Supervision in health care

To ensure the competent performance of work by health care workers and institutions, the following types of supervision shall be organised and implemented:

• internal expert supervision carried out by health-care workers and health-care co-workers who are self-supervised and responsible for the competent performance of work in the institution,
• expert supervision, with counselling carried out by a competent chamber or professional association as a public authority in cooperation with clinics, clinical institutes or clinical departments and other institutions,
• administrative supervision of the legality of the work of health-care institutions and private health-care workers carried out by the Ministry of Health,
• supervision carried out by HIIS.

Internal expert supervision is carried out as regular and extraordinary supervision, and shall be regulated with internal acts by each health-care provider.

Expert supervision, with counselling by a competent chamber, shall be carried out in accordance with the adopted programme (regular supervision) or upon the proposal of interested proposers (extraordinary supervision). When major irregularities are identified during expert supervision, the chamber shall require additional professional training of health-care workers and notify the Ministry of Health, which can order the following measures:   

• the elimination of organisational, material and other deficiencies which result in inadequate quality or performance of work, and determines a deadline for the elimination of deficiencies,
• temporarily, until the elimination of the identified deficiencies, prohibit the activity of the health-care institution, its unit(s) or private health-care worker.  

If there is no competent chamber or professional association with public authorisation for individual professional groups of health-care workers, expert supervision shall be carried out by the Ministry of Health.

Administrative supervision of the legality of the work of health-care institutions and private health-care workers is carried out by the Ministry of Health on the basis of the programme (regular supervision) or upon the proposal of a patient, his/her relative or guardian, health-care institution, employer, competent chamber, court, or at is own discretion (extraordinary supervision). When irregularities are identified during administrative supervision, the Ministry of Health shall issue a decision determining the measures and deadlines for the elimination of such irregularities. However, exceptionally, the official carrying out administrative supervision may also order a temporary measure to prevent direct threats to human health or to health-related conditions. If the inspection establishes that a health-care worker is not capable of performing the duties entrusted to him/her, the competent chamber and employer shall be notified thereof.

HIIS shall supervise the fulfilment of agreements concluded for the provision of health-care services.

Supervision of the provision of emergency medical assistance

The Ministry of Health monitors and supervises the organisation and work of the emergency medical assistance service, training of team members and use of financial resources. The supervision carried out by the Ministry of Health in order to verify the competence, qualification and organisation of emergency medical assistance services may be regular or extraordinary. Regular supervision shall be carried out according to the programme, whereas extraordinary supervision shall be carried out in cases of disturbances or problems in performing emergency medical assistance services or in cases of a suspicion of a professional error, on the initiative of a minister, payer, users and providers of emergency medical assistance. The Ministry of Health also carries out regular and extraordinary supervision of the use of financial resources for the operation of the emergency medical assistance service which are earmarked at the institution in which such service is organised, and the supervision of the operation of information communication channels.

Supervision of the provision of pharmacy services

The provision of pharmacy services is supervised in accordance with the Health Services Act (internal supervision, expert supervision with counselling, administrative supervision, supervision of HIIS). 

The Ministry of Health may prohibit a pharmacist or other responsible manager from managing a pharmacy for a maximum of six month due to repeated violations of regulations on pharmacy services, or upon the proposal of the Chamber of Pharmacy due to a violation of the ethics of pharmaceutical workers. An authorised representative must be appointed for the period of the prohibition of pharmacy management.

The Ministry of Health may temporarily prohibit the operation of a pharmacy if it is established that the pharmacy does not meet the conditions for operation.

Inspection of the provision of health-care services

The Health Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia as a body within the Ministry of Health carries out the inspection of the provision of health-care services, i.e. by content in the following fields:

• infectious diseases,
• food supplements,
• foodstuffs intended for particular nutritional or health-care purposes,
• production and circulation of materials and products intended to come into contact with foodstuffs, and their uses in the processes of production and distribution of  food supplements and foodstuffs intended for special nutritional or health care purposes,
• drinking water,
• restriction of the use of alcohol,
• cosmetic products,
• toys,
• tobacco and tobacco products,
• bathing waters,
• minimum sanitary and health conditions in public health-care institutions, legal and natural persons providing health-care services, services in the field of child care, education, food service, hygienic care, social welfare, health and hygienic condition of temporary dwellings in the event of natural disasters and evacuations,
• general safety of products under the responsibility of the Ministry, except for chemicals, medicines, medical devices and sources of radiation, and
• other regulations within the competence of the Ministry.

Inspections are carried out in public health-care institutions and of legal and natural persons providing health-care services.

Statutory provisions