Case Study: Helsinki University Hospital improves patient access and cuts healthcare costs with Microsoft cloud solutions

Virtual Hospital improves patients’ healthcare access, dramatically cuts costs

Helsinki University Hospital (part of the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District) faced the challenge of providing equitable, quality healthcare to a scattered and aging population across Finland, including remote areas, while managing rising costs and limited resources. To meet this, they partnered with Microsoft Corporation and used Microsoft cloud solutions, including Microsoft 365 and Azure, to begin their digital transformation and create a Virtual Hospital platform.

The solution implemented with Microsoft provided the foundational cloud technology to build a network of digital medical hubs, enabling remote therapies and virtual visits. This resulted in dramatically improved patient access and significant cost savings, with virtual visits costing half that of in-person ones. The hospital calculated that a mere 5% reduction in outpatient visits would pay for the digital services five times over within three years, and therapists in some specialties were able to treat three to five times more patients.

Helsinki University Hospital

Visa Honkanen

Director of Strategic Development