Region Midtjylland

Region Midtjylland improves patient care and reduces treatment costs for 1.3m citizens with Tableau


Self-service analytics drives insights and collaboration for over 2,500 staff across 6 hospitals

Deeper understanding of prescription data allows clinicians to reduce treatment cost

Referral delays are dramatically reduced, improving patient experience

Region Midtjylland (Region Midt) is responsible for healthcare in the central region of Denmark, providing medical services in support of over 1.3 million citizens across six hospitals. Region Midt relies on Tableau to create a unified self-service analytics solution spanning more than 2,500 employees. One of the initial project successes concerned antibiotics treatment; by exploring data in new ways, Region Midt has reduced drugs wastage and by consequence lowered medicine costs.

Tableau is also helping to promote a forward-thinking, data-driven culture. Data is adding clarity and consensus to decisions made by Region Midt clinicians, administrators and managers. This evidence-based approach is empowering users, connecting care and improving the patient experience.

It was almost too easy to drive down medicine costs with Tableau.

Top-to-bottom self-service analytics reduces both drug costs and patient referral times

Region Midt faced a difficult and urgent challenge: to make sense of the different data locked away in data warehouses, spreadsheets and other systems. “We had data everywhere – in warehouses, in Excel, in SAS and in other silos,” explains Jonas Eskildsen Sørensen, Head of Business Intelligence at Region Midt. “We simply didn’t have the data insight we needed to run a modern healthcare organisation.”

Jonas and his team chose Tableau after analysing multiple solutions on the market, and began to drill down into their data in whole new ways – starting with drug treatment costs.

“It was almost too easy to drive down medicine costs with Tableau,” says Jonas. “In the past, we didn’t have as much insight into the distribution of antibiotics. Using Tableau, we are giving clinicians an accurate, timely dashboard of antibiotics administration and patient distribution. This has led to a dramatic reduction in the volume of unnecessary antibiotics given to patients, and by consequence a reduction in drug costs.”

Tableau is also helping to reduce the time between patients being referred by their doctor to hospital and the actual appointment. “Previously, only 60% of patients were seen within 30 days of their referral. Tableau enables us to connect with the relevant patient data, visualise the problem and find answers. Now, 90% of patients have their meeting within 30 days. We are on our way to achieving 100%.”

Previously, only 60% of patients were seen within 30 days of their referral. Tableau enables us to connect with the relevant patient data, visualise the problem and find answers. Now, 90% of patients have their meeting within 30 days.

Unified platform drives insights and collaboration for more than 2,500 users across 6 hospitals

Based on these early wins, Region Midt has standardised on Tableau throughout the organisation, in parallel with a consolidated Microsoft SQL Server data warehouse. “Tableau is helping to build Region Midt for the future,” says Jonas. “It’s a huge step forward in the delivery of self-service analytics, because it is so easy to learn. Anyone can become a data rockstar.”

More than 2,500 employees now rely on Tableau Server every month. “Every role in Region Midt uses Tableau,” Jonas comments. “Senior management use it, the clinicians on the floor use it and so does everyone else in-between. Tableau Desktop meanwhile is primarily used by analysts, including ones based in the hospitals.”

The results speak for themselves. Jonas continues, “Tableau is saving Region Midt a huge amount of time, allowing teams to focus on decision-making, not manual data analysis. In the past, they had their spreadsheets, which they distributed by email. Now the entire process is automated: they can work with the data, present it and distribute it in a much smarter way.”

It's so much more than building dashboards... Tableau is a great solution for enabling change.

Data-driven culture thrives as internal community creates enthusiasm and curiosity

Inspired by the wider Tableau Community, Region Midt has created its own internal Tableau community, establishing a new data culture and training employees to do more with their data. It is encouraging collaboration across teams and driving excitement around data.

“It’s easy to become a data rock star,” says Jonas. “It’s so much more than just building dashboards. It’s about fueling engagement, it’s about showing people how to use the right tools, encouraging them to use them in the right way. Tableau is a great solution for enabling change.”

This new data culture is now emanating from almost every corner of the organisation. It is about replacing the widespread fear of data with a curiosity for information. Jonas concludes, “We are giving users the opportunity to deep dive into the data. They don’t see it as data. It’s just a smart visualisation, or something they can interact with. It brings forward the curiosity in a lot of people.”

We are giving users the opportunity to deep dive into the data. They don’t see it as data. It’s just a smart visualisation, or something they can interact with. It brings forward the curiosity in a lot of people.