How does a data platform contribute to better care, improved patient experiences and more efficient healthcare work, within your organization and within the chain? And how does it ensure that you, as a healthcare institution, are ready for the future, even though you don’t know 100% what it will look like?
ZorgSaam knows, because they built a powerful data platform that forms the foundation for groundbreaking healthcare innovations. With a data platform on Microsoft Azure, ZorgSaam can work on data-driven decision-making, user-friendly access to information and other data applications for future-proof care, without technical barriers.
Peter van den Berg, CIO of ZorgSaam
Older people do physically demanding work. Some locations therefore have a disease rate of more than 10%, while they were already understaffed. So there’s no point in trying to do a little better. If you are a caterpillar, you must turn into a butterfly. Really transform, don’t become a faster caterpillar.
ZorgSaam Zorggroep Zeeuws Vlaanderen
Heathcare
Delivering accessible, high‑quality healthcare in a sparsely populated region with an aging population and a shrinking healthcare workforce.
ZorgSaam built a secure data platform on Microsoft Azure that makes data from source systems immediately available for operational healthcare use, without technical barriers.
Healthcare teams now work more data‑driven with faster operational use cases, better capacity planning, less manual work and a single source of truth.
The ZorgSaam Zorggroep Zeeuws-Vlaanderen offers high-quality care in a sparsely populated region. Many locations are needed to keep healthcare accessible, but those locations do not have enough patients and clients.
For this reason, ZorgSaam provides hospital care, community care and elderly care. Collaboration and smart combinations are anchored in the organization’s mentality.
Zeeland also has a rapidly aging population. Both the population and the healthcare workforce are relatively old. A lot of care is needed, while the workforce is shrinking.
“Some locations have a disease rate of more than 10%, while they were already understaffed,” says Peter van den Berg, CIO of ZorgSaam. “So there’s no point in trying to do a little better. If you are a caterpillar, you must turn into a butterfly.”
Healthcare itself had to change. ZorgSaam needed a platform for innovation and data exchange.
“When the minister talks about data exchange, my hair stands on end,” says Van den Berg. “Simply make the data available that is needed at that moment from your platform.”
Simply make the data available that is needed at that moment from your platform. And that is the philosophy we apply at ZorgSaam: every employee, every specialist, but also every patient must have the data needed to make the right decisions and demonstrate the right behavior.”
Data alone is not enough. “You not only have to be data‑centric, but also user‑centric,” Van den Berg says. “Healthy people won’t result from focusing on data alone.”
“You not only have to be data-centric, but also user-centric. Because what do you want as a healthcare institution? Healthy people. That won’t work if you only focus on data.”
To realize this vision, data had to be freed from source systems. ZorgSaam developed a data strategy and worked with Rapid Circle and E‑mergo to make it operational.
Rapid Circle was already a partner for modern workplaces. E‑mergo joined because of specific data expertise. Their experience with TimeXtender ensured that data sources could be connected quickly in a low‑code environment.
The focus was on operational applications: making data immediately useful in healthcare processes.
If someone comes to the specialist nervous, you have to deal with such a person in a different way than if you tell someone that he can go home or that he is healthy. We are not good at that in healthcare. We look at symptoms, make a diagnosis and prescribe treatment. With data you have the opportunity to get a complete picture, where the system looks at averages and says: you could make these diagnoses based on the data. The doctor or nurse can then ask: does this apply to this person? Or is there something else going on?
The first use case was ‘Integral Capacity Planning’: dashboards for bed and operating room occupancy.
“We can manage the data pipeline much better,” says Provoost. From source to visibility in dashboards. And, most importantly, we can now add new use cases very quickly.”
ZorgSaam now has insight into occupancy, expected admissions and potential capacity issues. The dashboards also support performance management and reduce workload.
A second use case supports doctors treating breast cancer patients. Questionnaire data from HiX is extracted, visualized with Power BI and returned to the patient file.
This gives doctors a visual overview of patient responses over time and allows conversations to be conducted more efficiently. No reports, no Excel, no manual work.
With all data available on a secure platform, ZorgSaam is better prepared for future developments such as Wegiz, the Data Exchange in Healthcare Act.
The platform also reduces dependency on suppliers. “The approach is that we should be able to do it ourselves.” says Provoost.
Key outcomes include:
Discover how a secure data platform can make healthcare data immediately usable for daily care, operational decisions and future innovation, even when the future is still uncertain.
ZorgSaam needed a way to make healthcare more efficient, improve patient experiences and support innovation in a region with an aging population and staff shortages.
A centralized platform makes data from different source systems available in one place, enabling faster use cases, better insights and a single source of truth.
It provides real-time dashboards, supports capacity planning, reduces manual work and helps healthcare professionals make better-informed decisions.
The platform is built on Microsoft Azure and uses tools such as TimeXtender and Power BI to integrate, process and visualize data.
By making data available on a secure, controlled platform, ZorgSaam is better prepared for data-sharing requirements and less dependent on suppliers.
