QUALITY IMPROVEMENT BY MEANS OF DIFFERENTIAL OCCUPATIONAL-HEALTH CARE- AN EXPERIMENT IN A REGIONAL OCCUPATIONAL-HEALTH CENTER

From a general policy of quality improvement, the regional Occupationa l Health Centre Eastern Gelderland has developed a method of company h ealth care based on the particular demands and needs of companies. A p rocedure of care 'made to measure' based on company and work character istics was designed. For one year, an experiment was carried out in se ven companies, to investigate if this 'differential care' is feasible, and if its quality is better than the traditional 'standard' form. Af ter the experiment, the companies' satisfaction proved to have increas ed. The influence of the Occupational Health Centre on working conditi ons was estimated more important than before. The increased satisfacti on is considered to be an indication of better quality of care, compar ed with the traditional 'standard' care. The differential approach app eared to be feasible. The method requires skills of professionals in t he field of planning, cooperation, estimating costs and negotiating.