Health Promoting Hospital: A Noble Concept

Abstract

Settings based approach to health promotion was founded in order to improve people’s health where they spend most of their time: in organizations, and it acknowledges that behavioural changes are only possible and stable if they are integrated into everyday life and correspond with concurrent habits and existing cultures. One of the key strategies identified in the Ottawa Charter was re-orientation of health services. Hospitals provide considerable opportunity to engage a broad section of the community through patients and their family members as well as their own staff and personnel.  The WHO Regional Office for Europe started the first international consultations in 1988, followed by the European Pilot Hospital Project in 1993, in 20 partner hospitals from 11 European Countries. WHO Health Promoting Hospital movement focuses on four areas: promoting the health of patients, promoting the health of staff, changing the organization to a health promoting setting, and promoting the health of the community in the catchment area of the hospital.

The International Network of Health Promoting Hospitals (HPH) acts as a network of networks linking all national/regional networks. In total, it consists of 38 National / Regional HPH Networks, collaborating to reorient health care towards active promotion of health, with 800 hospital and health service members in more than 40 countries. Health promoting hospital concept in India is very new and till date, only three hospitals are at various stages of being developed as HPH. However this initiative should evolve from the project mode to the programme mode.