prof.dr. Paul Robben

I graduated as a general practitioner at the University of Utrecht in 1978. I worked for some years as a GP in different practices and in a psychiatric department of a general hospital. After that I worked as a nursing home physician for two years before I changed to the ambulant psycho geriatric care for the elderly. I got my registration as social geriatrician in 1991. In this field I was also active in different professional associations and became director of the division of Old Age Psychiatry of Altrecht, an organization for mental health care with various branches in the center of the country. I received a PhD in Social Science in 2002 for a study in the origin and development of medical professions in geriatric care with Professors Giel Hutschemaekers and Paul Schnabel. From 2002 on I became inspector for mental health care at the Dutch Health Care Inspectorate and since 2005 director of the Knowledge Center of the Inspectorate. I started the evaluation program on the effectiveness of supervision of the Dutch Health Care Inspectorate and a similar program of the Council of Dutch Inspectorates. I have been appointed per November 1, 2009 as extraordinary professor in the effectiveness of supervision on the quality of health care on behalf of the Dutch Health Care Inspectorate. Since several years I am member of the board of the European Partnership for Supervisory Organizations in Health Services and Social Care (EPSO) and VIDE, the Dutch professional organization for inspectors and evaluators.
Projects
I study the effectiveness of the methods employed by the Health Care Inspectorate: phased supervision, theme-based supervision and incident supervision, as well as the supervision instruments used. The emphasis in my research lies on the mechanisms that lead to effective supervision as part of the regulation of health care. The goal is to improve the methods and instruments of supervision.

At this moment I am working on the effectiveness of:

• Thematic supervision: PhD student Frank Neefjes
• Incident supervision: PhD student Lonneke Behr
• Interinspectors variation: PhD student Saskia Tuijn
• Integrated Supervision of Youth Affairs: PhD student Suzanne Rutz
• The effectiveness of supervision in Healthcare: PhD student Sandra Oude Wesselink