The investment the organisation has made in the implementation project is reflected in the excellent results. The phased implementation began in autumn 2024, and Medanets Medication is now actively used in nine wards.
The decision to adopt the Medication solution was driven by a wider initiative to standardise healthcare documentation practices across the wellbeing services county. A key focus of this project has been the harmonisation of medication documentation in order to enhance patient safety. ‘The organisation had recognised that the Medanets app supports safe medication practices’, explain the organisation’s Documentation Coordinator Satu Sorvisto and Medical Device Coordinator Petteri Karhukorpi.
Clear rationale boosts staff engagement
The Medication solution was initially piloted in three units back in 2023. At the same time, corresponding updates were made to the organisation-wide medication plan and documentation practices. The pilot phase faced several challenges, which were addressed by the organisation’s IT department. However, the usage level of the app did not reach the set goals.
’In 2024, when we were able to restart the project in collaboration between the Medical Device Coordinator and the Documentation Coordinator, we identified that the pilot had lacked proper project management, and adequate resources for a controlled implementation. The rationale for using the solution had also not been clearly communicated to the staff. Thanks to project funding, we were able to address these issues’, says Karhukorpi.
’As we’ve worked through Medanets-related topics, we’ve also communicated to each unit why standardised documentation practices in medication management are important. With the introduction of the Medanets app, the importance of consistent documentation practices has become even more pronounced’, Sorvisto explains. ’It also makes it easier for our floating staff to work across units, since the medication processes and documentation practices are broadly the same everywhere.’
Another key driver for implementation was the tightening of national requirements for documenting medication practices. ’We’ve introduced Medanets Medication to meet the upcoming regulatory changes in advance – we’re acting early’, says Sorvisto.
’Staff have told us that adopting any new system is much easier when the reasoning behind it is clear. When people understand why a change is happening, it helps them absorb new information and commit to new practices’, Karhukorpi notes.
Continuous improvement – building a robust training model
The rollout was carried out in phases, starting with the units that had been involved in the earlier pilot. After that, the implementation progressed two wards at a time.
’We applied lessons from each phase to the next’, says Karhukorpi. ’The training became more developed and comprehensive as the project progressed. In the first wards that adopted the solution, we trained 60-70% of the staff. In the later wards, nearly 100 % of staff was trained.’
The training model focused especially on thorough preparation before the app was introduced. Karhukorpi and Sorvisto presented the app during ward meetings or development days, explaining how it works and leading discussions about the unit’s medication process. They also reviewed the organisation’s guidelines for documenting the medication processes. During the rollout, the training model placed strong emphasis on offering one-to-one support. According to Karhukorpi, this clearly improved staff engagement and was reflected in high usage rates of the app.
’The better we succeeded in sharing information and giving staff the chance to get to know the app in advance, the smoother the go-live process was. A common comment we heard was: ’This wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought’, confirms Sorvisto.
The training content itself was continuously refined. ’Each ward had unique scenarios that we incorporated into the next round of training’, Karhukorpi says.
| The training model: Tips for others planning to implement Medanets Medication |
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| Ensure your medication process is in order. Check that your organisation’s medication care plan includes guidance on using Medanets. Make sure each unit follows this plan, and involve the team in planning any necessary changes to the medication process. |
| Get training materials ready for ward sessions, development days, and user training. It’s a good idea to create a written training framework to ensure the consistency of training content. |
| Clearly communicate why the app is being introduced, what it’s for, and how it will impact day-to-day work. Arrange ward sessions or development day lectures to support this. An effective setup included 3–4 ward sessions per unit or 1–2 development day lectures (about 2 hours). Schedule these as close to the implementation date as possible—ideally within one month. |
| Set up and test the technical environment: make sure network connections, phones, charging docks, and other technical tools are ready and working. |
| Ask each unit to name Medanets key users or contact persons and establish a peer support network for them. |
| Offer one-to-one support to as many staff as possible during the rollout. Tailor session lengths to skill levels—typically 5 to 30 minutes per person. While doing this, confirm that entries made in the app are correctly transferring to the EHR. The training framework can also be reused later for onboarding new staff. |
| Arrange a follow-up meeting with the unit to collect feedback and guide the process. Be ready to provide extra training if the unit needs it. |
| Document staff competencies: keep track of who has completed training. Make sure all guidelines and workflows are easy to access. One approach is to use a digital tracking tool for this purpose. |
| Regularly review app usage statistics and involve staff in interpreting the data. |
’We’ve already seen many benefits – Especially improved safety’
According to nurse Kaisa Koivusalo, using the app has been straightforward: ’The app itself is easy and intuitive to use – there haven’t been any problems. After using it a couple of times, it just clicks. If you’re used to doing things on your phone in everyday life, using this at work feels natural too.’
What has required more attention is understanding how the new medication process works within the organisation.
’The most important thing has been going over how certain actions are meant to be carried out in our organisation. For instance, how to proceed if a medication is listed as intravenous but given orally instead. There are also special cases, such as isolation or resuscitation situations. Surgical patients have their own information system, so we had to agree on separate procedures for those cases’, Koivusalo explains.
’Remembering all of this was a bit challenging at first, but you quickly get used to the new routines’, she adds. ’We’ve discussed these scenarios as a team and solved the challenges together.’
The team has already noticed clear benefits from using the Medanets Medication solution, despite having used it for only a short time.
’Above all, we think the app improves safety. It helps us spot medication discrepancies more easily. And we really appreciate how it speeds up our work. For example, if a patient rings the call bell and asks for painkillers, we can go directly to the medication room with the app. Before, we had to go to the ward office first and check the medication list on the desktop, and only then fetch the medicine. Now, up-to-date medication lists, and other essential information, are available in the app’, Koivusalo concludes.