Health care providers

County — location of health care service provider. It is classified according to Administrative and Settlement Units of Estonia (EHAK) (see classifications and lists). Until 2017, data by the counties is distributed by the administrative division that existed before administrative reform (October 2017). Data starting from 2018 is distributed by new administrative division.

Health care provider or health care facility — a legal person whose principal or ancillary activity is to provide health care services. Health care providers (except family doctor's offices) must have an activity licence issued by the Health Board (Health Care Board until 1 January 2010).

Independent health care provider — a health care provider that is not an agency of another provider or its branch.

Legal form — the form of existence of persons, agencies and organisations and other legal subjects specified in the legislation of the Republic of Estonia. The legal forms include: self employed person, private limited company, public limited company, foundation and other legal forms (general partnership, limited partnership, commercial association, a branch of a foreign company, non-profit association, state entity, local government entity) (see classifications and lists).

Type of hospital — seven types of hospitals are distinguished on the basis of provided health care services: regional hospital, central hospital, general hospital, local hospital, special hospital, rehabilitation hospital and nursing care hospital. The local hospital type was added in 2003 (see classifications and lists).

Type of owner — shows the ownership of an establishment either by the public sector (the capital share of the state and/or local government is 50% or more) or the private sector (the capital share of an Estonian private body and/or foreign private body is 50% or more) (see classifications and lists).

Type of provider of health care services — health care providers are divided into the following types: hospitals, family doctor's offices, specialist health care providers, dental care providers, emergency medical care providers, rehabilitation care providers, diagnostics providers, nursing care providers and other providers (see classifications and lists).

The aim in collecting data about health care service providers is to have an overview of the institutions providing health care services.

The data is collected in accordance with the Health Care Services Organisation Act (HCSOA) and decree by the Minister of Social Affairs on the basis of the HCSOA.

General data about an institution must be submitted by health care service providers to the National Institute for Health Development (NIHD) via the web-based data collecting environment A-veeb. The form which needs to be filled in is titled "General Data about Health Care Service Providers". After receiving the data, NIHD compares it with the data contained in the Central Commercial Register, Health Board, Statistics Estonia and Estonian Health Insurance Fund.

The data published about an institution providing health care services includes the name of the county where the institution is located, its legal form and type of owner as of 31st of December.

The data submitted about dental care providers and treatment possibilities must be included in the annual report titled “Dentist’s Report“, which must be prepared and submitted by all dental care service providers holding a relevant activity licence.

The data about emergency medical care providers, ambulance crews and cars is collected by the Health Board from all emergency medical care providers (data for ambulance cars has been collected until 2021).

Classification of Administrative and Settlement Units of Estonia (EHAK)

This classification is used upon submission of regional statistics. Regional health care statistics are submitted by 15 counties. Information about Tallinn and Tartu is submitted separately. Until 2017, data by the counties is distributed by the administrative division that existed before administrative reform (October 2017). Data starting from 2018 is distributed by new administrative division. This classification system is available on the webpage of the Statistics Estonia in the Classifications section (in Estonian).

Classification of hospitals

On the basis of the services they provide hospitals are divided into seven types: regional hospitals, central hospitals, general hospitals, local hospitals, special hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals and nursing care hospitals. Requirements for different hospital types are laid down in Decree No. 103 Requirements for Hospital Types (in Estonian), issued by the Minister of Social Affairs on 19 August 2004.

Type of owner

Type of owner serves as the basis for the classification of health care service providers according to whether they belong to state or private sector. This classification system is available on the webpage of the Statistics Estonia in the Classifications section (in Estonian).

Classification of legal forms

Classification of legal forms is used for the classification of health care service providers on the basis of the legal form. This classification system is available on the webpage of the Statistics Estonia in the Classifications section (in Estonian).

Classification of health care service provider

On the basis of the type of provided health care service the health care service providers are divided in the following way:

• Hospital – a health care provider which complies with the requirements related to location, construction, administrative organisation and staff, aimed at providing inpatient medical care in medical specialties. As a rule, in addition to inpatient health care service, hospitals also provide outpatient and day care services.
• Family doctor’s office – a health care provider in which outpatient health care services are provided by a medical practitioner specialised as a family doctor operating based on his/her practice list.
• Specialist health care provider – a health care provider in which outpatient health care services are provided by a medical specialist and health care professionals working with him/her. These include the facilities providing occupational health services.
• Dental care provider – a health care provider in which outpatient health care services are provided by a dentist and health care professionals working with him/her.
• Emergency medical care provider – outpatient health care provider for the initial diagnosis and treatment of a life-threatening disease, injury or poisoning and, if necessary, for the transport of the person in need of assistance to a hospital. Emergency medical care providers only encompass independent emergency medical care providers.
• Rehabilitation care provider – a health care provider which provides outpatient health care services with the aim of improving people’s condition of health and in case of which the health-related limits to everyday life either arise from an injury or the chronic nature of the disease.
• Diagnostics provider – a provider of outpatient health services for the assessment of the patient’s state of health with the help of laboratory tests and diagnostic examinations.
• Nursing care provider – a health care provider in which independent outpatient or inpatient health care services are provided only by nurses and/or midwives.
• Other provider – this group includes providers which have not been mentioned above, but which hold an activity licence enabling them to provide health care services, e.g., Estonian Defence Forces, facilities providing school health care service, prison outpatient medical departments and also the providers which deal with the organisation of first aid courses, hold telephone medical consultations and provide support staff for family physicians.

The health care service providers mentioned above are classified in descending order of rank, i.e., if one facility provides several health care services, it is classified as an facility providing a relevant service mentioned afore in the list.

National Institute for Health Development of Estonia, The National Health Service of Latvia, Health Information Centre, Institute of Hygiene, Lithuania. Health in the Baltic Countries 2016. Tallinn: National Institute for Health Development; 2018. Report in pdf-format

National Institute for Health Development of Estonia, The National Health Service of Latvia, Health Information Centre, Institute of Hygiene, Lithuania. Health in the Baltic Countries 2015. Tallinn: National Institute for Health Development; 2017. Report in pdf-format

National Institute for Health Development department of health statistics:

Tables TTO10–TTO11, TTO60

Marika Inno

Contact: phone: +372 659 3816, Marika.Inno[at]tai.ee

Tables TTO15–TTO201

Katrin Tomson

Contact: phone: +372 659 3820, Katrin.Tomson[at]tai.ee

Table TTO40

Gettrin Kivisild

Contact: phone: +372 659 3822, Gettrin.Kivisild[at]tai.ee

Health Board:

Table TTO30

Contact: Kalev.Pahla[at]terviseamet.ee

Updated: 11.05.2023