From the course: Project Management: Healthcare Projects

The changing healthcare environment

From the course: Project Management: Healthcare Projects

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The changing healthcare environment

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- Managing healthcare projects can feel similar to navigating a boat through rough seas. Sometimes you're pushed in an unwanted direction, and other times you're just seeking stable footing before you can figure out which direction to go. You must be ready for almost anything. The healthcare world changes rapidly, and if you don't maintain control, you really could be involved in a life-altering situation. Search the Internet for healthcare regulatory changes in the last five years and you'll encounter lots of things to manage. There's regulations on pricing transparency, and the way medical services are evaluated and billed to patients. There are significant restrictions on how an individual's medical data can be shared. COVID brought us Telehealth, and new regulations to handle that method of healthcare delivery. These all have to be dealt with when running a project, and I'm only scratching the surface. Creating a project schedule is a challenge, as the situation in a hospital or other healthcare environment can change drastically from minute-to-minute. One major fire in the community or an auto accident, and your team members won't be working on your project for a while. Speaking of team members, you'll often require project staff with certain qualifications or certifications, many of which could be specialized vendors. Making sure those specialized skills are available when you need them requires significant homework, and once again, their availability can change rapidly. This level of change in the healthcare industry is great for patient outcomes. The growth in the number of specialized medical instruments is increasing our quality of life. That's good news. The other side of that coin, if you're managing a project that includes building or modifying medical care facilities, requirements for power and flooring that can handle additional equipment weight and density can change. In addition, shielding requirements, ensuring that electromagnetic radiation or other factors don't affect other equipment or people, are changing as well. It's enough to make a project manager turn and run. Please don't, however. We need good project managers in this industry. This job demands smart, capable people. And that's you. I'm here to help you, and there are techniques we'll discuss throughout this course that can help you establish controls to deal with this rapid level of change. Don't get me wrong. There'll still be waves in the healthcare project management boat, but with perseverance and a bit of patience, you'll deliver good healthcare project outcomes and your ship will safely arrive in the harbor.

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