Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in Republic of Croatia and company Ericsson Nikola Tesla have made an agreement on June 2 about hardware and software supply for upgrading national primary health care IT system. The contact covers maintenance, installation and implementation of new functionalities in already existing Croatian primary health care IT system. Minister mr. sc. Darko Milinović and president of Ericsson Nikola Tesla mr.sc. Gordana Kovačević, have signed the contract valued over 55 million HRK in Zagreb, in Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.

Agreed activities will be carried out in 3 phases. The first phase comprises delivery of switching and system software and new functionalities. The second phase comprises making messaging system for Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Croatian National Institute of Public Health, Croatian Institute for Health Insurance and Croatian Institute for Health Insurance of Protection Health at Work. In this phase, pharmacies will be connected with electronic guidelines for prescription processing, and with primary health care laboratories to a central system called «CEZIH PZZ». In the last phase, central system will integrate all the specialist and consultancy activities, including gynecologists, pediatricians, schoolchildren medicine, dentists and units for centralized ordering in sixty six Croatian hospitals. Company is obligated, by the contract, to service this upgraded integrated IT primary health care system by the end of 2010.

Dr. Darko Milinović, Croatian Minister of Health and Social Welfare, says: Higher quality of health care in Croatia, health services made available to all citizens and better utilization of resources influenced the Government’s strategic decision-making to introduce this e-health system. That is why the Ministry decided to expand the already operational system; beside strict data security, the system offers real-time accessibility to top quality information for all users and we have also achieved significant cost savings. I am very satisfied that Croatia has such a sophisticated healthcare information system from which everyone will benefit.”

Gordana Kovačević, Ericsson Nikola Tesla president:” We are very proud that the Croatian Government has entrusted us with this strategic project. With HNIS and its highly complex and demanding system integration requirements, the company has proved its maturity and was recognized as e-health driver. I wish to emphasize that our specialists put a lot of knowledge, experience and innovative approach into creating and developing such a system. In this way we contribute to Ericsson’s technology leadership and improve peoples’ quality of life.” This system will be useful to doctors, nurses, health care institutes and public health institutes, and to all professionals in health care, and especially, to the patients, because it reduces unnecessary administrative barriers and waiting, with simultaneously enlarging quality and speed of medical service.

Contract, which is a new functional improvement of integrated ICT system, released in early 2007, is one of solutions by which the company proves its social responsibility and care for sustainable development, and high technology directly affects improvement of one’s everyday quality of life.

Communication Ericsson Nikola Tesla