Bret Elam
Sr. Manager – Healthcare
Capital project management in the healthcare sector demands a nuanced approach due to its multifaceted nature. Healthcare Project Managers (PMs) play a crucial role in orchestrating projects by constructing new healthcare facilities and renovating existing ones. These projects involve a multitude of priorities that require attention to detail and strategic thinking and execution.
1. Balancing Complexity and Success:
Building new healthcare facilities involves standard construction processes along with additional regulatory approvals and collaboration with multiple stakeholders.
2. Collaborative Stakeholder Engagement:
Effective project management necessitates close collaboration with various stakeholders, including clinical, IT, and operational teams.
3. Comprehensive Equipment Procurement:
Healthcare PMs oversee the selection and procurement of diverse equipment, such as clinical tools, IT infrastructure, security systems, patient transportation solutions, and more.
4. Ensuring Operational Continuity:
Healthcare PMs work closely with contractors, subcontractors, and hospital clinical and operational teams to identify and implement infection prevention and interim life safety measures. This prevents disruptions to patient care and ensures a safe environment for patients and team members.
5. Regulatory Compliance and Patient Safety:
Healthcare PMs are responsible for adhering to regulations related to utility outages, connections, above ceiling permits, hot work permits, and others during the construction process. Adhering to these protocols is essential to uphold the environment of care.
6. Strategic Prioritization:
- Successfully managing these challenges requires strategic prioritization of tasks and resources.
- Collaborative efforts between clinical and IT teams, stakeholders, contractors, and regulatory bodies ensure that projects align with the goal of providing exceptional patient care.
How can PMIS ( Project Management Information System) help Healthcare PMs to manage their tasks and time more effectively?
1- Balancing Complexity and Success
PMIS Benefit: A PMIS offers project planning and scheduling tools that enable PMs to allocate resources, set milestones, and establish timelines. This aids in balancing the intricacies of capital projects while ensuring successful outcomes.
2- Collaborative Stakeholder Engagement
PMIS Benefit: Collaboration is enhanced through features like real-time communication, document sharing, and user permissions. PMIS facilitates seamless interaction among stakeholders, including clinical and IT teams, fostering effective collaboration.
3. Comprehensive Equipment Procurement
PMIS Benefit: PMIS provides modules for procurement management, allowing PMs to track equipment orders, deliveries, and budgets. This ensures that diverse equipment procurement, from clinical tools to IT infrastructure, is streamlined and transparent.
4. Ensuring Operational Continuity
PMIS Benefit: PMIS enables project managers to create and manage task dependencies, helping healthcare PMs to coordinate activities efficiently. For renovation projects, PMIS aids in scheduling tasks to minimize disruptions and adhere to infection prevention measures.
5. Regulatory Compliance and Patient Safety:
- PMIS Benefit: Compliance can be monitored through the PMIS, with reminders and alerts for regulatory milestones. Documentation related to permits, safety measures, and protocols can be stored within the system for easy reference.
6. Strategic Prioritization:
PMIS Benefit: Prioritization is facilitated by the ability to allocate resources, set priorities, and adjust schedules within the PMIS. PMs can optimize resource allocation based on critical tasks and project phases.
In conclusion, integrating a Project Management Information System (PMIS) into healthcare capital projects provides Healthcare PMs with a powerful tool to effectively manage the challenges outlined in the article. By facilitating collaboration, enhancing regulatory compliance, aiding in prioritization, and adapting to industry evolution, a PMIS empowers capital project owners to navigate the complexities of constructing new healthcare facilities and renovating existing ones. Through streamlined communication, enhanced documentation, and efficient resource allocation, a PMIS ensures that healthcare environments remain compliant, safe, and optimized for exceptional patient care. And with all this, PMs get time for other tasks beyond their routine project management work.
At OnIndus, we have a team of experts that offer customized PMIS solutions for the Healthcare segment. Our renowned clients in healthcare have benefited out of our PMIS enablement expertise. To know more about it, you can download our case study of a healthcare client here Click Here to download