Project Management in Healthcare Industry: Governance and Delivery

The healthcare space is a highly complex and sensitive environment. Structured governance in healthcare projects is fundamental to ensuring patient safety, quality of care, accountability, and the efficient use of resources. Here, we’ll discuss common challenges and best practices in healthcare project management, as well as the tools that can help streamline project management in the healthcare industry.

Key Takeaways

• Healthcare projects require structured governance to ensure patient safety, clear accountability, effective risk management, and efficient resource use.
• Clinical governance focuses on care quality and patient outcomes.
• Cross-department collaboration is essential in a highly regulated healthcare environment.
• Key challenges in healthcare project management include compliance demands, data security threats, multi-stakeholder alignment, change resistance, and fragmented EPR / ERP data.
• Best practices include using risk and issue logs, using benefits dashboards, and aligning with both project management and healthcare standards to ensure transparency and strong governance.
• Tools like TPG ProjectPowerPack help unify data, strengthen security, and enhance project management across healthcare systems.

Why Do Healthcare Projects Require Structured Governance?

Let’s examine the importance of structured governance in healthcare projects in detail:

• Patient safety and quality of care: The first goal of healthcare governance is to safeguard patient well-being and maintain high standards of care. Structured governance supports this goal by ensuring that evidence-based practices are implemented and clinical guidelines are followed.

• Clear accountability: Healthcare systems involve multiple stakeholders (clinicians, managers, policymakers). Clear governance structures define each party’s roles and responsibilities, so that everyone knows what is expected of them and who is answerable for specific outcomes.

• Risk management: Healthcare projects face numerous risks, including clinical risks, data breaches, and regulatory non-compliance. Structured governance helps mitigate these potential threats.

• Data management: The healthcare industry handles enormous amounts of sensitive patient data and medical research information. Strong information governance is crucial for ensuring data accuracy, security, and confidentiality.

• Transparency and trust: Transparency in operations and decision-making processes helps build trust among patients, staff, and the public. Structured reporting and communication channels mean that all stakeholders are informed about project progress, challenges, and outcomes.

• Efficient resource allocation: Governance helps align projects with the organisation’s strategic goals, ensuring optimal use of limited financial and human resources.

• Stakeholder engagement: Healthcare projects often require buy-in from diverse stakeholders. Effective governance supports meaningful participation and collaboration, ensuring that the needs and expectations of patients, clinicians, and the community are considered in policy design and implementation.

Also interesting: The Basics of Resource Management in Project Management

Clinical vs Non-Clinical Initiatives

There are several key differences between structured governance in clinical initiatives (also known as clinical governance) and structural governance in non-clinical initiatives (also called corporate governance).

	Clinical governance	Non-clinical governance
Primary goal	Upholding the quality, safety, and effectiveness of patient care and outcomes	Maximising organisational performance and achieving strategic business goals
Accountability	Healthcare providers are directly accountable for the standards of care	The board of directors or executive management is accountable to stakeholders
Focus areas	Clinical effectiveness Clinical risk management Clinical audit Professional development Patient / public involvement Information management Compliance with healthcare regulations	Operational and financial risk management Financial planning Resource allocation Human resources management Strategic planning Compliance with general business regulations
Decision-making	Typically involves multidisciplinary teams with shared purpose; clinical input is essential at all levels	Hierarchical decision-making processes involving various departments (finance, operations, etc.)
Metrics & monitoring	Monitored through: Clinical audits Incident reporting Patient feedback Clinical outcome data Adherence to evidence-based guidelines	Monitored through: Financial reports Key performance indicators (KPIs) Market performance data Stakeholder satisfaction

 

Regulatory Complexity and Cross-Department Collaboration

Healthcare is an inherently complex regulatory setting, due to the number of policymakers, levels of governance, and interdependence of policies. In this highly regulated space, it’s critical that healthcare stakeholders collaborate effectively to prevent fragmentation and improve care quality.

Cross-department collaboration in healthcare can improve patient outcomes through better care coordination. It also improves operational efficiency and supports a more communicative environment.

Benefits for patients	Clinical governance
Collaboration between diverse medical specialities leads to a more holistic and comprehensive approach to patient care	Collaboration helps streamline operations and solve problems more effectively, improving overall efficiency
Collaboration creates multiple checks and balances, which helps reduce potential errors	Combining different perspectives and skills can result in better solutions for improving processes and patient experiences
Co-ordinated care can speed up the care process, e.g., reducing the time of hospital stays	Promotes a culture of open communication and shared knowledge
A healthcare team working together seamlessly can improve the overall patient experience	Teamwork and shared goals improve staff engagement

 

Microsoft Cloud Ecosystem for Digital Healthcare

Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare provides a suite of technologies to help healthcare organisations securely store, share, and analyse healthcare data.

• Includes tools to protect sensitive health data across the whole cloud ecosystem.
• Allows for secure data exchange between different healthcare organisations and systems.
• Provides custom generative AI solutions to automate tasks like clinical note creation.
• Unifies clinical and operational data, promoting positive outcomes and driving cost savings.
• Creates personalised experiences for patients, members, and customers.

TPG Project Power Pack from TPG The Project Group is the next-generation app for integrated Project, Portfolio, and Resource Management (PPRM), based on the Power Platform and integrated directly within an organisation’s Microsoft 365 environment.

Key benefits:

• A choice of scheduling tools designed for seamless Microsoft Teams integration.
• A central data source for all project information.
• Key reports for PPM at the push of a button for informed decisions and resource management.
• Security and clarity through best practices, adaptable to project size.
• Supports planning, risk management, resource management, reporting, data quality, and more.

