in 2007, the board members got in touch with an external investor who was working for a pEF and interest- ed in investing in the hospital. The investor expressed willingness to invest substantially in the Rembrandt van Rijn hospital on the condition that the pEF got ownership of the hospital. Dutch legislation has recently changed and the national government stimulates entrepreneurship, commercialisation and privatisation in the public sector. With new ownership from outside the two-tier board hopes to create a momentum for major organisational change and opportunities for improving performance through new managerial approaches (for example a new performance management system).
The case of pEF and the Hospital Rembrandt van Rijn has three phases: