[Founding and development of the Croatian Health Information System]

Information systems, either computer or paper based, are the key to business effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare organizations. The rationale of starting a large healthcare informatics project by the Ministry of Health and Welfare may be argued by two needs: (1) the need of medical data transformation into the information required for public health policy decision-making; and (2) measures in the field of health and pharmacoeconomics, i.e. systematic surveillance of healthcare costs that define the prospects for savings without lowering the level of service (estimated at 20%-30% of potential savings), along with the need of transparency and adoption of European Union directives and standards. Implementation of the proposed system results in two groups of fundamental functions: (1) the creation of a central public health information system which facilitates real-time tracking of primary healthcare cost generators, which in turn are used for creating health economics policy, and (2) to automatize the process of generating a consolidated national health budget including the Croatian Institute of Health Insurance and hospitals as well as consolidated financial reports for all those involved in the healthcare system. The model of the National Health Information System of the Republic of Croatia is described.