Leaders in the healthcare industry are constantly improving and advancing their processes , To improve patient care , cost reduction , Improve the patient's overall experience and satisfaction . Therefore , Medical Project Management Skills are becoming more and more important to enterprises , Because they help control costs 、 Manage risk and improve project outcomes .
By applying project management techniques , From waterfall to agile , Enterprises can plan systematically 、 Organize and execute a series of tasks , To maximize resources and achieve specific goals .
Next , This paper provides a practical method for medical institutions to implement project management , And discuss the matters needing attention when applying these technologies .
Waterfall project management in the medical industry
Waterfall project management is a continuous project 、 Linear process , It's made up of different stages . In the waterfall development , Each phase of the project has clear requirements and deliverable . Record progress regularly during the process , Each phase is completed before the next one begins .
In the field of health care , Many people are familiar with and used to the waterfall method . Especially when the healthcare director is looking at a sequence of tasks in an organization , Gantt charts provide a visual overview of the project .
They can see the schedule of events , And have a good idea of how long each phase of the project will take . Waterfall project management is communicating the whole project scope 、 Well done in terms of tasks and schedules . Senior managers in a large hospital system can know what the job is , The work required to complete a project , How to break down the work and the approximate time at which each phase can start and end .
But with the transformation of waterfall model to other industries , For example, software development or process improvement projects , Waterfall project management tends to be rigid in structure , May hinder the speed and efficiency of the project .
For medical process improvement projects that only use waterfall method , It may be difficult to stick to a continuous 、 Step by step project process . in fact , Most improvement projects are iterative in nature , And use the plan 、 perform 、 Research 、 action （PDSA） Iteration period . these PDSA Cycles allow teams to iterate and show progress earlier , The results are usually better , And customers are more satisfied with the end result .
Waterfall project management has been successfully applied to large-scale projects for decades , But these projects are often over budget and behind schedule . Stakeholders may also be dissatisfied with the end result , Because they're usually not so closely involved in the process , It's often not until the project is finished that you see the final result .
With the economic pressure facing medical institutions , In the whole process, we constantly absorb the participation and feedback of stakeholders , Providing faster results is more important than ever . At this time , Process improvement teams can use things like Agile project management Lean methods like that , To make it faster 、 Higher quality results .
Agile project management in the healthcare industry
Agile is an iterative project management style derived from lean principles , Encourage collaboration and frequent adaptation .
Agile project management has the following characteristics ：
1. iteration —— Projects are usually divided into multiple iterative phases , The project team in a specific period of time （ It's usually two weeks ） Finish a certain amount of work in .
2. project manager —— The project manager or project leader brings everyone together , And ask team members to commit to what will be done during each iteration .
3. Stand-up Meeting —— Agile teams meet regularly （ Every day or twice a week , wait ）, To understand their progress . Team review commitment 、 Progress to date and any impediments to progress .
4. replay —— At the end of each phase , The team gets together to review what they've accomplished , And what they learned from the process , These are hopeful to be reflected in the next stage . Ideally , The process will be continuously improved throughout the life cycle of the project .
Focus on frequent communication 、 Remove barriers and fulfill commitments within a set time frame , Make agile project management a very effective tool for process improvement teams .
The team wants to demonstrate the value of agile project management as soon as possible , And in the process of continuous iteration, it integrates the continuous feedback from the executive and the clinician .
Agility is becoming more and more popular because of these advantages ： Quick results 、 Continuous improvement and stakeholder recognition , But there are also potential pitfalls . If the team can't see the plan longer from a Gantt chart or similar chart , Then they can easily get stuck with enhancements , Or the work done is of little value to the user —— Sometimes called “ gold-plated ”.
Although agile is a great technology for dealing with project management on a daily basis , But it's easy for teams to get lost in details , Without neglecting the overall situation of the project —— This is where the team can benefit from the proper waterfall structure .
A hybrid approach to medical project management
Waterfall project management technology and agile project management technology have their own advantages and disadvantages , Therefore, it is usually the best choice to adopt a hybrid approach to medical project management in hospital system .
In the hybrid method , The team uses the best aspects of both technologies , Pay more attention to agility , But there's enough waterfall planning , Provide a clear roadmap for key stakeholders and senior leaders . This has been very successful in ensuring that the final product is delivered to the satisfaction of stakeholders and involved throughout the process , And in a reasonable time to complete the product .
Although every organization and project is unique , But this hybrid approach can be effectively applied to outcome improvement projects . It looks like having a team create a Gantt Chart , This figure shows the high-level schedule for the project 、 The overall decomposition of the work in each phase and any dependencies that exist . then , Submit this chart to senior leaders and clinicians , To gain recognition .
For improvement teams , The work of each phase is broken down into a more detailed set of tasks , Agile principles are usually used , Overview of iterations and commitment of assigned team members . for example , If the team is developing an application to improve sepsis results , They may start to finish the work in three months , The project can be divided into three separate phases , Each phase lasts about a month .
Using modern project management software to achieve the best results
Such as 8MSaaS PM That kind of modern Project management tools Can help healthcare project managers use the waterfall approach 、 Agile or hybrid methods to manage their projects .
Modern project management software , for example 8MSaaS PM, With real-time transaction processing function , Can protect the integrity of project data in the healthcare industry .
No data integrity protection , Your project management system will face useless input and useless output , Can't be honest . And once someone starts “ cheating ” System , There are more and more false information about projects , Your management skills will decline , Not only does it affect management decisions , Serious can also lead to project failure .
8MSaaS PM Be able to keep project members honest and update their responsible parts in time . The new mode of information capture and transmission is very efficient , Effectively guarantee the scope of the project 、 Time 、 cost 、 quality 、 human resources 、 communicate 、 purchase 、 Real time capture and transmission of risk and integrated information .
Project members have clear responsibilities , The context of the data is clear at a glance , So as to ensure the accuracy and reliability of medical information , Go back to the source . You can always keep an eye on the status of the project , You can also track project resources , And according to the idle ability and skills of the staff to assign tasks .
