Developing a Small Nursing Informatics at BX Mental Health Hospital

Project implementation process is one of the most daunting tasks for any organization. The project team must be in handy to ensure that all issues pertaining to the project are handled professionally and effectively. In the first phase of the process, there was the planning that went into the project. Planning involved developing an analytical framework for the project, designing a budget, and prospecting on the outcome expected from the process. During the implementation phase, it is vital to check the progress against the plans, so as to ensure that everything remains on track. The project budget, scope, and schedule should be analyzed during implementation to ensure that the project remains on course. When any factor deviates from the plan, it should be rectified to guarantee project success. This discussion analyzes the implementation phase of developing a small nursing informatics at BX Mental Health Hospital.

The conversation with the facility’s nurse leader identified a few teething problems in the nursing department. Among the challenges was the attendance by nurses, resulting from poor scheduling and vague utilization of technology in the department. The small informatics project aims to change the fortunes of this facility in this regard, and ensure that the nursing department is more efficient and effective. This will ensure better productivity, improved performance, and enhanced patient and caregiver experiences at BX Mental Health Hospital. All improvements should be aligned to the overall objectives of the facility to give the best possible mental healthcare.

The project scope is the detailed outline of every single aspect of the project. In the planning phase, the project scope is developed by outlining the related activities, resources, timelines, deliverables, and boundaries of the project. The project team must be heavily involved in development of the project scope, exchanging ideas on the best way to come up with the most convincing one for the project at hand. In the development of a small nursing informatics at BX Mental Health Hospital, the project scope was the first document discussed in the initial stages.

After conducting an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the facility, the areas to be improved like improvement in the natural flow of systems within the facility. Funding, utilization of funds, allocation of duties, and transitions in the nursing shifts all needed an improvement for better services. The informatics project undertaken at the facility is ensuring that there is better promotion of effective monitoring, prescription, and screening that follows the Center of Disease Control guidelines. The informatics project involves an almost full overhaul of the computational systems at BX Mental Health Hospital. Every department is involved by upgrading the computational systems to meet the required and set standards of compliance with CDC and what competitors are doing. The progress is great, and the project implementation remains within scope. The project implementation is focused on cost reduction of hospital management through integration of necessary technologies and other control mechanisms.

When beginning any project, a gap analysis is important to set the work in motion. The analysis identifies what needs to be done to achieve the desired performance. When initiating the Nursing Informatics project at BX Mental Health Hospital, a gaps analysis was conducted to identify what needs to done to meet the desired outcomes from the current performance of the facility. Project team identified the following gaps that are currently being worked upon in the implementation phase.

• The cost of the hospital management – the project’s completion should help with more efficiency and effectiveness in hospital costs.
• The misappropriation of health funds – the people misappropriating the funds will be held more accountable by a system that tracks processes.
• Lagging behind in medical technologies – adoption of new technologies will bring the facility up to speed with others in the industry
• Underfunding by government – the available funds to be utilized more prudently, and the facility to find donors who can help with more funds.
• Inadequate staff attendance – have a clear and concise staff scheduling approach and measures against those who disobey.

A project is meant to ensure that these areas of concern are fully plugged with solutions. Progressively, the project is fixing the areas, especially ensuring that the cost of operation and management is significantly lowered.

The nursing informatics project at BX is scheduled to take place across a period of 12 months. Within the timeline mentioned, all the project deliverables should be in place, and the project team should hand over to the project sponsor. The project remains within the timelines, and there is no reason to doubt that it shall succeed. The schedule performance index (SPI) of the project stands at 0.996, which is a relatively good score as it is almost at the perfect value of 1.0. Suppose the project’s implementation continues at the same speed, the completion will happen within the planned timelines with just a little bit of adjustments along the way.

The Gantt chart is the tool used in this project to monitor the progress and detect any possible dragging in the scheduling related concerns. The Gantt chart produced by the team lead at the beginning of the project outlined the complete schedule of the project. All activities that need to be completed are well displayed, with their timelines and current progress. The illustration below shows the Gantt chart for the progressing project, depicting its completion in 12 months.

A budget is developed at the initial stage of a project, ensuring that there is adequate financial planning put into the process. The facility is experiencing a hard time in cost management, especially with the underfunding. Therefore, the project implementation process had to be prudent in the budget costing; making sure that every element is completed with the optimal cost for best quality. Table 1 below illustrates the budget being utilized by the budget proposed and in utilization. The cost performance index (CPI) of the project currently stands at 1.02, indicating that the project is still within the budget range at the current progress rate. The overall cost of the project is estimated to be $200,000. It is affordable and should enhance effectiveness.

Note: At the project team level, the budget is further broken down into the small details of the project.

The work breakdown structure (WBS) is a representation of the step-by-step approach to complete large projects with several moving pieces. The project at BX Mental Health facility required a WBS to ensure that the relationships between the different areas of implementation are mapped out. This mapping helps the project team to follow up on all areas of the project to a conclusive ending. The WBS has been importantly bused to break the work into smaller components, which helps in better cost estimation and clarity on the deliverables. The project team is progressively ticking the different boxes of the WBS as implementation continues.

