Consultants recommend keeping criticised Apotti system

A consultant review recommends that HUS, Helsinki and the Vantaa and Kerava wellbeing services county continue using the Apotti customer information system, Yle reports. The review also calls for improvements to its performance and use.

Apotti is used in health and social services in HUS, Helsinki and the Vantaa and Kerava wellbeing services county. HUS Director of Administration Lauri Tanner said continuing with the system was considered the lowest-risk option.

The review recommends a thorough assessment and improvement of both the system and the organisations using it. More efficient operations could generate savings within a couple of years, according to the report.

The consultants said Apotti had not yet reached its full potential. The implementation lacked sufficient change management, and the process was too heavily driven by information technology. Tanner said the rollout coincided with the coronavirus pandemic, when resources and attention were focused on managing the crisis.

The review examined whether Apotti should be retained, modified or replaced. Replacing it with another system would involve a significant cost risk, the report found.

HUS, Helsinki and the Vantaa and Kerava wellbeing services county will discuss the review at their board meetings next week. They commissioned the review in the spring because it was now possible to consider withdrawing from Apotti. The system’s fixed-term procurement contract ends this year, while depreciation of the system will end in a few years.

The Swedish consulting firm BearingPoint conducted the review at a cost of about 60,000 euros. For users of health and social services, Apotti is most familiar through Maisa, the interface used to access their personal information in the system.

Apotti has faced years of criticism

Apotti has been widely criticised, particularly by doctors who have complained about its usability. Oy Apotti Ab changed its chief executive last spring. The contract of current chief executive Iina Vartia runs for one year, and she is expected to improve the user experience in particular.

Building Apotti cost more than 400 million euros and took well over 10 years, from the preliminary stage of the procurement process to the final implementations in 2022.

Depreciation related to the original investment will end in 2028, after which annual costs will fall. Estimated costs to the three owners are about 145 million euros this year. The owners are Helsinki, HUS and the Vantaa and Kerava wellbeing services county.

The wellbeing services counties of East, Central and West Uusimaa withdrew from Apotti earlier. As a result, for example, residents and patients in West Uusimaa now use two different systems: the region’s own system for primary services and Apotti, accessed through Maisa, when they use HUS services.