Custom app for recording indicators on the ward
A quality indicator is a count of care that has already been provided. In most hospitals that count is made in the spring, by people who were not present, from records written for a different purpose. What the guide asks for is sometimes recorded there and sometimes not.
How submission is arranged
The obligation is set out in Article 11i, paragraph 2 of the Quality, Complaints and Disputes (Healthcare) Act: care providers report on the quality of care provided, based on the measurement instruments in the public register of the Dutch Healthcare Institute. The same article names the purposes: information for clients to make choices, and supervision by the Inspectorate. Until 1 July 2021 this task was set out in the Health Insurance Act.
The route runs through a data intermediary: Dutch Hospital Data for members of the NVZ and NFU, Desan for members of the ZKN. In that portal indicators are entered, checked and approved, and only go through after the board of directors has signed off. For reporting year 2025 they had to reach the Dutch Healthcare Institute by 1 May 2026 at the latest, and no extension will be granted.
Behind that single date lies a chain of shorter ones. At DHD the submission window for that reporting year was open from 3 February to 27 March 2026, and the portal closed on 15 April. Each set comes with a guide that gives, per indicator, the definition, the measurement instruction, the measurement period and the source. Anyone who starts collecting in February will only read that guide once the care has long since been provided.
How we build this
An indicator is not a reporting requirement but an observation. What has been seen on the ward can be recorded there; what you pull from a file in March is an after-the-fact reading.
Definition, measurement instruction, measurement period and source for each indicator. That determines which field on the ward is completed and at what moment.
A short record made during the care itself, rather than a form filled in afterwards. That way it shows what actually happened.
A counter that lags behind its denominator is a task in October and a problem in March.
Submissions run through your intermediary's portal. We make sure every figure there can be traced back to the records underneath it.
What the app does in practice
The record kept at the point of care carries the whole. What you add beyond that depends on the number of sets and on what your file already contains.
The indicator question at the point of treatment
A brief question asked during care, with only the fields the guide requires. That is quite different from a form completed a quarter later.
The guide alongside the question
The definition, measurement instructions and source sit with the indicator itself. Whoever completes it can see which version applies to this reporting year.
Gaps shown clearly
For each indicator, you can see which cases still lack a record. In the autumn that is a list; in April, a reconstruction.
Submission calendar in the system
For each set: the measurement period, the submission period and the closing date. As there are no extensions, that date should not have to live in someone's head.
Works on the ward
In an operating theatre or at a patient's home, coverage drops away. What is recorded there is kept locally and synchronises later.
Linking to what already exists
Many indicators can partly be filled from your existing systems. We retrieve that through integrations, so the department only enters what isn't recorded anywhere else.
Who we build for
The number of sets, and how far they can be completed from the file, varies greatly. Four situations.
General hospitals
A quality department that assigns a lead for each set and goes round the house in spring. The gain lies in what is already settled by then. See also app development for healthcare.
University medical centres and top clinical centres
More sets, more records and more specialties, each accustomed to its own definitions. Here the guide alongside the question carries more weight than the question itself.
Clinics with multiple locations
The same indicator is counted slightly differently in three places. A single record makes the figures add up, which is also what an internal audit checks.
Quality officers and advisers
You guide several providers through the same questionnaire. One record per client saves rebuilding the same overview each time, alongside the quality manual.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →Technology and integrations
Indicator sets change from one reporting year to the next, and a guide receives a new version. Everything concerning indicators, definitions and submission dates should be configurable and kept with its history.
Why Appfront
The count begins at the point of care
We attach the indicator question to the treatment itself. What emerges from a file in March is a reconstruction by someone who was not there.
The closing date allows no extensions
The portal closes for all providers in a sector at the same moment. We set the measurement period and closing date for each set in the system.
A figure must be traceable
Your board of directors approves the submission. We build it so that behind every number lie the records from which it was compiled.
We do not decide your indicator set
Which sets you submit and how they are defined is fixed in the register of the Zorginstituut and its accompanying guide. We build the recording beneath it.
Security and privacy
An indicator registration touches patient health data, even when the final result is an aggregated figure. We set access by role and by department, and pseudonymise wherever the indicator does not need traceable data. How we work towards the requirements for healthcare is set out on our NEN 7510 page.
Traceability weighs heavily for this subject. Your board of directors approves the submission; if a question about an outcome arises later, it will concern how that figure was built up. We therefore keep every registration with its timestamp and the person responsible, even when synchronisation takes place later, and any correction appears as a visible correction alongside the original value. How we handle security ourselves is described in our information security policy; reports from outside go through our CVD policy.
Frequently asked questions about indicators and submission
Dutch Hospital Data is a not-for-profit foundation set up by the NVZ, UMCNL and the Federatie Medisch Specialisten, and acts as a data broker: the portal in which hospitals complete, check and approve their indicators, and from which they are then forwarded. The Zorginstituut receives the data, maintains the public register of measurement instruments and makes the information publicly available.
In the calendar the Zorginstituut publishes on Zorginzicht. It states, for each measurement instrument, which reporting year it concerns, which indicators belong to it and when the data must be in. Each set comes with a guide containing the definition, the measurement instructions, the measurement period and the source.
For medical-specialist care, for reporting year 2025 this was no later than 1 May 2026: the day by which the data had to be with the Zorginstituut. Your broker closes earlier so that it can forward the data in time; at DHD the portal closed on 15 April. Check the dates for your own sector.
No. The submission instructions are clear on this: extensions are not granted, and the portal closes for all providers in a sector at the same time. That is why the recording should not be treated as a spring task.
No, and it doesn't replace your source system. The record stays where it is; this app captures the fields an indicator requires that don't consistently appear in the record. For the record itself there is EHR development, and for the internal reporting flow there is incident reporting on the shop floor.
That name is no longer used. The inspectorate's request is now called Verbeterdoelen msz and Toezichtvragen msz, and for hospitals it runs through the same portal. If there is also a supervision process at your organisation, that belongs with the file for the inspectorate, and the investigation that follows with the incident app.
Alongside the indicator request runs the National Basic Registration of Hospital Care (LBZ), for which DHD handles the legally required deliveries to, among others, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and the NZa, and specialisms supply data to registrations such as DICA, the NHR and the LROI; some of those outcomes flow back into the portal already filled in. Since 1 January 2026, quality registrations in medical-specialist care are also assessed and included in a register of the Zorginstituut, with an inclusion lasting at most five years.
That depends on the number of sets, how much can be pulled from your systems, and whether integrations are needed. Capturing data for a single set is usually quick to put to use; integrations cost more. We give a reasoned estimate after the discovery phase.
Knowing where your figures come from?
Pick one indicator from last year's submission and find out which record sits beneath it. If you end up at a spreadsheet someone filled in March, that's the gap. We build this as a standalone app and as part of a broader building an app project.