Buurtzorg, a Dutch nationwide nursing organization, operates entirely using self-managing practices. Teams are fully self-organized, and the organization has developed a culture where these independent teams are supported by the back office. Their IT system was developed in an agile way to help…
Buurtzorg, a Dutch nationwide nursing organization, operates entirely using self-managing practices. Teams are fully self-organized, and the organization has developed a culture where these independent teams are supported by the back office. Their IT system was developed in an agile way to help teams deliver nursing care to their patients.
Ard Leferink, agile coach at Buurtzorg, spoke about the agile journey of Buurtzorg at the Agile Consortium Belgium 2017 conference. InfoQ is covering this conference with Q&As, summaries and articles.
The Netherlands has a system which provides medical care at home from trained nurses. General Practitioners (GPs) and hospital specialists can give an indication for the care needed for a patient. Patients get this care through local organizations where nurses are employed.
Buurtzorg was started by Jos de Blok in 2006. Working as a nurse, he felt that there were too many rules and too often managers were telling nurses what to do and how to do it, which prevented nurses from carrying out their work in an effective way. He also felt that this made medical care more expensive. He had a vision on how home nursing care could be done in a better way, by nurses working in self-organized teams.
Buurtzorg started with one team. There were people with different skills and roles within the team. Together the team members would be able to give the care that their patients need. Leferink worked as a consultant for Buurtzorg to help teams start up.
Teams are fully self organized. They plan and track the work that they do to deliver care to their patients, and they carry out the work. Teams also have their own education budget.
Every team has their own mobile phone. There wasn’t and isn’t a call center or central number at Buurtzorg, said Leferink.
