Chief Product Team 
This post is your ultimate guide to healthcare project management, from the basics of managing a project to its benefits.
Scroll down to learn more.
Project Management in Healthcare: Definition
The term Project Management refers to a management process that is used to complete a project on time, within budget, and to the required quality.
It is an organizational function that is responsible for managing all the aspects of a project according to the predefined plan. It also ensures that all the resources are available on time, that the project team stays focused and delivers on time and within budget.
However, it is often confused with project planning and execution. While project planning defines in detail what needs to be done, project management determines how it is done.
For example, a project plan may define that the project will be completed by delivering a product. Project management makes sure that the product is delivered on time, within budget, and of good quality.
Project Management in Healthcare: Benefits
By adopting project management methodologies your organization will benefit from:
- Better communication across all levels of your organization and with your stakeholders;
- Increased knowledge transfer;
- Improved stakeholder engagement;
- Better resource utilization;
- Improve the quality of care.
Let us consider them one by one.
Better communication
Project management is a structured, top-down, and highly structured process. It clearly defines who does what and when.
As a result, all the stakeholders and team members are clear about their roles, responsibilities, and deliverables. This clarity makes communication easier, more effective, and less time-consuming.
Project management ensures that all the project information is communicated to the right people at the right time. This also saves both time and money since it reduces the number of questions from the team members and stakeholders.
Increased Knowledge Transfer
Project management focuses on processes rather than deliverables. As a result, they are documented in detail in project plans and project reports. Therefore, they can be used as reference materials for similar projects in the future.
This means that your organization will be able to re-use many components of your previous projects, thereby saving time and money.
Project management also ensures that project knowledge is available to all project team members, even after the project is completed.
Improved stakeholder engagement
A project manager is a single point of contact for the project team and all its stakeholders. As a result, the project manager is able to communicate project status to everyone and respond quickly to any concerns or issues.
This helps the project manager to monitor the progress, success, and failure of the project and take corrective actions whenever required. This ensures that the project is completed on time, within budget, and to the required quality.
Better resource utilization
Project management ensures that your human, financial, and material resources are used effectively.
This means that your organization will be able to maximize the use of its resources and minimize wastage.
Improved quality of care
Project management requires a structured approach towards quality management, which in turn provides a baseline for all your projects.
This baseline can be used as a reference for future projects and it also helps in identifying areas of improvement in existing processes. This improves your overall quality of care over time.
Overall, we learned that project management provides a structured approach to quality management. It also ensures the quality of all your projects. As a result, your overall quality of care improves over time.
