In many respects, project management in the healthcare sector differs from that of other industries. The practitioners’ skill sets are the first distinction. Project management is a skill that healthcare professionals possess. Healthcare is a people-oriented industry because patient satisfaction is the cornerstone of its success. The majority of healthcare professionals are guardians. Healthcare professionals also have a tendency to be protective and family-oriented, much like guardians do (Shirley, 2011).

Technology plays a major role in modern healthcare. The development of PET, CATSCAN, and MRI allows unparalleled access to technical diagnostics. Information technology is directed towards reducing errors and improving safety. Their principal motivation is control of cost and greater efficiency. There is a benefit to computer-based decision support over systems based on paper. Though they have not yet attained complete clinical integration, the prototypes and systems have all been tried and tested in local settings (Vincent, 2011).

PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Initiation Phase

Initiation is the primary phase of project management. The project is selected and defined in this phase. The goals, objectives, and needs are determined, and historical information is reviewed. The project manager reviews and identifies resources, cost and job information, and teachings imbibed from other projects (Susan Houston, 2007).

Another important task in this phase is the identification of stakeholders. They have a vivid interest in projects that include business proprietors, team members, consumers, and internal customers who will be affected by the project or its deliverables. If end users are huge, then only a few agents would be selected as stakeholders. The stakeholders outline the high-level deliverables, restraints, expectations, and processes of achievement, along with the time, budget, and resources for the project.

The project approach should be discussed with stakeholders in the initial phase to ensure approval of standard procedures. It’s important to clarify the project manager’s responsibilities and authority to all team members and stakeholders. Once confirmed, these details are documented in the project charter, which includes project scope, constraints, team members, and the project manager’s accountabilities. Stakeholders, known as project guarantors, are responsible for decisions regarding scope and problem-solving beyond the project leader, particularly from the IT department for IT projects.

Planning Phase

This is the most critical phase of project management, and it should not be done in a hurry. This phase decides when to finish the project and achieve its aims and purposes as defined in the initiation phase. The standard project management methodology is made easier in this phase. Plans and scopes of management plans are reused in this phase. The use of historical information allows the project manager to get a head start on some planning. A review of messages or recognised uncertainties from preceding projects provides valuable data going into a new project.

The planning phase concludes with the holding of a conference with all stakeholders. This is the phase where all project plans are revised and legalised. Before beginning their tasks, each team member receives the same information, which contributes to the project’s success. The sanction of the plan is closed in this phase, and the actual job starts.

Execution and Control Phase

The execution and control phases happened simultaneously, but some of the happenings were diverse. During this phase, progress is monitored and plans are implemented. What the team committed to doing in planning is executed in this phase. In the controlling phase, project performance is quantified and controlled. The project’s performance embraces scope variation, quality, and uncertainty control.

These two phases are the longest in project management. The project leader makes sure the project occurs as per plan and takes counteractive action if any deviation occurs. Data sharing is the longest job of a project manager, since they are the centre of information, approaching the team and moving to stakeholders. The project plan should be modernised and changed at a regular interval until the project reaches the end phase.

Closing

This is the last phase of project management. In this phase, the team conducts the final check to ensure that the goals set forth during the initiation phase have been accomplished. The sponsors accept the deliverables of the project and sign off that the project is complete to their satisfaction. Modules obtained are documented as a guide for future projects. The records are all completed and achieved, the resources are supplied for other projects, and the project is complete.

BENEFITS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Good project management helps the entire team and those who are involved—the manager, customer, stakeholders, and the organisation. Proper project management fits the complexity size and enables managers to guide any project in a cost-effective and efficient way. The benefits of project management are discussed below.

Efficient service delivery and effective management provide a roadmap to successful project completion. Once the constraints are worked out, it is easier to reach the goal with higher productivity in less time.
Customer satisfaction: completing the project on time and within budget satisfies the customer. Satisfaction will generate more business in the future. Greater business will lead to more sales and profit and better client-manager relationships.
Efficiency in service delivery: resources used and the strategies implemented in one project can be used in other projects too.
Team development and growth: better results from previous projects encourage team members to work on other projects as well.
greater competitive advantage—efficient management leads to a competitive advantage over other competitors.
Opportunity to expand service—good service delivery leads to more business, which helps to expand current operations and add new services.
Flexibility: management needs to be flexible to complete projects on time with minimum usage of resources.
Quality improvement: quality service delivery with zero errors. Some projects need minimum or zero defects to achieve efficiency.
Risk management: project management helps to assess all potential risks in the initial phase, which saves a lot of resources and hazards from going to waste.
Enhanced productivity—better quality delivery and better management lead to enhanced productivity (Naybour, 2013).

PROJECT MANAGEMENT DRAWBACKS

The disadvantages are grouped into three types: overhead, obsession, and non-creativity.

Overhead

There are three types of overhead:

Cost Overhead: Hiring a project manager, program manager, and project management office to ensure that the project stays on track with the occupational approach. PMO manages various projects, and changing the organisation to adopt certain practices costs a lot of money. Project managers’ remuneration is huge if they do not produce any tangible work.
Overhead communication: project management coordinates between the organisation and team members. Instead of functional leaders communicating directly with the team members, every message passes via the project manager.
Time Overhead: Often, the project is not completed on time due to various discrepancies at various stages. The project extends in time, adds cost, and wastes resources. So to avoid all this, the project manager has to assess a lot of things at the initial stage so as to avoid time delay and cost (Anon., n.d.).

