initiative will be presented, which is also aimed to link to national/regional activities and different languages.

To foster learning opportunities, the International HPH Network will set up an eLearning-Platform. The aim is to create engaging content through audio-visuals and make learning materials available to all members.

The HPH eLearning programme will be aligned with the new HPH strategy and umbrella standards and reflect the global diversity of the network.

More information about the HPH eLearning programme will be presented at this years International HPH Conference in Seoul.

Congratulations to the winners of the 2019 HPH Awards!