The PATH project in eight European countries: an evaluation

This paper's aim is to evaluate the perceived impact and the enabling factors and barriers experienced by hospital staff participating in an international hospital performance measurement project focused on internal quality improvement.

Semi-structured interviews involving international hospital performance measurement project coordinators, including 140 hospitals from eight European countries (Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia). Inductively analyzing the interview transcripts was carried out using the grounded theory approach.

Even when public reporting is absent, the project was perceived as having stimulated performance measurement and quality improvement initiatives in participating hospitals. Attention should be paid to leadership/ownership, context, content (project intrinsic features) and processes supporting elements.

Generalizing the findings is limited by the study's small sample size. Possible implications for the WHO European Regional Office and for participating hospitals would be to assess hospital preparedness to participate in the PATH project, depending on context, process and structural elements; and enhance performance and practice benchmarking through suggested approaches.

This research gathered rich and unique material related to an international performance measurement project. It derived actionable findings.