Project Management in Healthcare - Essay Example

 Project Management Final 1. Describe at least one concept from the book Project Management in Healthcare that was clarified for you by reading it (something that you understood better in the book than in the textbook). David Shirley in his book Project Management for Healthcare has discussed effective and time-tested measures and practices related to project management to ensure success in healthcare projects and improve quality. He further underscores the need for adopting project management principles and discusses at length, all tools and techniques related to project management process for successfully planning and accomplishing a healthcare-based project. 2. List 5 reasons why organizations outsource. Why is there a growing trend in outsourcing? Why do healthcare facilities outsource? Organizations opt to outsource for multifarious reasons. Some of them are as follows: 1. To cut down operational and maintenance costs 2. To have access to certain capabilities of international standard and world class features 3. To have plentiful internal resources for attaining diverse objectives 4. To have reliable business partners for sharing risks 5. To have resourceful employees who can work from home or in another office due to limited capacity for employees within an organization In contemporary world more and more organizations are moving towards outsourcing for fulfilling strategic objectives so that they can concentrate on performing core value-adding operations in-house and gain optimum benefit from their core competencies. With rapidly advancing technology most healthcare facilities can not afford to acquire and train in-house IT staff for key competences, therefore they opt to outsource. By outsourcing information technology (IT) services they can better focus on their core business related to providing healthcare services and employ all there resources for this purpose.  Moreover outsourcing IT systems has a lot of benefits for healthcare organizations. For instance, the IT service may facilitate a healthcare organization with best-practical solutions for enhancing and refining service levels throughout the organization. Additionally, an outsourcing IT firm makes sure that all necessary technical skill sets are at disposal especially during periods of technological overhaul. Also outsourcing in healthcare facilities ensures predictable costs over longer periods. Outsourcing is the best viable option for healthcare firms that are encountering rapid technological changes alongside having limited funds [Sch13]. 3. How can you use Microsoft Excel to assist in project risk management? What other software can help project teams make better risk management decisions?  Microsoft Excel is the perfect software solution for analyzing project risks and financial threats. It offers manifold functionalities to businesses and organizations to devise real-time risk management decisions. It objectively and mathematically computes all financial data and statistics for future analysis. Moreover reliable and detailed matrices, plans and models can be chalked out for sharing and observation. With Microsoft Excel future cash flows can be obtained in present and projected figures can be calculated. Other tools like Aon’s eSolutions can be used to manage project risk management [Sch13]. 4. Summarize different tools and techniques project managers can use to help them manage project teams. What can they do to manage virtual teams?  Following techniques can be utilized by project managers for managing project teams. Observation and conversation: Observation and conversation are the best tools to maintain work related relationship and gauge the behavior of project team members. It helps to expedite the progress towards fulfilling team objectives and also resolve interpersonal issues.  Project Performance Appraisals: The critical nature of the project, quality of performance and organizational policy define the level of project performance appraisals. Project team members are continuously managed, evaluated and supervised by their team leads, seniors, peers and subordinates under 360-degree feedback principles. The key techniques to manage project teams include giving feedback and evaluating project members for their performance, allotting sufficient time to allow team members to resolve interpersonal and project related issues and devising individual training plans. Conflict Management: Conflict management fosters healthy working relationships and greater productivity while deficient resources, scheduling priorities and individual working styles are the main causes of conflicts. It is essential for a project manager to iron out differences of opinion and give way to efficient decision making and creativity. Conflicts need to be catered on a priority basis through direct, collaborative approach. However in case of disruptive conflicts, a need may arise to employ formal procedures and the use of disciplinary actions. Virtual teams may comprise of such team members who carry out their responsibilities remotely with minimal or no time-spent meeting face to face or who are located miles apart in another country. They interact via electronic communication like e-mail and video conferencing. To manage virtual teams a manager needs to establish ground rules i.e., timings of work, lunch, meetings etc, create team spirit by establishing team objectives and remain diligent about workload and deadline completion to ensure professionalism [Sch13]. 5. How can you use Microsoft Project to assist in project human resource management? Microsoft Project helps to manage resources by keeping a track record of their progress, underscoring allocation issues and connecting all this data to the overall project. Through Microsoft Project resources can be categorized into three groups: work, material and cost, which help in their management. A work resource is the one who works is assigned a task and is evaluated according to time spent. A material resource refers to the things being utilized by a task. Cost resources are the ancillary costs which are not directly linked with work and materials like expenses. In Microsoft Project data can be entered either through the Resource Sheet or the Resource Information dialog box. By assigning resources to a particular task it can be identified that how much time will be required to finish a task, how much cost will be incurred and it is whose responsibility to complete a specific task. Microsoft Project estimates the total time duration of a task on the basis of each resource's availability. If additional resources are assigned allotted a certain task Microsoft Project can effectively calculate the consequent reduction in time for task completion under its default option known as effort-driven scheduling. Moreover Microsoft Project offers many ways to assign tasks to resources to ensure optimal management of resources [Sch13]. 6. In the last chapter of this book the author discusses going Green. How can project management tools and techniques be used to help a healthcare facility go green? Healthcare facilities can go green by adopting following environmental friendly practices and techniques as part of their project management: 1. Carry out materials management by cutting down on consumption of toxic materials like PVC, mercury, cleaning materials, DEHP, pesticides, flame retardants and other products of similar kind. 2. Collaborate with group purchasing organizations and suppliers to make sure environment preferable purchasing is carried out via sustainable supply chains. Also purchase products having maximum recycled content. 3. Employ green power and regularly carry out energy audits to ensure environment friendly energy production. 4. Utilizing effective waste management and recycling methods to reduce medical waste [Sch13]. Bibliography Sch13: , (Schwalbe, 2013), Read More