National/regional health promoting hospitals network coordinators : report on the fourth workshop, Darmstadt, Germany, 29 April 1998

Abstract

This Fourth Workshop was the first to be held following the shift from the pilot Health Promoting Hospitals (‎HPH)‎ projects to the national/regional networks within the new framework of the Vienna Recommendations on Health Promoting Hospitals. The participants in the meeting were the national/regional HPH network coordinators. The first part of the Workshop focused on the development of the networks and their coordination at international level. Each coordinator made a short presentation on the development of the network and reported on successes and failures. Further, the HPH database was presented, and suggestions for its optimal use were discussed. The second part of the meeting was devoted to a discussion of evaluation systems and strategies for HPH activities, based on the reports prepared by the network coordinators. An analysis of the strategies demonstrated that evaluations are mainly carried out at hospital level and that some coordinators experience great difficulties in applying evaluation methods. The meeting concluded with some remarks in relation to the membership, the use of the database, and the further development of the network