Developments in professional quality assurance towards quality improvement: some examples of peer review in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

This study will explore new developments in three clinical peer review programmes in the UK and the visitatie programme in The Netherlands and how these programmes can be linked, in the future, with other quality systems. The information about the English peer review programmes was gathered by conducting four structured interviews with the programme coordinators (see Acknowledgements). Information about the Dutch visitatie programme was gathered by the author working with different visitatie programmes at the Dutch National Institute for Quality Improvement. Comparing new developments in the models of the Institute for Standardization of Organizations and the European Foundation for Quality Management, common changes are identified which seem to reflect elements viewed internationally as necessary in quality improvement. This study will examine if and how these elements are or will be included in the clinical peer review programmes in the UK and in visitatie in The Netherlands.