Project 1: Hospitals in the Meuse-Rhine Euregion

Description:
A project commissioned by the Health Inspectorate, among others, is being carried out in co-operation with Maastricht Teaching Hospital (AZM) in the Limburg region. A number of other hospitals in the Belgian and German sections of the Meuse-Rhine Euregion will  also be involved in the project. Limburg was chosen because advanced forms of partnership are already in place there, with towns including Aix-la-Chapelle, Genk and Tongeren, and experience has therefore been gained with (the limitations of) cross-border alliances and supervision.
EURinSPECT’s aim with this project is to identify the possibilities for more effective and efficient cross-border supervision. EURinSPECT conducts research in this field (cost assessment), leading to proposals for improvement (rules and agreements) with the various parties concerned. Three different parties are involved in each project: supervisory authorities, regulators and the private sector (in this case, hospitals).
 This project focuses not only on regional co-operation within Limburg, but also, in particular, on the possibilities for facilitating the elimination of constraints to cross-border co-operation and the matching of standards via the EU and the relevant Member States (e.g. through the influence of the EU Directive currently in preparation). The project therefore involves not only the hospitals, but also the relevant Member States and the EU.
The project also aims for co-ordination with the regional partnership between the Ministry of the Interior and the regional administrators in the Euregions (the Meuse-Rhine Euregion). The Netherlands Care Authority (NZa) has also indicated that it is keen to become involved in, and to contribute to the research.
The involvement in the project of health insurance companies with cross-border activities may also be necessary or helpful. If so, they will be invited to take part in the project studies.

Potential outcomes of the project include:
•    Identification of constraints to cross-border partnerships,
•    Mutual recognition of assessment criteria and working protocols of inspectorates within Europe (starting with a number of Member States),
•    Removal of (legal) constraints to improved co-operation between supervisory authorities,
•    Matching of supervisory standards for cross-border activities in hospitals in the various Member States,
•    Removal of constraints to exchanges of patients and medical staff,
•    Promoting competition and improving quality of care in border regions through cross-border alliances or cross-border activities by hospitals and/or insurers,
•    Matching of supervisory practices and application of best practices by supervisory authorities,
•    Special attention to Council Directive 93/42/EEC concerning medical devices, and to other European rules.

Method:
Measurement of the administrative and supervisory costs in the Meuse-Rhine Euregion (Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands) of the hospitals involved, with a special focus on bottlenecks in practice and on potential points for attention in the following fields:
•    Better regulation and reduction of the administrative burden,
•    Better lawmaking, and
•    Determining differences between Member States in supervision and calculation of the costs of these differences.

PROJECT 2 >>>