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On November 28th the Second TOP 20 Hospitals Conference was held in the Madrid Casino, organised by Iasist with active collaboration from PWC Consulting and the support of ESADE and Diario Medico.

In the first part of the conference contributions were made by prestigious speakers on current aspects in the field of health services assessment.

Preceded by the presentation made by the speaker Prof. Joan Rodés, Director of Research of the Barcelona Clinic Hospital, first, Stephen Thornton, currently Executive Director of the PPS Foundation in the United Kingdom and ex-Director of the National Health Service Confederation made his contribution. Mr. Thornton talked about recent experiences on the subject of patient safety in medical health care, with a special mention of a case in Bristol, and a review of the initiatives that have been taken on this in the United Kingdom. During the debate it was discussed how professionals in British hospitals had received and adopted these initiatives aimed at improving medical care.

Mr. Javier Olave, Director of Diario Medico introduced the second speaker, Prof. Reinhard Busse, of the WHO European Observatory on Health Systems, who talked about conceptual measurements and the results of health evaluations in countries integrated into the WHO which had certainly been controversial.

A round table on the following question then took place: How do the financing bodies of the health system buy services from providers? The round table was moderated by Mr. Jose R. Rodríguez, a partner at PWC Consulting, taking part were the Hon. Dr. Francisco Sevilla, Health Minister of the Principality of Asturias, the Honourable, Sr. Iñaki Betolaza, Director of Finance and Contracting of the Basque Country Government Health Department, the Honourable, Dr. Marciano Gómez, Under-Secretary for the Valencia Health Agency of the Valencia Autonomous Government and Mr. Carlos Pérez, Director of the Sanitas Hospital Division. In the presentations questions, such as how Management Contracts with hospitals contribute to the improvement of efficiency and quality, the dilemma over competition and cooperation between providers, the accepted risk level in health centre management and the differences between health policies and buying services depending on ideologies.

Finally, and before moving on to the festive part of the conference, Dr. Mercè Casas, Managing Director of Iasist, presented the results of the 2001 TOP 20 Hospitals Programme, highlighting the contribution of the Scientific Committee as a forum for comparing the methods used, and the increased participation recorded this year, with a special mention for the private hospitals group established in this edition.

The most anticipated moment for the participants, the presenting of the awards to the year's Top Hospitals, was presided over by the Hon. Sr. Rubén Moreno, General Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs. On this occasion there were not twenty but twenty-four awards, due to the private hospitals group being set up. In the closing ceremony, Mr. Moreno highlighted the progressive introduction of the culture of comparing results in Spain as a tool for improvement.

After the conference, the Gala Dinner, the highlight of this annual event, was held in the Westin Palace Hotel.