In a historical and developmental sense, the former one-year reporting on employees employed in healthcare grew during 1990/91. in the continuous collection and monitoring of data through the state Register of Health Professionals. The department maintains data on all healthcare workers and healthcare associates, and on administrative and technical staff for now only numerically, according to the number of permanent employees at the end of the year. In the future, it is intended to register employees who are not health-oriented and work in healthcare, and healthcare professionals who work outside the healthcare system can also be registered.

Data on health workers and health care associates are required to be submitted not only by state and county-owned health institutions, but also by all private institutions, health workers who independently perform private practice, as well as trading companies for the performance of health activities, regardless of whether they have a contract with the Croatian Institute for health insurance.

All employees are assigned a registration number (code) upon entry into the Registry's database on the day of employment. The connection with the Croatian Health Insurance Institute exists through the use of the registration number when registering, recognizing within the CEZIH system, as well as when registering prescriptions, referrals and other documents of the HZZO. that is, in monitoring and building the health information system.

As an integral part of the same, relational databases also include data on health organizational units, representing the Register of Health Institutions. Namely, in addition to data on employees, the Registry, based on the decision of the Ministry of Health on work authorization, also records basic data on health institutions, surgeries and all other types of independent health units, regardless of the contract with the Croatian Health Insurance Institute or the type of ownership. As for employees, received data on the opening, closing, change of name, address, type and activity of the health organizational unit is also updated daily.

Thus, the organizational structure of healthcare is monitored through the database, according to levels of healthcare, types of healthcare institutions, healthcare activities performed by institutions, divisions with regard to the type of ownership as well as territorial distribution.

In addition to the importance of data on human potential and space, that is, the units where health care is provided, medical equipment is also an important factor in management and planning. One part of the department's work is related to the collection of data on this material resource. In the near future, it is planned to form a Register of Medically Expensive Equipment, which would be technologically and functionally connected with the existing two registers into a whole register of resources in healthcare.

Also, the statistical research aims to include those entities that are not part of the health system, and in which health workers work, i.e. health activities are performed, such as long-term care homes, which means expanding the existing data of the Register of Health Institutions.

In the last decade, a new IT application of the Registry of Health Care Professionals was created and an even better connection with the Croatian Institute for Health Insurance, for example through the use of the so-called population register or the register of insured persons. The register continues to be the source of data and the authorized institution for the delivery of data to international bodies such as the WHO and the joint WHO/Eurostat/OECD database. Within the scope of the Department's activities are also activities in international initiatives and programs, and with regard to the problems of statistical monitoring, shortages and planning of health workers. Since 2012, we have been involved in the implementation of the "Global Code of Practice on International Recruitment of Health Personnel", a recommendation that is also an instrument in the regulation, improvement and establishment of standards in the migration process.

In the same year, the Department was involved in the work in the part of the program platform on the topic of Joint Action on European Health Workforce Planning and Forecasting.

Also, during the past years, there has been cooperation on the topic of health workers within the framework of the South-eastern Europe Health Network (SEEHN).