Obsession

It often springs from the minds of project managers and takes various forms. The following are discussed below:

Some project managers are obsessed with the waterfall method, some with agile, but one is incomplete without the other.
Process obsession: some project managers are so obsessed with the process that they prefer to stick to one process. Sometimes rigidity ruins the project because of insecurity about being scapegoated and fear of loss of control.
Stakeholder Obsession: The project managers try to accommodate stakeholders in project management. This accommodation is costly, ineffective, and needless. Stakeholders prefer a win-win situation while staying on the project and getting pampered by the project manager. The project manager, for selfish reasons, loves to pamper their stakeholders instead of focussing on the project.

Non-creativity

Sometimes, the project manager, due to severe work pressure, loses their creativity.

Technical non-creativity: the project needs to be completed within the deadline, and so everyone in the team works hard to do so. People tend to be creative, but they lose it when there is immense pressure to meet the deadline. So their primary goal is to finish the project on time, irrespective of creativity.
Non-creativity in management: managers do not adhere to routines religiously; instead, they change. Managers are led by a process that weakens their skills and demotivates them.

Project Management in the Health Care Industry

New technologies, health reformation, report-based medicine, health channels, patient-orientated care, medical institutions, and enhanced patient experience have radically changed the healthcare environment. The health industry is facing a challenge. To remain competitive, they have to develop skills to manage the projects they undertake (Schwalbe, 2013).

Quality of care, cost control, and external evaluation are the main features. Healthcare projects include:
Quality of care is vital for any patient. Healthcare projects are intended to help people avoid, recover from, or deal with health issues. Some successful projects reduce the difference between life and death. Quality is more important than quantity. However, successfully managing projects improves the quality of patient care.
Government and governing bodies play a significant role. The government often sponsors some healthcare projects and frames laws or rules to be maintained in private healthcare, clinics, and hospitals. Challenges to these regulations can affect projects in the middle.
Financial constraints are difficult to assess in the healthcare industry or compute the predictable return on investment for a few reasons:
Difficulties in estimating revenues. Many healthcare institutions cannot estimate their income because of the multifaceted insurance system.
Project budgets are subject to market fluctuations. Aid is a major source of funding, and many public, private, or community health services are either driven by aid or rely on donations to stay in operation. Besides, a person doesn’t know which regulation might suddenly decree a project or change the opportunity of a project.
Many hospitals are nonprofit organisations, and they struggle hard to achieve their mission with a return on investment. Community evaluations and benefits are required to maintain their nonprofit position.
Healthcare service is very intimate. People have diverse approaches regarding healthcare—their way of discussing is private or open, their expenditure ability, and the types of services they need. Certain regulations, like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), aim to safeguard confidentiality, maintain privacy, and confirm that patient information is kept secure and conveyed safely. Compliance with HIPAA helps preserve patient confidentiality, privacy, and security and puts restrictions and generates risk on access, usage, or conveying patient data.
Healthcare errors increase the cost. A carer never wants to hurt a patient intentionally; they surrender their lives for the wellbeing of patients. Nevertheless, many errors in the past made by carers, due to their inaccuracy and lack of experience and knowledge, led to the return of patients for continuation of treatment, thus adding cost. But with the commencement of regulatory bodies, healthcare providers have to pay for their mistakes by providing the treatment required to correct them. These changes are leading projects to minimise errors. Consequently, the idea of the project is seemingly not good for everyone, especially those who are not delivering proper care.
Deliverables are varied. The end goal is not always quantified in a healthcare project. The well-being of a man is not always quantifiable. Generally, healthcare projects look at two types of metrics: results and procedures for quality enhancement projects.
Projects are becoming difficult. Few projects require manifold streams to serve collectively as a project team. Healthcare projects occupy the time of carers, doctors, the technical team, counsellors, management, the compliance team, and the training team.
Teamwork across individuals is compulsory. Modern healthcare settings require intra- (within the institution) and inter- (across institutions) teamwork. This is difficult when the centre and rod are not in the same healthcare network or even the same type of organisation, such as a speech therapist treating a child in a school.

CONCLUSION

The number and size of projects continue to develop, as well as the complications. The job of project management is continuing to expand and mature. A controlled method of managing projects helps an organisation prosper. The healthcare industry has to change to meet governmental and market demands, improve patient care quality, and reduce costs. Good project management will solve many problems in the future.

The framework of healthcare project management has unique features. It is vital to comprehend the healthcare situation, the types of projects, and recent trends that affect project management to achieve success. A project is a provisional attempt to produce an exceptional item, facility, or outcome. Projects require resources, sponsorship, and risk. Project management involves understanding, competencies, tools, and systems to meet the project’s needs.

Stakeholders are the core people involved and affected by project accomplishments. An outline of project management comprises stakeholders, knowledge management, and many tools and systems. The ten knowledge management areas are project integration management, possibility, time, budget, value, human resources, communications, risk, obtaining, and stakeholder management.

A programme is a group of connected projects, subprograms, or programme actions brought about in a synchronised way to attain benefits. The career of project management has continued to expand and develop. Project managers, programme managers, and portfolio managers must perform unanimously to succeed. They perform many responsibilities, develop competencies, and develop skills in project management, general management, and their application in healthcare management. Soft skills, particularly management, are important for managers. Nowadays, numerous project management software programmes are available to manage projects.