Key Challenges Facing Healthcare Projects

The Healthcare industry has to follow a long list of rules and regulations which many times also impact the on-going projects. As these regulations are subject to constant changes, they affect the quality of healthcare projects delivered. So it’s crucial to address these core challenges to manage projects effectively. Let’s discuss some of the key challenges that affect the overall delivery of healthcare projects:

Lack of Project Management

In healthcare, it is important to prioritize which projects belong to care delivery and which belong to the administration or operations category. This lack of classification leads to the wrong project estimations with regards to cost, resources, and the project delivery date. Also, the power to make the correct decisions by the healthcare managers are mostly affected due to regulatory and organization level constraints. These constraints can be about abiding by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act(HIPAA) compliance for all project developments. Failing to do so can lead organizations to get stuck with penalties and lawsuits.

Lack of Advanced technologies

The healthcare projects must be developed using advanced AI and machine learning technologies to utilize the full power of the healthcare industry. They need to build software application tools like patient management, scheduling, and appointment management, laboratory management, advanced information systems. But the healthcare projects often lack these advanced tools and software thus failing to build a connected health system.

Lack of skilled resources

Managing healthcare projects is not easy, it needs the right expertise who possess extensive knowledge and the zeal to make the right decisions at the right time. But often resources having such skills and experience are difficult to identify and this creates a gap for healthcare project implementations. This occurs due to the lack of management initiative to identify and hire the skilled workforce. Thus it is important to have an effective resource planning team to manage the projects smoothly. (Specialist, 2019)

Inefficient Vendor Management

Healthcare project managers overlook vendor management( software and professional services vendors) and do not focus on maintaining strong vendor relationships right from the project conception. Often there is a lack of vendor reports concerning the resources supplied. There isn’t a strong plan to manage the different vendors and resolve the issues they are facing on time. This leads to delayed and high-cost projects.

Lack of Change Communication

Introducing change in healthcare care is very rigid due to the already accepted project norms. In healthcare, the managers do not follow a proper technique to communicate change thus leading to resentment among the team to accept the changes. There is a lack of training imparted to helps employees know about the changes process and workflow. This leads to a lack of understanding of process knowledge, confusion resulting in undesirable project outcomes.

So by implementing changes to the healthcare project in the right way and addressing the above-mentioned healthcare challenges proactively can lead to successful project delivery.

References