The project has different stakeholders, each of whom has a role to play in the grand scheme of things. Among the major stakeholders in this project included the hospital’s management and administration, the project manager, coordinator, project team, and the facility’s employees. They come on board as important players to the successful ending of the project. The responsibility assignment matrix in a project details all the necessary stakeholders and clarifies responsibilities amongst cross-functional teams and their involvement level in a project. Each player to understand their role to ensure they play a part in meeting the project’s deliverables. The matrix uses the RACI approach, an acronym that stands for responsible, accountable, consulted and informed.

Communication is a significant aspect in the functioning of a project and its eventual success in the current 21st century. The importance is attributed to information technology age. The project manager at BX Hospital’s small nursing informatics project has had to conceptualize the importance of effective communication as an essential component in the success this process. Therefore effective understanding of different forms of communication is vital in all stages of the project and reducing project failure. The successes of the project so far have been as a result of clear and concise communication among stakeholders. It is a significant component in understanding the gaps in any project, and establishing the mechanisms of mitigation against them. The project manager developed the communication strategies that have ensured increased project success and completion in line with the set timelines and schedule.

Communication in the project has involved sharing information on customs, values, and traditions that influence the project members and their working environment, motivation, behaviors, and attitudes. Project members have effectively used the established communication channels to advocate for the needs of the team in overcoming the implementation challenges that have come up. This approach has significantly improved their satisfaction with the working of the project. Coordination and collaboration between the goals and objectives of the project with the overall organizational goals through effective communication has also aided the implementation process.

The team lead has also ensured adequate and open relationship among the team members in the project work. This has ensured there is a good flow of information among members, hence making them feel as part of the process. Weekly meetings, bonding sessions, and email communication has ensured that the members of the team are in the know of the expectations placed on them at any given time of the project. Consistent training among the team members on different areas, including communication, has enhanced the way they pass across messages among them and to the team lead. The overall impact is a better performing team and all the ever close to the reality of completing the project.

Change is investable, and it is the only constant thing in the lives of people. Even when undertaking a project, changes will occur along the way. When developing the project scope and implementation plan, the team left enough space for flexibility (Turner, 2019). The reason for this flexibility is to ensure that the team can maneuver and insert necessary changes to keep the progress of the project on track. Further, the very reason why the project has been adopted is to bring change to the way of operations within the facility. Therefore, the implementation team is aware of the place of change within the team dynamics. Change must be handled professionally and with great conviction at all levels of the project and the organization. Introduction of change in his project has been motivated by two factors. First, change is mooted when the actual project progress is not in line with the projected progress. Second, change is deliberated when a newer and more efficient method of implementation for an activity is discovered by a team member. The team leader is at the forefront of supporting change mechanisms that spell a better ending to the project process.

Risk management is the process of identifying, assessing and controlling threats to the effective completion of the project. Every risk has a degree of likelihood of occurring, and the level of impact it would have if it occurs. The highly likely risks with a severe impact are considered first for mitigation. This allows the team to put things under control and increase the chances of success. The BX Mental Health Hospital project has had its fair share of risks along the way. The project team has been tireless in designing and implementing risk response measures that have seen the project maintain an almost smooth progress to this point. Analyzing the possible risks allows the project team to cushion itself against the possible negative outcomes they pose. Some risks are positive ones, and their occurrence allows the project to get more success. Such risks are allowed to occur for the benefit of the entire project. The project has not experienced any positive risks as yet.

After identifying the risks as highlighted below, they have been assigned owners and mitigation responses developed adequately. The risks associated with this project are as follows;

• Employee resistance – this is a highly likely risk with a medium impact, and the mitigation is ensuring adequate training on the employees on why the project is necessary and important.
• Unavailability of funds for the project – the facility has been suffering from poor cash flow, and being the sponsor means the same challenges could arise. This has been mitigated by working with a lean budget and factoring in likely delays in the implementation process.
• Scope creep – being a project that involves technology, uncontrolled growth in a project’s scope is a likely risk that is mitigated by setting realistic goals for the team from the onset.
• Changing costs in the market – as the cost of living skyrockets, the cost of almost everything goes up and is beyond the control of the project team. The way out is ensuring that the team is flexible enough to change preferences during implementation.

The project is in line to be completed within the set timeframe. The project team has laid down the right mechanisms to ensure that the deliverables are ready at the end of 12 months from the date that the project commenced. The project schedule remains in place, and the cost has not blown over. Therefore, the whole process is in track to be completed within the set deadlines. As things stand, the budget is on track, and the team may not overspend on the project. It is always fundamental to complete a project within the set budget. The communication within the team and among stakeholders has been near excellent, aiding the smooth implementation of the project. Progressively, the team has been identifying risks, updating the risk register, and coming up with mitigation measures against the revealing dangers. In the fullness of a project, every single element plays a significant role in making the whole project a success.