The Hph - an Integrated Health Promotion Service in a Health Promoting Organisation: towards an Economic Evaluation

Addressing the urgent need for information regarding ways of integrating health promotion into the hospital services that helps make the best of scarce resources is essential in the current context of Corporate and Clinical Governance. With this in mind, the paper uses the example of how one hospital Trust implemented the WHO HPH's concept and developed an on site, in-house Centre for Health Promoting Hospitals to steer, guide and ensure the successful implementation of the three year pilot project (BHRV 1997). The paper offers a practical and conceptual framework for evaluating existing health promotion services in all settings, detecting inefficiencies, avoiding common pitfalls, and planning improvements that build on the many lessons from past experiences for developing and promoting health promoting health services and organisations.