Quality of care
As a mental health practice, we want to offer our clients high-quality care. In addition to our university graduate psychologists with various classifications, our team consists of BIG-registered health care psychologists, psychotherapists and clinical psychologists, who are all under the close supervision of the government and the Dutch Healthcare Authority (de Nederlandse Zorgautoriteit, NZa) and relevant professional associations. There is also regular collaboration between a psychiatrist for psychiatric consultation and medication treatment. Quality assurance and enhancement by the clinicians consist of individual supervision once a week and a literature discussion on psychoanalytic theory and psychoanalytic therapy once a week. An indication staff meets monthly in the presence of a psychiatrist.
Client satisfaction
Regularly we conduct a client satisfaction questionnaire in cooperation with Embloomopens in a new tab, a company that seeks to enrich and improve the care for people with, for example, mental health issues. A client satisfaction questionnaire is an online questionnaire that can be filled in by clients, with the intent to measure their satisfaction with the care we provide for them. We intend to seek feedback about experiences, quality, and possibilities for improvement, so our practice can further optimise our services.
After the latest (September 2025) questionnaire conducted among Dutch-speaking clients, the average score given by clients was a 7,72. Client scores derived from questionnaires done in other languages can be given by our secretariat. The only subpar score given in this questionnaire was surrounding information regarding client organisations/self-help groups. During the registration and intake, we now explicitly point our clients towards these organisations. You can also find more information on our website, on the ‘Cooperation‘ page.
We sincerely hope that all of our clients are content with the care and support they have received in our practice, and we greatly appreciate the opinions of our clients- not just for us, but also for other people who are looking for the right care. This is why we would like to see our clients share their rating on the safe online portal ZorgkaartNederland. This will help future clients get a clear picture of our care and will allow us to continually improve our services, which is very important to us. As of September 2025, only verified ratings are allowed on ZorgkaartNederland. To be able to leave your rating, you can contact our secretariat for a link to do so. Leaving your feedback will only take a few minutes of your time. We would like to thank you in advance for your time and effort! It is greatly appreciated.
Quality Charter
From 1 January 2017, all health care providers are required to record the quality of their practice in a quality charter. You can find our current and approved Quality Charter (in Dutch) on our website.
WKKGZ
The government has laid down by law what good care means. This also means that you have to know what happens if you have a complaint about the care provided. This is laid down in the Wet Kwaliteit, Klachten en Geschillen Zorg (Quality, Complaints and Disputes Health Care Act), the WKKGZ, which is also referred to as the Complaints Act. For more information about this WKKGZ, see our website, on the page Rights and obligations.
- In line with this, our practice meets the following legal conditions:
- For all new employees who provide care to our clients, we carry out the Vergewisplicht (Make Sure-Obligation) via the government (IGJ) and ask them to request a Verklaring omtrent Gedrag (Certificate of Conduct) (VOG) and return it to us. We have a written agreement with all caregivers who work for our practice.
- We have a procedure for the safe reporting and registration of incidents, the investigation of incidents and the decision to take any measures. The client is always informed of an incident within 24 hours and the incident is mentioned in the client’s file.
- We report every calamity and every violent situation within a care relationship and every termination of an employment relationship due to serious dysfunction to the Health Care Inspection.
Privacy Act GDPR (AVG)
The Algemene Verordering Gegevensbescherming (AVG) applies as of 25 May 2018, also known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The AVG reinforces the privacy rights of all European citizens. With the AVG, more emphasis is placed on the responsible processing of personal data.
As of April 2025, a new regulation from the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (reference number 4080664-1080698-Z) is in effect, valid until January 1, 2028. This regulation stipulates that the client and we, as the care provider, have agreed upon a treatment involving mental healthcare. In the context of this treatment, we register, among other things, data concerning the DSM main diagnostic group or the basic mental healthcare profile of the client. In accordance with the above-mentioned regulation, the client has the right to object to the sharing of this diagnostic information with their health insurer, and may declare that they wish to exercise this right by opting out. This means that, if the client signs a GDPR privacy statement, we as the care provider will not provide diagnostic information to the health insurer. However, according to the Ministry of Health, this does not affect the reimbursement of the care provided.
You may receive support from the Data Protection Officer in cases such as a request for correction or deletion of data, objections to the processing of personal data, (suspected) data breaches, questions regarding consent, or for more detailed information about the privacy policy and data protection procedures of our mental healthcare institution. You may contact our Data Protection Officer, Mr. O. Hoefman, by telephone at (020) 6730282 or by email at .
You will find our privacy policy in the footer on our website, which clarifies how we meet the requirements arising from the AVG. We are focused on handling your personal information with great care, just as we appreciate it very much if others handle our personal information with great care.
Reporting code domestic violence and child abuse
We adhere to the Meldcode huiselijk geweld en kindermishandeling (Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Reporting Code). It is the professional standard to report to Veilig Thuis (Safe Home) if there are suspicions of acute and structural insecurity. We determine on the basis of a step-by-step plan from the reporting code whether a report must be made at Veilig Thuis and whether sufficient help can be deployed.
For more information see https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/huiselijk-geweld/meldcode.
Professional associations
One or more caregivers within our team are members of the following associations: NVPopens in a new tab, NVPPopens in a new tab, VGCtopens in a new tab, NIPopens in a new tab, NVGPopens in a new tab, LVVPopens in a new tab, NPAVopens in a new tab.
Certification ISO 9001:2015
As of December 2, 2024, the Quality Management System Certificate ISO 9001:2015, under number K-0221712/1, has been granted to our mental health institution by KIWA N.V. and is valid until December 1, 2027.
No contracts with health insurers
Good care requires care and attention to the individual needs of the client. Requirements from health insurers make it increasingly difficult to meet these important criteria. That is why, within our practice, care providers have decided to work contract-free so they are not limited by health insurers in providing high-quality care. Experience shows that this improves the quality of the treatment. This means also in case of complex care, we cannot provide your health insurer with precise information about treatment content, treatment duration and the deployment ratio between the practitioner in charge and other mental health practitioners before treatment starts.
Waiting lists
When you think a waiting list is too long, you can always contact your healthcare provider or health insurance agency to ask for waiting list mediation. Your health insurer can support you, so you can get an intake interview within the first 4 weeks of your contact with a healthcare provider, and so the treatment will start within 10 weeks following your intake. These are the maximum acceptable waiting times that have been agreed upon by healthcare providers and insurance agencies (de ‘treeknormen’).
The client council is there for you!
Every healthcare institution must have a client council. That is regulated in the Wet medezeggenschap cliënten zorginstellingen (Participation of Clients Healthcare Institutions Act) (WMCZ). As the name of this law indicates, the client council is there to strengthen the participation of clients in healthcare.
Our client council is representative of the clients* of de Praktijk voor Psychotherapie Amsterdam e.o. and the like. and consists of (former) clients, family or volunteers who feel closely involved with our practice. The duties of our client council members are laid down in our Huishoudelijk regelement (Rules of Procedure). An important task of the client council is to prepare written advice for decisions that our practice will take.
While we as a healthcare provider are concerned with what the law and changing circumstances demand of us, the client council is only focused on the interests of you as a client. Our client council is therefore a good discussion partner for us- one who thinks along with you about the quality of care and how we can further improve our services to you as a client. In short, the client council is there for you!
*The client council is not a complaints or disputes committee. However, if the same complaint occurs regularly, the client council can pay attention to this and look for a solution, because it is a common client interest.
