Towards evidence based supervision. Research into the effects of supervision by the Dutch Health Care Inspectorate

In recent decades there has been an increase in the extent of health care super-vision and society’s interest in this subject. The introduction of market forces, privatisation and increasing transparency in health care play a role in this, as does the need to control risks and prevent any incidents. The Dutch Health Care Inspectorate (IGZ) supervises the implementation of twenty-five laws by eight hundred thousand care providers and three thousand institutions. They have to provide supervision which enables citizens to have confidence in the quality of health care, without doing so in such a way that places an unnecessary inspection burden on institutions.