Review article
Establishment and Development of the Croatian Healthcare Information System
Ranko Stevanović
Arsen Stanić
Vanesa Benković
Aleksandar Jovanović
Abstract
Information systems, whether computer
or paper based, are the key to business effectiveness
and effi ciency of healthcare organizations. The rational of
starting large healthcare informatics project in the Ministry
of Health may be argumented by two needs: the need for
the transformation of medical data into information required
for public health policy decision-making and measures in
the fi eld of health and pharmaceutical economics, that is
the systematic surveillance of healthcare costs that defi ne
prospects for savings without lowering levels of service
(estimated at 20-30% rate of potential savings) as well as
the need for transparency and adoption of European Union
standards. Implementation of the system will result in two
groups of fundamental functions: the creation of a central
public health information system which will facilitate the
real-time tracking of primary care cost generators, which
in turn will be used for making health economic policy as
well as automate the process of generating a consolidated
national health budget including the National Health
Insurance Institute and hospitals, as well as consolidated
fi nancial reports for all involved in the healthcare system.
Described is the model of the National Integrated Healthcare
Information System of the Republic of Croatia.
As healthcare information system is a strategic component
of every healthcare reform and development plan, we can
recommend our model based on the results of trial run of
the Croatian healthcare information system.
Keywords
healthcare information system; defi nition of potential savings; information communication technology; high-quality health care
Hrčak ID:
19008
URI
Publication date:
15.11.2004.
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