Evaluation of an Information System Model for Primary Health Care

Today, at the era of information technologies Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have organized action for creation of standardized Computer-Based Information Systems (CBISs) in health. These CBISs would enable collection of defined and comparable data and therefore ensure adequate analysis, observation and decision making on a local community level as well on the general level of health information system. Thanks to enthusiasts, local CBISs are created in health care facilities. Those individual local CBISs have similar solutions based on the experience of previous good functioning. Therefore, we can expect that a standardized state CBIS will be formed with the minimal focused action of people in charge. The Zavidovici Medical Center has a CBIS which has been working long enough so that we can analyze the results of usage of such an information system. The system has a modular character, oriented on analysis and documentation of data, and on support for management and decision-making functions. Analyzing the results reached by implementation of such a CBIS, we can conclude that we have achieved better results in patient administration and work organization and that we have less patients in dispensary of primary health care by 20%, shorter time in treatment of patients by 7%, reduced consumption of essential medicines by 8%, costs of treatment in medical facilities are down by 5% and patients have more a positive view toward the services provided now than they had earlier. Moreover, substantial savings in radio and laboratory diagnostics procedures have been achieved by reducing time for doing lab reports, savings in materials and through minimizing human error.