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From 12 hours to 15 minutes: HUS transforms operational reporting

Real-time data that supports daily decisions across 120+ hospital wards

Summary

HUS, Finland's largest healthcare provider, replaced manual Excel-based reporting with an automated real-time solution built with Pinja. Operational data now updates every 15 minutes instead of twice daily, supporting better resource decisions across 120+ hospital wards and 1,000+ staff members.

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Data & Intelligence

Impact

12 hours → 15 minutes

Operational data refreshes automatically instead of twice a day.

120+ wards covered
The solution is in use across nearly all inpatient departments.
1,000+ users supported
Daily decisions are guided by the same, shared situational picture.
Manual work eliminated
Excel-based data collection is replaced with automated workflows.

About HUS

HUS (Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa) is Finland's largest healthcare provider, serving 2.2 million people across the Helsinki metropolitan area and 24 municipalities. With 27,500 employees, HUS provides specialised medical care and operates multiple hospitals and healthcare facilities.

 

  • Finland's largest healthcare operator
  • 27,500 employees
  • 2.2 million inhabitants in the cooperation area
THE CHALLENGE

Manual reporting couldn't support real-time operational decisions

Daily operational management at HUS required constant awareness of patient numbers and staffing levels across hospital units. Department heads needed to know how many patients were currently in each ward, how many more were arriving, how many were being discharged, and whether staffing matched the workload — including accounting for acute absences.

This critical information was collected manually from multiple disconnected sources. Patient numbers came from the Apotti patient information system, personnel resources from the shift planning system, and acute staff absences from various messaging channels. All of this data was manually extracted into a large Excel spreadsheet that was updated only twice per day.

The manual process consumed significant time, created opportunities for error, and couldn't provide the real-time visibility needed for effective decision-making. By the time the Excel file was updated, the situation on the ground had often already changed. Staff couldn't reliably optimise resources, balance workloads across departments, or make proactive decisions to improve patient safety and process flow.

In spring 2021, the HUS Gastroenterology Centre — and with it the wider HUS organisation — set a strategic goal: create an automated, real-time situational picture that would support modern healthcare management.

 

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“We needed an automated situational picture for changing specialised medical care, with which we could monitor patient flow in real time and reliably.”
Tommi JuntunenSenior Planning Officer at HUS
THE SOLUTION

Automated operational reporting built for real-time decision-making

In spring 2022, HUS and Pinja launched a joint development project to design, define, and implement a modern situational awareness solution. The partnership brought together HUS's deep healthcare operations expertise with Pinja's technical capabilities in data warehousing and reporting.

The solution automated data extraction from Apotti, the data lake, and the data warehouse. A key innovation was developing a new approach for managing acute absences and bed status using Microsoft's Power Apps platform. This provided a straightforward way to capture and store data that wasn't directly available in source systems, in a format suitable for real-time reporting.

 

To achieve true real-time performance, the team separated the reporting environment into its own dedicated infrastructure. This architectural decision proved critical — the upload chain from source systems to reports now updates every 15 minutes, replacing the previous twice-daily manual process.

The solution was designed to be scalable from the start. After successful piloting in the HUS Abdominal Centre's inpatient wards, the system expanded rapidly based on strong user feedback. Visual, clear reports now provide decision-makers across the organisation with real-time insights into the relationship between patient numbers and available resources.

 

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"The data update was practically carried out in as real-time as is possible in such a multidimensional environment. The Excel spreadsheet previously used was updated twice a day, and now the goal was set to update the reports every 15 minutes. This goal was also achieved."
Samuel RahikainenProject Manager at Pinja
THE IMPACT

From delayed snapshots to real-time situational awareness

The transformation in operational visibility was immediate and substantial. HUS moved from twice-daily manual updates to automated reporting that refreshes every 15 minutes — reducing the update interval from 12 hours to 15 minutes.

Automated workflows replace manual work

The solution eliminated the time-consuming manual process of extracting data from multiple systems into Excel spreadsheets. Staff across 120+ inpatient wards and approximately 1,000 employees now have automatic access to current operational data, freeing time for higher-value work and patient care.

Better resource optimisation and workload balancing

Department heads can now see real-time patient-to-staff ratios across units, making it possible to optimise resource allocation and balance workloads more effectively. The transparency helps identify where support is needed before situations become critical, improving both staff experience and patient care.

Improved patient safety and smoother processes

Real-time visibility into patient numbers, incoming admissions, and discharges enables proactive management of patient flow. This supports smoother processes, reduces bottlenecks, and contributes to improved patient safety through better-informed decision-making.

Rapid scaling and future development

The solution's scalable design enabled quick expansion from the initial pilot to over 120 inpatient wards. Following positive user feedback praising the ease of use and always-available real-time information, HUS is now extending the solution to outpatient clinics and surgical units. Artificial intelligence-based prediction models are also being developed to further enhance the situational picture.

Key impacts include:

12-hour to 15-minute update intervals, transforming twice-daily manual updates into near real-time automated reporting

120+ inpatient wards using the solution, with expansion to outpatient clinics and surgical units underway

 ~1,000 employees with access, covering almost all clinical inpatient departments

Eliminated manual data collection, freeing staff time and reducing errors

Enhanced decision-making capabilities, with real-time patient-to-staff ratios supporting resource optimisation
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"The daily management of nursing work project is a model example of successful cooperation between a public actor and a business partner to develop daily management of healthcare."
Markku MäkijärviChief Physician at HUS
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DATA & INTELLIGENCE

Turn operational data into actionable insights

Real-time data platforms and automated reporting that support better decisions in complex operational environments

Speak directly with an industry specialist

Book time with Eeva-Maria Paavola for a brief, high-impact discussion on modernising operational reporting for healthcare and other complex environments.

If your organisation relies on manual data collection, lacks real-time operational visibility, or needs to support better resource decisions, we can walk you through practical solutions that transform daily management.

 

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Eeva-Maria Paavola
eeva-maria.paavola@pinja.com

Schedule a chat with Eeva-Maria