Final Project Package
Executive Summary
The project in question is dubbed the Palliative Care Program. The Palliate Care Program will run concurrently with other operation of the hospital. The aim of the program is to alleviate the pain of the patients in palliative care.
Summary overview of project description
The Project will be called The Palliative Care program. This program will ensure quality, nurturing care is given to all patients and that the employees will be trained to do so. This project will ensure that patients do not suffer even when they are sure of dying. The implementation of the program will require in-depth research on palliative care programs. This will pave the way for identification of the department in the hospital under which the Palliative Care Program will be based. This will open the way for the hiring of the personnel to run the program. The changes that result from the implementation of the program will then be communicated to the other employees in the hospital. The program will be integrated into the operations of the hospital in a seamless manner. The progress will be monitored and corrective actions identified and implemented. The effectiveness of the program will be evaluated.
The following tabulation shows the project plan dates.
Project Budget (Planned vs. Actual Budget)
The following tabulation shows the planned and the actual budget of the program.
Business need and benefits
The Palliative Care Program targets patients with terminal diseases. The personnel who will work under the program will be tasked with ensuring that the patients are cared for, and their pain is managed even when the chances of survival are minimal or inexistent. The purpose of this business is to ensure that pain is no longer part of the suffering endured by patients. The adoption of the Palliative Care Program results in several benefits. Besides the additional revenue that will be generated through the care of the patients, the cost of implementation is minimal because the personnel in the hospital are already trained for palliative care.
Summary of present plan status
At present, the implementation of the terminal activities in the project schedule has not begun. However, the preliminary activities required as prerequisites for the first terminal activity are complete. The terminal activities that characterize the various milestones will be completed as scheduled.
Project Charter
Project Scope Statement
Work Breakdown Structure/Project Schedule
The following is the tabulation for the project schedule
Risk management Plan
Project Budget and Resource Management Report
This project seeks to introduce a palliative care program that will include piloting the initiative with a select hospital. It is expected that the program will increase the quality of health care offered to patients. There is potential to increase the revenues of the hospitals offering the services since the satisfaction experienced by the families whose patients will be enrolled in the program are likely to result in good ratings, and therefore lead to a high number of patients seeking the services of the program.
Project Budget (Cost Management)
The approach used for the estimation of the project cost will be the bottom-up estimation method. This method is preferred since it involves aggregating individual estimates for each task as depicted in the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The technique uses estimates derived at the task level, and as a result, a fairly accurate estimation is arrived at through application of specific best practices. These practices include involving Subject Matter Specialists (SMSs) in the estimation process, leveraging the people involved in doing the work, and the joint use of other industry approaches to enhance accuracy such as the Delphi Method (Wysocki, 2011).
Tabulated Project Cost
The table below shows the cost estimates for the project using both the original budgeted cost derived from the charter as well as the actual budgeted cost.
Budget Notes:
The program will entail hiring two palliative care doctors at a cost of $6,000 per doctor per month. The program will run for three years (36 months).
The program will hire four specialist palliative care nurses at a cost of $4,000 per nurse per month. The nurses will be on the payroll for the entire duration of the program.
Since the program will be piloted in a single hospital, there will be no need to buy equipment, and as a result, the program will involve hiring required equipment and hospital facilities at an estimated cost of $2,000 per month.
For the program to run smoothly, there will is need to train other hospital staff on palliative care. The necessary training will take place for a week before project commencement, and it will cost $5,000. This training will only happen once during the life of the project.
A budget contingency of 10% of the total cost has been factored in to take care of other emergent costs during the life of the project.
Considering the original budgeted cost and the actual budgeted cost illustrates a budget variance with the figures shown in the table above. The reason for the variance includes significant costs involved in the hiring process of doctors and nurses as well as logistical costs associated with training and hire of equipment and facilities.
Resource Management
Since the three-year palliative care program is a pilot undertaking, it is expected that at the end of the program sufficient details will emerge relating to resource management requirements for subsequent programs. For a start, the program is designed to involve two full-time palliative care doctors and four full-time palliative care nurses. Depending on how patients and their support frameworks or families will respond to the program, there is a likelihood of personnel demand increasing. To take care of this eventuality, the program will involve a one-week training for the other hospital staff aimed at drawing a plan of how the entire hospital will ensure that the program succeeds. This will include provisions for doctors and nurses from other departments to step in and provide help as the need arises. One challenge that is envisioned with this approach relates to the financial implications. It will be expected that those who will eventually be involved in the palliative care program will demand financial compensation for their time. Since this has not been factored in the initial budget, it is expected that the revenues generated through fees paid by the patients will be used in offsetting the costs.
There will be stringent budget management measures instituted in the program. Because of the high number of patients requiring palliative care in hospitals, the hospital that will pilot the program is expected to receive referral cases from other hospitals in the region without dedicated palliative care programs. The increase in the numbers of patients is expected to drive program revenues up. All the revenue generated from the program will be channeled through the existing financial department of the hospital, but the evaluation will be undertaken to determine if the program will eventually require its financial management department. There will be strict guidelines regarding how the expenditure will be managed and how revenue generated through fees charged to patients will as well as budget savings will be managed.
Managing and Motivating Project Team
A team of two doctors and four nurses as the core staff will undertake the palliative care program. Other team members will be hired as the need arises on a temporary basis. One of the doctors will lead the core program team as the team leader. To ensure that all the team members will be sufficiently motivated, the workload will be shared out fairly, and working hours will be determined through team meetings and mutual agreements. If the program budget allows, the team leader will be expected to present overtime compensation plans for all staff. This will be informed by program demands and contribution team expectations that will be developed through holding frequent staff meetings. At the end of each year, there will be performance appraisals conducted. To ensure that the appraisal system remains objective, staff will be informed in advance regarding the objectives of the exercises and how it will be undertaken. The team leader will be responsible for the appraisal program and will be expected to appoint a lead nurse from the team of nurses to help in conducting the appraisals. For purposes of fairness, the hospital administrator or the designated officer will appraise the team leader (Kerzner, 2013).
Project Structure and Conflict Resolution
The palliative care program will be organized into a pure project structure. This will involve the team leader functioning as the project manager, and as a result, he or she will have full authority over the program. Through the application of this structure, all team members will report to the team leader. This will ensure that the lines of communication will be shortened, and therefore, decision-making will be made quickly (Turner, 2014). For conflict resolution, the team member will lead in the selection of a democratically elected team of three members to constitute the conflict resolution committee. All conflicts will be reported to the committee or the team leader in case they affect a committee member. The team leader is expected to be impartial in ensuring that the conflict resolution committee discharges its mandate fairly. If the issues at hand affect the team leader, an alternative dispute resolution procedure will be sought through the hospital administrator.
Communications Management Plan
The following plan is proposed:
References
Emanuel, L. L., & Librach, S. L. (2011). Palliative care: Core skills and clinical competencies. Philadelphia: Saunders.
Kerzner, H. R. (2013). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Matzo, M. and Deborah W. S. (2015). Palliative Care Nursing: Quality Care to the End of Life. NY: Springer Publishing Company.
Turner, J. R. (2014). The handbook of project-based management (Vol. 92). McGraw-hill.
Twycross, R. G. (2003). Introducing Palliative Care, Oxford: Radcliffe Medical Press.
Wysocki, R. K. (2011). Effective project management: traditional, agile, extreme. John Wiley & Sons.
