Companion Website to Chapter 5, “Project Management”, from Healthcare

Operations Management, authored by Daniel B. McLaughlin and Julie M. Hays,

and published by Health Administration Press, 2008

This set of web pages are the companion to Chapter 5—Project Management in
Healthcare Operations Management.

Everyone manages projects, whether painting a bedroom at home or adding a

100-bed wing to a hospital. This chapter introduces the science of project management,

including the following main topics:

• Selecting and chartering projects

• Using stakeholder analysis to set project requirements

• Developing a work breakdown structure (WBS) and schedule

• Using Microsoft Project to develop project plans and monitor cost, schedule,

and earned value

• Managing project communications, change control, and risk

• Creating and leading project teams

After reading this chapter and completing the associated exercises, readers should

be able to:

• create a project charter with a detailed plan for costs, schedule, scope, and

performance;

• monitor the progress of a project, make changes as required, communicate with

stakeholders, and manage risks; and

• develop the skills to lead a project team successfully.

If everyone already manages projects, why devote a chapter in a healthcare

operations book to this topic? Although everyone has life experiences in project

management, few healthcare professionals take the time to understand and practice the
science and discipline of project management. The ability to successfully move a project

forward while meeting time and budget goals is a distinguishing characteristic of high-

quality, highly competitive healthcare organizations.

Effective project management allows progressive healthcare organizations to

develop new clinical services, fix major operating problems, reduce expenses, and

provide new consumer-directed products to their patients quickly.

The author invites readers’ comments, recommended readings, website

suggestions, and any other material to be added to this webpage for this chapter or any

other chapters. Please click here to send an email. Be sure to include “Healthcare

Operations Management” in the subject line.

Downloadable Resources
PowerPoint
A PowerPoint presentation of the key points of Chapter 5 is available here:

Chapter 5.ppt

Instructors should use MS Project at the same time they are using these slides to illustrate
WBS, network diagrams, Gantt charts, critical paths, staff resources, and the calculated
project progress metrics available in MS Project.

Videos
The following URL links to a set of videos on the use of MS Project (2003) as described
throughout Chapter 5.

http://webcampus.stthomas.edu/s3c/Software/Project/Project_2a.html

A new set of videos will be available in fall 2008 after the author's university converts to
MS Office 2007. These videos will illustrate specific examples in Chapter 5.

Templates
Project Charter
A key component of any project is the project charter. The project charter is the

document that formally authorizes a project. The project charter provides the project

manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities. A

project initiator, or sponsor external to the project, issues the charter and signs it to

authorize the start of the project.

A basic project charter template is provided here.

RASIC Diagram
The RASIC diagram is a matrix of team members and tasks derived from the

WBS (an organized list of all the tasks in a project). For each task, one individual is

responsible (R) for ensuring that the task is completed. Other team members may need to

approve (A) the completion of the task. Additional team members may work on the task

as well; they are considered support (S). The obligation to inform (I) other team members

helps a team communicate effectively. Finally, some team members need to be consulted

(C) as a task is being implemented. A RASIC diagram template is provided here.

Dialogue in Project Teams

University of Michigan researchers Losada and Heaphy provide a specific

formulation for the content of dialogue in high-performing teams. They studied project

team interactions in detail over many meetings and rated their performance according to

metrics of profitability, customer satisfaction, and 360o reviews. They then ranked the

teams as high, medium, or low performers. Teams with the highest performance had high

“nexi.” Losada and Heaphy define nexi as strong and sustained interlocking behaviors by

team members. In other words, a conversation with crisp interactions between team

members clearly focused on a team goal produced high nexi.

They also measured three other characteristics: inquiry versus advocacy, external

versus internal viewpoint, and positive versus negative comments. A template for

recording nexi in a project team meeting is provided here.

Example Project
Chapter 5 contains an example project—the Vincent Valley Health System Riverview

Clinic Generic Drug Project. The Microsoft Project file for this project is provided here.

Websites of Interest
Three major associations maintain and advance the science of project management and

operate a number of training and certification programs:

Project Management Institute (http://www.pmi.org/Pages/default.aspx)

Association for Project Management—Europe (http://www.apm.org.uk)

International Project Management Association (http://www.ipma.ch/Pages/IPMA.aspx)

Additional and More Current References

Gunasekaran, S. 2008. “Project management. The importance of project management in

EMR implementations should never be undervalued.” Healthcare Informatics 25

(2): 86, 88.

Isola, M., A. Polikaitis, and R. A. Laureto. 2006. “Implementation of a Project

Management Office (PMO)—Experiences from Year 1.” Journal of Healthcare

Information Management 20 (1): 79–87.

King, S., and L. Peterson. 2007. “How Effective Leaders Achieve Success in Critical

Change Initiatives, Part 2: Why Change Leadership Must Transcend Project

Management for Complex Initiatives to Be Successful.” Healthcare Quarterly 10

(2): 72–5.

Kitzmiller, R., E. Hunt, and S. B. Sproat. 2006. “Adopting Best Practices: ‘Agility’

Moves from Software Development to Healthcare Project Management.”

Computers, Informatics, Nursing 24 (2): 75–82.

Noble, R., and A. Gill. 2007. “Best Practices in Project Management: Lessons Learned in

Hospital Construction.” Healthcare Quarterly 10 (1): 58–65.

Sa Couto, J. 2008. “Project management can help to reduce costs and improve quality in

health care services.” Journal of Evaluation of Clinical Practice 14 (1): 48–52.

Sockolow, P., and K. H. Bowles. 2008. “Including Information Technology Project

Management in the Nursing Informatics Curriculum.” Computers, Informatics,

Nursing 26 (1): 14–20.