Case Study: Hôpital Montfort reduces unnecessary lab tests and empowers physicians with Power BI on Microsoft Azure

Hôpital Montfort builds a case for better healthcare with Power BI

Hôpital Montfort, Ontario’s only French‑speaking academic hospital serving more than 1.2 million people, faced a clinical‑quality challenge: physicians were ordering routine lab test sets that were often unnecessary, increasing costs and patient risk. Existing reporting tools were slow and not interactive enough to influence individual clinician behavior, so the hospital needed a secure, user‑friendly way to give physicians timely performance data to support the Choosing Wisely Canada initiative.

Using Microsoft Power BI with SQL Server, SSIS, Azure AD and an on‑premises data gateway, one developer built interactive, row‑level‑secured dashboards in under two days, then iteratively refined them with clinicians. Within 30 days clinicians changed ordering habits (electrolyte order‑sets dropped as targeted Na/K testing rose), and the emergency department cut lab utilization by 30% with no adverse patient effects; the solution now supports broader governance and planned rollout across departments.

Hôpital Montfort

Sébastien Landry

Director of Medical Affairs