In early 2022, it was still difficult to use data and information in outpatient care in the City of Espoo. In cooperation with Medielli Oy, Fluentia's experts built a data management package using Microsoft services to help, which provides an at-a-glance view of the status of operations.
A managementdevelopment project in the outpatient care of the City of Espoo revealed that there was a need for more efficient data management and especially data visualisation for the operational management teams of the health centres. Different health centres had different recording and reporting methods, and in order to have access to data, employees had to request reports separately or find out the status data from different systems themselves.
They wanted to get rid of unnecessary wasted time. The data should quickly show whether the situation in the health centres is in line with the objectives. Are there any anomalies in operations to which the management teams should react?
Fluentia's experts were called in to help build a new data management system that would provide real-time information on the level of activity in outpatient care, based on a set of indicators.
- Our starting point was the layered management model. We needed to make information visible in different ways to different groups: senior management, local management and unit management teams," says Tomi, Fluentia's expert on the project.
With Fluentia's help, a Microsoft Power Automate-based solution was built to automate data transfer in Espoo's outpatient department. It was partnered with Microsoft Power BI dashboard for data visualisation and management.
One of the challenges of the project was the different forms of data.
- Some of the data was found automatically in the systems, but some was handwritten on paper. Data was available at different levels - daily, weekly or monthly. The dates could also be in different formats," says Pauliina, who was responsible for data consolidation at Fluential.
Once the data had been consolidated, it was used to build a view called ASH Dashboard. It is now used at Espoo's health centres to measure mainly six things: access to service or care, continuity of care, effectiveness, customer experience, staff experience and productivity.
The indicators have been selected to support the current needs of outpatient care in Espoo. If and when the needs change in the future, changes can be made to the set of indicators and the dashboard can be developed. The current system will thus also be able to adapt to future needs.
- The cooperation with Fluentia was very agile and flexible. We have received support from Fluentia for big and small issues, and they have been very understanding in terms of schedule and staffing changes. It has been easy to deal with them, as the contact person at Fluentia has remained the same throughout," says Jonna Taskinen, Project Manager of the City of Espoo.
- A big thank you also for the fact that Fluentia always spoke plain English with us. Things were presented to us in a way that the whole team understood.
The cooperation is also praised by Fluentia. The project was clearly important to the City of Espoo, and Fluentia wanted to find the best metrics and solutions for the complex needs of outpatient care.
- We always strive to improve our customers' data management and thereby save them money," says the Fluentia team.
