The system for medical rehabilitation in Croatia

Abstract

Medical rehabilitation in Croatia needs a national strategic plan for a three-level system that incorporates inpatient, outpatient and community-based rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation medicine in countries of Central/Eastern Europe

“…The tertiary level consisting of a central institution that serves as national referral centre for impairment categories, provides long, inpatient comprehensive rehabilitation of complex impairments, and consultative, specialized outpatient services, engages in PRM specialization and research, conducts national registers and epidemiological studies of disability and prepares clinical performance guidelines. In Hungary national planning along these lines has in 2005 been initiated, focusing on the two most disadvantaged regions of the country; in Croatia leading rehabilitation experts are in agreement that such a system should be established [27] but no concrete proposal has been submitted to the Ministry of Health. Professional criteria for the referral to settings of the three levels, particularly to inpatient care, its type and length, must be determined and adhered to, tasks and responsibilities of the system's components must be defined and activities coordinated to ensure integration and avoidance of duplication.…”

“…In Hungary over 50% are occupied by patients with musculoskeletal conditions who may be cared for as outpatients [25] and this is the case in some other CEE countries as well. Slovenia (since 1954), Hungary (1966) and Slovakia (1986) have national institutes for inpatient, comprehensive care of complex impairments (stroke, TBI, SCI, amputations of limbs) while in Croatia and the Czech R. such institutions are not available and facilities for these impairments are insufficient, dispersed, poorly cooperating and uncoordinated [26,27]. Only a minority of teaching hospitals has inpatient rehabilitation departments, while their majority provides only outpatient services, largely for musculoskeletal conditions.…”

Physical and rehabilitation medicine training center in Split, Croatia: striving to achieve excellence in education of a rehabilitation team

“…Rehabilitation medicine in Croatia needs to address many issues, such as increasing rehabilitation needs, abundance of PRM specialists and rehabilitation beds, as well as shortcomings in education, which is focused on rheumatology rather than rehabilitation [8,12]. The existing traditional system of rehabilitation care can not satisfy the new standards set for quality and efficiency of rehabilitation medicine [13,15].…”

“…At the moment, there are 1900 rehabilitation beds in Croatia, which is a high ratio of 0.42 per 1000 inhabitants, considering that the minimum recommended standard is 0.10 [12][13][14]. Croatia has the second highest ratio of physical and rehabilitation medicine (PRM) specialists per 100 000 inhabitants among European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) member countries [13,14].…”

When elders choose: Which factors could influence the decision-making among elderly in the selection of health tourism services?

“…Recent studies showed that warm climate conditions could exert beneficial effects on the rehabilitation program outcomes and these conditions suggest greater patient satisfaction [13,14]. Croatian special rehabilitation hospitals (11 in total, as of 2009), both located at seaside and inland, are used for stationary inpatient medical rehabilitation [15][16][17]. In order to create an attractive health tourism product, it is of a pivotal importance to identify target groups of beneficiaries (health tourism service users) with a special emphasis on demographic, socioeconomic and geographical characteristics.…”