Home visits in Croatian family practice: a longitudinal study: 1995-2012.

Similar to other countries, home visits in Croatia are within the scope of family medicine (FM). The significant changes have been implemented within the FM with almost no scientific evaluation. The study was undertaken with the main aim to determine the overall trends in home visiting in Croatian FM between 1995 and 2012. A data sources were Croatian Health Service Yearbooks, 1995-2012. The numbers of family doctors, practice visits and home visits were collected. Results indicate that the annual number of home visits is relatively small, whether it is viewed per patient (0.1) or per doctor (160) with a decreased trend. The geographical variations are observed too. It seems that HC reforms did not have any influence on the observed trends. This should seriously be taken into the consideration in the future planning on the ways to keep growing hospital expenses under control.