The monitoring system for prescriptions and drugs covered from public funds should: (1) support drug policy, (2) rationalise drug therapy, (3) considerably limit actual abuse, (4) improve refund management by a payer. The authors made an analysis of different, legally acceptable in 2001-2003, monitoring systems in the mentioned aspects. The subject-matter of the their consideration were monitoring strategy and the quality of obtained source data. As a result, the fundamental conditions that must be met for such a system to be efficient, were determined.

A monitoring system produces a collection of data on prescriptions and drugs, in the electronic form, organised into an information database. The monitoring efficiency depends on the quality of the source data collected and on the forms and scope of their availability.

The quality is determined by completeness, range and validity of the data, as well as the level of their reliability. This is measured by the degree of certainty that a prescription was written by an entitled physician for an entitled patient on the basis of current medical knowledge.

The way, range and form of making data available should depend on the rights of persons or institutions involved; the special protection of personal and medical data should be secured. To this purpose appropriate decision support systems, based on an information database provided by a monitoring system, should be used.

Monitoring systems differ by the range and reliability of their data. Only monitoring of the Medical Service Register can (1) collect complete data; in other systems there is no patient’s ID; (2) guarantees that a prescription was given to an entitled patient, (3) closely connects the data from prescriptions with information on other medical services provided to a patient.

The authors recommend the Medical Service Register as an optimum, complex, complete and reliable system of monitoring of prescriptions and drugs covered from public funds.