How Can Healthcare Construction Projects Benefit from Cutting Edge Project Management Solutions?

 

Your organization’s reputation, bottom line, and employee morale depend on how well you plan, manage, and carry out projects. The stakes are considerably higher in healthcare construction project management, where ideas and projects directly impact patient care.

Effective project management in the healthcare industry entails understanding what you want to do, knowing who the stakeholders are and who may be impacted, a strategy for doing so, and the appropriate instruments to make it happen. In healthcare organizations, project management is used in many different ways, but it’s especially helpful in construction, renovations, and facility upgrades, among other things.

What Is Healthcare Construction Project Management?

The process of organizing, planning, and putting a project and its resources into action is known as healthcare construction project management. Healthcare organizations can achieve the desired goals by applying project management throughout a project, such as constructing a new hospital wing.

The four primary stages of healthcare construction project management:

First Phase – Initiation

In this stage, stakeholders decide which potential projects are worth accepting and which ones should be tabled based on their goals, available resources, and expected outcomes. Organizations in the healthcare sector often operate with a restricted budget or set of resources, making this a critical time when decisions must be made on which projects to fund based on their prospective benefit.

Large hospitals may decide to build brand-new facilities depending on factors like patient demand and the availability of innovative treatments. Choosing the right tools and personnel for fitness centers is a part of this.

Second Phase – Strategy

If a proposal is accepted, the planning stage can begin. Phase one of a healthcare construction project is when the project manager creates a detailed plan, including the timetable, tasks, budget, contributors, and contributor roles.

Possible snags and the healthcare construction project’s success metrics are additional considerations. The purpose of this stage is to collect all of the decisions needed to go on to the implementation stage, such as conducting a facility needs assessment with key hospital management and personnel or calculating the full cost of new gym equipment.

Third Phase – Execution

The implementation stage is where plans are put into action. During this stage, team members carry out their responsibilities and work to complete the project. Teams must keep tabs on, quantify, and share their achievements through the implementation phase.

It allows the project manager to spot roadblocks, re-prioritize tasks, and adjust to stay on track. It makes certain, for instance, that the required construction paperwork for the hospital wing is filed to the right authorities to acquire necessary permissions and place orders with exercise equipment suppliers.

Fourth Phase – Conclusion

Now that the job is done, it’s time to wrap up any loose ends. In the final phase of a healthcare construction project, the project manager reports to stakeholders on the project’s progress and highlights key deliverables and results.

Now is a great moment to reflect on the project’s successes and failures and the roles each team member played.This stage includes final inspection and collecting input from patients or staff who utilize the new facility and equipment on a daily basis after opening, as in the hospital building example given earlier.

Each successive step in healthcare building project management is essential to the outcome. Healthcare organizations can improve their chances of a project’s overall success by giving equal attention to each stage.

Benefits of Project Management in Healthcare Construction Projects

Project management is a skill that healthcare providers can use to their advantage when done properly. It helps companies make improvements and operate more successfully.

Processes

Hospital project management helps reduce the risk of a lawsuit, which is a concern that hangs over every healthcare business and is its strongest advantage. Creating step-by-step procedures helps to prevent as many undesirable outcomes as possible. For example, consider all the preparations a surgical team must make before an operation.

From setting up the operating room and disinfecting the surgeon’s hands to confirming the anesthesiologist’s dosages, numerous minute details are left to chance or memory. A transparent method improves the patient’s outcomes and healthcare construction projects. 

Planning

Rigorous planning is a fundamental component of healthcare construction project management. A project’s inception involves setting up the procedures necessary to keep it moving forward.

Once the initial project is finished, you can apply the lessons learned to enhance the preparation for the subsequent project. You don’t need to recreate the wheel when carrying out a procedure, and you’ve started a cycle of continuous improvement that allows you to improve quickly when necessary.

Budgeting

Throughout the budgeting process various needs and activities must be assigned a monetary value. This careful planning guarantees that you have the resources necessary to support your efforts at different project stages. You’ll be aware, for instance, if you have sufficient funding to start a project, and you’ll have a method to update the budget and re-prioritize if unanticipated costs arise.

Communication

Effective communication is essential. It is another key way that project management in healthcare construction projects differs from project management in other industries.

One of the major causes of mishaps in hospitals is worker turnover. For instance, if a doctor on call fails to adequately inform the doctor taking over the patient’s care about their current condition, it may have unfavorable effects.

The communication ability of doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff greatly impacts a patient’s well-being. Project management is important so everyone in the hospital knows the steps they should take at each process stage. This also allows for standardizing and documenting of processes and encourages clear, open communication channels. Open communication helps create a culture where employees feel empowered to speak up when they notice procedure flaws.

Stakeholder Affiliation

Healthcare Construction Project management functions in some ways like a PR tool. You’ll be able to readily update stakeholders on progress and outcomes since you’ll have a defined process for planning, managing, and tracking projects. You may discuss how you’re making changes or improvements, and you can openly acknowledge successes. 

Healthcare Construction Project Management Best Practices

Healthcare construction project management is important for a healthcare organization’s ability to enhance patients’ well-being. Keep these best practices in mind when your hospital commences its project management efforts:

Open Lines of Communication

Have a consistent and open planning procedure. To promote involvement, get opinions from many healthcare construction organizational departments. Encourage team members to speak up about potential problems or obstacles by making them feel that their views are valued.

Simplify Your Procedure

Make your healthcare construction project management process simple to establish and complete. Use software that makes determining the next steps and monitoring progress easily. Indeed, strategy management software can automate a lot of processes.

Take Nothing for Granted

When something unexpected occurs, whether it’s a natural disaster, a change in the law at the federal level, or something as basic as a building’s obstinate design that prevents an upgrade, you should revise your plan and budget.

Document Learning Outcomes

Explain obstacles and their fixes, results, lessons learned, unforeseen events, and general dos and don’ts. It enhances your healthcare construction project management methodology and allows you to acknowledge achievements. 

Recognize Laws and Governmental Structures

Learn more about the particular requirements imposed by the industry’s stricter governance and rules (extremely crucial!).

Improve Healthcare Construction Projects with Transcend for Project Management

The industry’s elevated stakes are the primary reason to invest in effective healthcare construction project management. The right project management strategy and tools may increase patient health, save lives, and improve daily operations and results for all healthcare professionals.

Use a platform that can be adjusted to your organization’s changing needs to inspire your team members to go above and beyond. Using the Transcend platform to easily plan, document, manage, and report on work from anywhere, your team can be more effective and productive.

You may report on critical indicators and get real-time visibility into ongoing work with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automatic processes made to keep your team connected and informed. When teams clearly understand the tasks, it is impossible to predict how much more they can accomplish at the same time.