Buurtzorg - Community Nursing

Buurtzorg is a community nursing organization in the Netherlands. It started small, focused on the needs of the professional care team and the people they support. It uses a self-organizing model that puts the local team in charge of the care and how they run the team to provide that care.

A trio of remarkable outcomes resulted from this.

1. Extremely satisfied patients with excellent outcomes and reduced total costs (40% below the expected cost). 
2. Extremely satisfied workers. Buurtzorg was the Employer of the Year in 2011 and 2012 in the Netherlands.
3. Explosive growth, from the first team of 4 nurses in 2006 to 8,000 in 2014. Buurtzorg now provides 80% of the community nursing services in the Netherlands. This has occurred with almost no corporate overhead (a central staff of 45 and 15 team coaches).

The shared services include

• An electronic health record
• A social network
• A team dashboard

There are references to some outsourced services, such as payroll and legal. I'd like to know more.

Here are links about Buurtzorg.

Buurtzorg: www.buurtzorgnederland.com/ Translate this page

Buurztorg USA: http://buurtzorgusa.org/about.html

The Queen's Nursing Institute (2014 blogs):

http://theqni.tumblr.com/post/94532689636/buurtzorg-whats-it-all-about

http://theqni.tumblr.com/post/97878349101/buurtzorg-nurse-riekje-writes-about-setting-up-a-new

Australian Aging Agenda (2014): http://www.australianageingagenda.com.au/2014/07/30/dutch-model-offers-alternative-approach-home-care/

KPMG Case Study (2010): http://www.kpmg.com/global/en/issuesandinsights/articlespublications/value-walks/pages/netherlands.aspx

I came across Buurtzorg in a book on a new organizational paradigm (Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux). A great book that needs its own entry... something for another day.