Helicopter emergency medical service
Client: Croatian Institute of Emergency Medicine
Category: Public sector, healthcare
Technology: WordPress, PHP, HTML/CSS, JavaScript, WPML
About the client:
The Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HHMS) is a strategic project of the Croatian Institute of Emergency Medicine that began operations on March 30, 2024 — simultaneously from four bases located in Osijek, Rijeka, Split, and Zagreb. The HHMS provides fast and accessible emergency medical care to all citizens and visitors of the Republic of Croatia, including islands, rural, and remote areas that ground emergency services cannot reach quickly enough. It is a project of exceptional strategic importance for the Croatian healthcare system — with the establishment of the HHMS, Croatia has joined the ranks of European countries with the most developed emergency medicine systems.
Project description:
Launching a completely new public service also requires a completely new digital presence. As an independent service, HHMS needed its own website separate from the parent HZHM — a space where citizens, media and healthcare professionals could find all relevant information about the service, databases, working methods and news. The project was created as part of a broader collaboration with the Croatian Institute of Emergency Medicine, and the requirements were consistent with the previous project — professional presentation, multilingualism and meeting legal standards of digital accessibility for the public sector.
Process:
We created a complete presentation website in WordPress, tailored to the needs of the new public service and its various user groups — from citizens who want to know more about the availability of the service, to journalists and health professionals who follow the development of HHMS.
WordPress development and site structure
The site is set up with a clear and concise structure that covers all key information about the service — a description of HHMS and its role in the emergency medicine system, a display of four databases with information on territorial coverage, current events and news about the service's work, and contact information. Despite the relatively simple architecture, special attention has been paid to clarity and speed of information retrieval — which is always a priority for this type of public service.
Multilingualism (HR/EN)
The website is implemented with support for Croatian and English, which is particularly important for HHMS because the service covers the entire territory of Croatia, including extremely busy coastal and island destinations. Foreign visitors and tourists who find themselves in an emergency situation, as well as international partners and the professional public, should have equal access to all information about the service.
Digital Accessibility (WCAG)
As a public sector project, HHMS is legally required to implement digital accessibility standards. The implementation included semantically correct HTML, appropriate color contrast according to the WCAG AA standard, full keyboard navigability, ARIA tags for interactive elements, properly structured titles and navigation, and text alternatives for all visual content. Accessibility was implemented systematically from the beginning of development, rather than as an afterthought — the only approach that guarantees consistent application of the standards throughout the site.
Challenges:
The specific context of this project was timing — the site had to be ready and publicly available for the launch of the new service on March 30, 2024, which set clear and unavoidable deadlines. In addition, the project had to be visually and technically consistent with the existing HZHM site, but at the same time function as an independent and recognizable digital identity for the new service. Multilingualism and accessibility had to be properly implemented from the first day of publication — with no room for subsequent refinement, as the site was immediately under the scrutiny of the media and the public following the launch of HHMS.
Result:
A clean, professional and accessible presentation website was delivered, ready for public launch with the launch of the service itself. The website meets legal obligations for digital accessibility, is available in Croatian and English, and provides citizens and all interested parties with a clear and reliable source of information about the Croatian Helicopter Emergency Medical Service.