The Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS), the largest provider of specialized healthcare in Finland, is gradually introducing the Minun Ateriani application, developed by Pinja, within its facilities. The app aims to improve the efficiency of food distribution, give patients more choice in their meals, and reduce food waste. Even a small reduction in waste from individual meals can make a big difference on an annual basis, as HUS serves all meals of the day to up to 3,000 patients.

Aiming to reduce paper and waste

The new Minun Ateriani app serves several simultaneous goals at HUS, including digitizing food distribution data, reducing the risk of errors, and reducing waste. Co-developed by HUS and Pinja, the service also empowers customers to influence their meals to provide better-tasting food, and improve customer satisfaction.

At the same time, the app reduces the use of paper, as meal data previously collected on paper by caregivers is now in an electronic system. The development project is part of HUS’s goal to become a paperless hospital.

– With the Minun Ateriani app, we want to empower patients to take control of their diet. We believe that this will improve customer satisfaction and reduce food waste. Digitalization brings better traceability to our food service processes, and enables us to harmonize our ordering and serving practices, says Tuula Lasander, Director of HUS Core Services.

Usability is important for the wide user base

Minun Ateriani is divided into two parts, an employee app and a patient app. The patient logs in to the app using their bank details or other authentication method of their choice, and selects their preferred meal and side dishes, drink, and portion size from the available options. The information is transmitted to the ERP system of the food services in near real-time. The employee view is for institutional food handlers, who will receive their food distribution information digitally in the future.

Due to the wide range of users, usability is an important part of the joint development project between HUS and Pinja.

– The project includes piloting of both applications at HUS’s premises, usability testing of the employee application, and third-party accessibility auditing of the patient app by HUS. Positive feedback and comments were received from the user experience and the audit, which were used in the further development of the application, says Joni Partanen, project manager at Pinja.

The app was first launched in April 2024 at Peijas Hospital, where feedback from the hospital will be used to further develop the service for a wider roll-out. In total, the app is to be introduced in phases across the different units of HUS.

Interested? Contact us

Petteri Väisänen
Director, Business Intelligence
+358 40 077 4189
petteri.vaisanen@pinja.com

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