Tips for Healthcare Project Management

Healthcare project management doesn’t come easy since there are so many business teams that must be considered and the stakes are incredibly high. As you consider the estimated trillions in expenditures that are being spent on healthcare, organizations need to ensure they’re not taking shortcuts where it really matters: executing successful projects. They are not only facing the risk of potential lawsuits, regulations, and pressure, but they also have the health and safety of their staff and patients to consider. That’s why TempDev’s team of project management experts is crucial to consult with and help you ensure the health, safety, and privacy of your patients. 

What is Healthcare Project Management? 

Healthcare project management involves executing a goal that improves your healthcare facility or organization's function. The increasing pressure on healthcare over the last few years has meant that healthcare project managers are even more focused on executing on-time and under-budget projects.

Why is Project Management Important in Healthcare? 

Project Management is essential to every organization, not just healthcare. With the increase in challenges and regulations to healthcare over the last few years, organizations are now seeing the importance more clearly. There are a few factors that have forced administrators to see the importance of careful planning and implementation. Here are just a few of the reasons why healthcare project management is so important. 

Electronic Health Records (EHRs)  

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) offer tremendous benefits to healthcare organizations, with 72% of hospitals saying that tech contributes to improved patient care. However, they are complex systems with ever-expanding integrations. Successfully executing an EHR project means understanding dependencies and mitigating risks while keeping all stakeholders abreast of changes. Without a thoughtful project plan and leadership, projects can meander and never finish, be poorly executed, and ultimately leads to poor user and patient experience.

Revenue Cycle Management

With changing payments from private insurance companies and other healthcare programs, every healthcare organization must find new ways to streamline its operations to save time and money. This has resulted in more revenue cycle management projects that integrate the practice management system with solutions to assist with insurance verification, prior authorizations, check-in solutions, and patient payments. This requires a project manager who understands the revenue cycle and how to integrate multiple systems so that revenue is not at risk.

Healthcare Regulations 

With an increased focus on healthcare organizations and growth, there has also been an increase in regulation and oversight. Just a few of the regulations involve these legal requirements:  

The goal of all of these regulations is to keep patients and their healthcare information safe, secure, accessible, and private, but it also involves more requirements that organizations will need to plan for and implement in a way that is compliant with the laws.  

Benefits of Healthcare Project Management 

With so many stressors being put on an already overworked healthcare system, healthcare project management is more essential than ever. Here are just a few of the benefits it offers:  

In an ideal world, healthcare project management would allow you to foresee and mitigate every risk that will affect an organization. While that’s not entirely practical, project managers will build risk registers to keep everyone in the loop about what to expect.

Reasons Why Healthcare Project Management Fail? 

Healthcare project management is essential to the success of projects and for the continued growth of an organization. However, did you know that a large percentage of healthcare projects fail? They fail because of a variety of reasons, but the primary ones include the following:  

Project Requirements 

Even the best executed project can fail if the requirements are missed in the implementation and planning. If goals and requirements are not well defined, the right solution won't be put into place. It's not just about executing a project well, you must have the requirements that will fulfill the business need.

Lack of Planning 

Building a project plan that is both complete and realistic is essential to a well executed project. The project plan should factor the following variables into it: timeline, resource utilization, risks, costs, and other project dependencies. If any of these are unaccounted for in the plan, it probably will not be very well executed.

Faulty Prioritization 

Prioritization is often a team or leadership decision and is essential to the success of a project. However, it is often difficult to get a consensus around what the organization's priorities are. For a project to be successful, all stakeholders must commit to making decisions and setting priorities. Without strong leadership, many projects fail because the team's resources have their priorities shifted in the middle of the project.

How TempDev Can Help with Healthcare Project Management 

TempDev’s team of NextGen consultants, developers, and trainers support your healthcare organization. Whether you’re looking to implement, switch, or even upgrade your current system. TempDev offers training and support for custom dashboards, revenue cycle consulting, automation, and workflow redesign. You'll find the tools and resources you need, with top tips and tricks that will ensure your success. 

Contact us here or by calling us at 888.TEMP.DEV to get the help you need with planning and implementing effective healthcare project management.