A modern data lake solution brings added cost awareness and offers support to management

Pohde is one of the largest wellbeing services counties in Finland, responsible for the well-being, safety and health of more than 400,000 Finns. Pohde is building a smart hospital in Oulu that will utilise modern solutions and is aiming to be among the world’s best.

Effective management of the wellbeing services county requires accurate cost information. Pohde’s old cost accounting system was no longer able to meet the changed needs. In addition, the new wellbeing services counties caused major changes in the source systems, basic data and organisational structures. Making accurate cost calculations became more difficult than before as a result of the historically significant social and healthcare reform.

Pohde set out to find a solution to this challenge in collaboration with Solita and Istekki’s experts. The service centre for women and children was chosen as the pilot site.

“From the point of view of sensible management of wellbeing services counties and the understanding of the whole societal picture, awareness of the cost structures of individual operations and social welfare and health care services is essential”, says Solita’s Health Business Director Sanna Virkkunen and continues:

A modern data lake solution as the starting point for development

Instead of traditional information system procurement, Pohde, Istekki and Solita wanted to try a solution model that utilised an already existing data lake and its knowledge base.

In cooperation with Solita, Istekki has already implemented a productised data warehouse solution for the wellbeing services counties of Pirkanmaa, Northern Ostrobothnia and Northern Savo that uses modern technology and innovative thinking and meets the nationally defined requirements.

“The scope of the project is very large, as the information comes from various different source systems in each of the three wellbeing services counties,” said Satu Matikainen, Business Manager in charge of Data and Analytics, Istekki.

The internationally exceptional health and social care data lake can also be implemented in other wellbeing services counties.

Without the data warehouse solution, this project wouldn’t have been possible. With the help of the data lake, it was possible to calculate different costs and transfer them to the units producing the deliverables. 

“With the pilot, we wanted to make sure that this is really possible and to identify what kind of basic data we need as the basis for cost accounting. “We succeeded well in this,” says Katri Pauna, Information Service Expert, Pohde.

Knowledge management ensures sensible decisions

The benefits of cost accounting aren’t limited to pricing, but the information can also be used as a tool for knowledge-based management.

“Wellbeing services counties should boldly utilise existing data more extensively, also in management. It isn’t just a matter of getting to know the costs of the services and how the costs are formed. Going one step further, we can also track the total cost of care paths. As a whole, this has a really significant impact,” says Pohde’s Honkanen. 

“We hope that Pohde’s example will inspire other wellbeing service counties to utilise the data lake also for cost accounting. Data lake implementation saves a huge amount of time, money and labour,” says Solita’s Virkkunen.

From knowledge-based management to knowledge-based operations 

Pohde also wanted to renew its use of data and learn to utilise it more extensively, innovatively and systematically. So far, many wellbeing services counties have utilised data mainly for reporting. The next step in utilising data requires a cultural and mindset change among health and social care professionals.

“Data should be used more extensively than just for reporting once it has been collected. It’s not just about leading with knowledge, it’s also about operating with knowledge. In the future, Pohde can integrate data more extensively into its everyday life. The next step in the Finnish information transition is that the information collected in the systems would be accessible to managers and also to other professionals. Making a change requires projects like this”, says Virkkunen. 

Agile collaboration brought results quickly

The cooperation of the multi-organisational team was strong in the project. Cost accounting wasn’t conceived as a collaboration only involving financial professionals; instead, experts from various fields worked together.

“The data lake began to have a lot of content, we had a need for cost accounting, and we also had a suitable partner. Many things fell into place. The time was favourable for this project”, says Pohde’s Honkanen and continues:

“My image of Solita is that they are highly skilled and professional, and I know I can trust them to deliver what we have agreed,” says Antti Koskinen, Group Manager at Istekki.

The partners had collaborated on the data lake project even before the start of the cost accounting pilot.  

“Cooperation has also been smooth because people already knew each other. Cooperation between experts in different areas was essential, we didn’t just do things in our own silos. In such projects, it is advisable to make use of the expertise of different professionals”, says Pauna from Pohde. 

Pohde’s cost accounting project will continue, and the aim is to implement cost accounting throughout Pohde.