REGIONAL HEALTHCARE CENTER

1. REGIONAL HEALTHCARE CENTER ASSOC. PROF. D-R PETKO SALCHEV PhD

2. Regional healthcare center • Regional healthcare centers (RHC), according to article 7 of the Health Law, implement and organize state health policy in their respective region. • Their location conforms with the country’s administrative division and they are situated in the regional administrative centers – a total of 28. • The formation, transformation and closure of RHC is done by the Ministerial Council of the Republic of Bulgaria.

3. Main activities of RHC • Control over registration and health activities of treatment facilities and health offices on the territory of the respective region; • Control over the implementation of medical standards, instituted according to article 6, paragraph 1 of the Law for Treatment Facilities and the organization for providing quality of medical care in health and treatment facilities; • Adoption of information technologies in the field of healthcare; • Collection, registration, processing, storage, analysis and sharing of health information for the needs of the national health service; • Planning, organizing, management and control of medical expertise on the territory of the respective region; • Planning and organizing of health activities in disasters and incidents on the territory of the respective region; • Checks on pleas and signals of citizens, related to provision of medical care; • Coordination of the activities for implementing national and regional health programs; • Investigations of the needs of physicians, dental physicians, pharmacists and other medical and non-medical specialists with higher education in the region together with branch organizations, as well as propositions to the Health Minister concerning the number of positions for post graduate education in fundamental or profiled medical specialties.

4. Structure of a RHC

5. Regional healthcare council • Created within the RHC is the Regional healthcare council headed by the Director of the center. This council comprises representatives of the regional administration, municipal administrations, registered health and treatment facilities, branch organizations – the Bulgarian Physicians Union and the Union of Dental Physicians in Bulgaria, as well as representatives of the Regional Health Insurance Fund. • The functions of the Regional healthcare council are related to matters of implementation of regional health policy and health protection in the respective area. Mutual ties among these institutions and coordination of health activities are being established within its framework. The decisions of this council are recommendatory for all institutions in the region and are taken by consensus.

6. Specialized administration – directions according to activities First direction – activities of health and treatment facilities: • Registration of treatment facilities for outpatient care and hospices, as well as control over their activities; • Expert opinions on issued authorizations of hospitals and dispensaries for treatment activities; • Control over activities of hospitals and dispensaries ; • Control over the overall activity of the emergency aid centers and their branches on the territory of the region; • Surveillance of the process of liquidation of untransformed treatment facilities; • Cooperation and control over the activities of regional epidemiological inspectorates in the implementation of counter-epidemic measures, as well as health promotion and disease prevention on the territory of the region; • Coordination and control of the implementation of health programs and projects of national, regional and local importance on the territory of the region; • Cooperation in the elaboration of the regional health map; Second direction – disability expertise: • Choice of staff for the Physician consultative commissions (PCC) for disability expertise on the territory of the region; • Coordinated decisions with the Health Minister regarding the establishment and disbanding of territorial expert physicians commissions; • Joint propositions with the National expert physicians commission to the Health Minister regarding the profile of the territorial expert physicians commissions; • Joint methodical help and control with the territorial divisions of the National Insurance Institute and the Card-indexes of medical expert dossiers over the expertise of temporary and permanent disability on the territory of the region.

7. Specialized administration – directions according to activities Third direction – drugs provision • Distribution, expenses and movement monitoring of expensive drugs, according to the instruction for prescribing of expensive drugs paid by the state budget; • Monitoring of drugs containing narcotics expenses and a report of their movement for the National service of narcotic substances and direction “Drugs policy” in the Ministry of health; • Control on the territory of the region over production, processing, import, export, transit, trade, storage, recording, transfer, transportation and usage of drugs according to the Law on control over narcotic substances and precursors. Fourth direction – postgraduate education: • Investigating the needs of medical specialists on the territory of the regionand planning of their inclusion in programs for postgraduate education; • Assisting candidates for state specializations; Fifth direction – information support: • Creation and maintenance of information systems, technologies and databases; • Processing data for the purposes of medical statistics in cooperation with the National center for health information (NCHI)); • Processing data for number of diseased treated with expensive drugs, obtained quantities and availability of drugs according to the order for prescribing expensive drugs paid by the state budget; • Maintaining registers in RHC; • Aiding the activities of direction “Specialized health insurance surveillance” in the Health Ministry; • Metrological control over medical equipment and technology.