engleski

IT OF THE PRIMARY HEALTH CARE (PHC)

Ministry of Health of the Republic of Croatia approached the Project of the internetisation of health care system with aim to strengthen collaboration between health care institutions, expert groups and individuals, which care for the health of people. As a vital part of this project, we are currently in the process of tender for IT system for PHC (general practice, pediatrics and gynecology). Besides rationalization of drug use, savings with decreased use of specialized and consula r services and hospitalization, important reasons for implementation of this project are better cooperation, task division, multiplication of the results, improvement of the quality of data (standardization), assurance of information – based decision making, etc. PHC teams are spending too much time on administration of the data, which are nonstandardized and hard for processing. Although, huge amount of data is collected just a few indicators and important information could be acquired. Health authorities are supposed to decide upon evidence and information but most of their time they spend working with raw data, and after all decide upon data. IT in PHC should enable different approach ; PHC teams should be relieved from boring collecting of data while aut horities should be enabled to work with information instead of data. IT tender consists of three parts ; hardware (5000 personal computers enabled for work with internet), operative system with basic software (editor, etc.) and PHC software for PHC teams. At the national level (National Public Health Informatics System) software platform for collecting, analyzing and distributing of data will be built. Data collecting will be based on ICPC-2 standard. This data standard assure utilization of medical records and quality assessment. System allows bi-directional data exchange between central database and sources on various levels, from basic PHC teams to local authorities. Control of data collecting, comparison with national's average and prompt distribution on Internet will be enabled. Investment in IT is strategic and without alternative, and cost/benefit analysis shows in two years IT in Primary health care system will be worth for. Using new technologies and according to priorities Project is defined (with measurable objectives) in phases. Detailed planning and using of approved methods assures that IT in PHC is good investment.

Internetisation; Primary Health Care; ICPC-2

nije evidentirano