Operating theatres

Operating theatre and recovery room — rooms corresponding to the requirements set with the decrees of the Minister of Social Affairs, "Requirements for Hospital Types" (no 103, issued 19.08.2004) and "Room, equipment and appurtenances requirements for providing out of hospital specialist health care" (no 25, issued 25.01.2002), as of 31st of December.

The data are collected from institutions that have been issued activity licences for the provision of health care services pursuant to the Health Services Organisation Act and decree by the Minister of Social Affairs on the basis of the HCSOA.

The annual report "Health Care Institution" is the basis for the production of operating theatre and recovery room statistics. Data is collected from outpatient, in-patient and day surgery providers.

List 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 in-patient medical care in medical specialties. As a rule, in addition to in-patient 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 in-patient 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.

Merike Rätsep

Department of Health Statistics

National Institute for Health Development

Phone: +372 6593 817

E-mail: Merike.Ratsep[ät]tai.ee

Updated: 12.10.2016