What is TPG ProjectPowerPack?

TPG ProjectPowerPack is a next-generation solution for project, portfolio and resource management (PPRM) on the Microsoft Power Platform – seamlessly integrated into Microsoft 365. As a modern replacement for Project Online, it collects MS Project Desktop data, for example, in a Microsoft Dataverse database for centralised evaluation.

With best practices, workflows, resource management and 40+ reports, the product helps to significantly increase data quality in your project plans, ensures greater transparency in your portfolio and thus enables faster and better decisions.

> More about TPG ProjectPowerPack

Common Challenges in Healthcare Project Management

Challenges in healthcare project management involve a range of areas, including compliance, communication, and change management. Project managers may also face technical challenges, like fragmented data across multiple systems.

Compliance, Data Security, and Multi-Stakeholder Alignment

These are some challenges frequently encountered during the healthcare project management process.

• Compliance: Healthcare is a heavily regulated industry, and projects must navigate strict compliance rules for data protection, patient safety, and medical procedures.
• Data security: Healthcare project managers face numerous data security challenges, including handling sensitive patient data, a complex IT environment, and evolving cyber threats. Common threats include ransomware and malware attacks, phishing, and employee error.
• Multi-stakeholder communication and alignment: The diversity of disciplines and roles within a healthcare organisation can lead to fragmented communication, misalignment, and misunderstandings between stakeholders.

Reading tip: Stakeholder Analysis and Stakeholder Management

Change Management and Adoption

The challenge of change management is multifaceted:

• Employees may be resistant to new systems and processes.
• Integrating new technology into existing systems can be complex and disruptive.
• Staff need training and ongoing support to become confident with new systems and processes.
• Changes must be managed to ensure that patient care quality is not disrupted.
• Resource limitations can make it difficult to implement change initiatives.
• A lack of a unified vision or conflicting goals in leadership can disrupt or slow progress.

Fragmented Data across EPR and ERP Systems

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and EPR (Enterprise Performance Reporting) systems can work together beneficially. However, integrating detailed operational data from an ERP into the specific framework of an EPR tool requires careful design and configuration. Poorly planned integration can cause data integrity issues and fragmentation.

Legacy ERP systems may lack the infrastructure to support integration with specialised applications like EPR tools. This can lead to siloed information and data entry errors.

The Microsoft Approach for Healthcare Project Management

The Microsoft approach is the foundation for enterprise-grade project, portfolio, and resource management (PPM / PPRM) solutions.

This approach enables organisations to take their project management to a higher maturity level by leveraging the Microsoft ecosystem in addition to TPG’s best-practice processes and consulting.

Microsoft Project for Planning

Microsoft Project provides simple but powerful work management capabilities for project managers planning their upcoming projects and scheduling tasks.

Project scheduling capabilities include:

• Planning in table, board, or Gantt view.
• Linkage of project goals with tasks.
• Local custom fields.
• Critical path (with Project Plan 3).
• Extensive task links (with Project Plan 3).
• Assignment of task priorities.
• Assignments form (with Project Plan 3) with time-phased data grouped by resources or tasks.
• User-defined task labels.
• Conditional colouring (with Project Plan 3).

Power BI for Outcomes and Compliance Reporting

Microsoft’s Power BI business intelligence platform enables project managers to visualise data from multiple sources to create interactive reports and dashboards, and track KPIs. It’s designed to turn raw data into actionable insights, supporting data analysis and decision-making.

Power BI’s capabilities include:

• Connects to a wide range of data sources.
• Creates a variety of interactive visuals like charts, maps, and graphs.
• Allows users to build interactive, shareable reports and dashboards.
• Uses AI to find insights in datasets automatically.
• Able to handle large datasets; offers enterprise-scale features.

Power Platform for Workflow Automation

Microsoft’s Power Platform lets project managers automate repetitive tasks and workflows across various applications using the Power Automate tool.

Power Platform automation capabilities include:

• Automates repetitive tasks, such as sending daily reminder emails.
• Connects a wide range of applications, including Microsoft 365 services and many third-party services.
• Allows users to build automated workflows with a visual, low-code designer.
• Can be set to run on a schedule, e.g., daily or be triggered by specific events, e.g., a new email arrives.

Best Practices and Risk Controls

Effective project management in the healthcare industry requires proactive risk management, real-time project health monitoring, and alignment with both project management and healthcare guidelines. Ensuring data security is essential, particularly in the healthcare space.

Read TPG’s 7-step Project Portfolio Management Guide for more in-depth guidance.

Risk and Issue Logs with Escalation Paths

For project management in the healthcare industry, risk and issue logs are vital tools. They track potential problems (risks) and current problems (issues).

 

Meanwhile, escalation paths provide a structured process for moving problems to higher levels of authority when needed. Escalation is typically required when the risk or issue falls outside the project manager’s authority to resolve or when it has a significant impact on project objectives.

Read more: Risk Management in Project Management

Benefits Tracking and Transparency Dashboards

Benefits tracking and transparency dashboards provide a visual, real-time overview of KPIs. They centralise information, streamline communication, and enable proactive risk management by allowing teams and stakeholders to see key metrics and performance indicators at a glance.

These dashboards are beneficial to project managers in many ways:

• A single source of truth for all project information reduces misunderstandings and keeps everyone on the same page.
• Real-time data enables project managers to spot potential issues early and make informed decisions quickly.
• Real-time monitoring of project health gives project managers time to act before potential problems escalate.
• A clear overview of tasks, responsibilities, and performance improves accountability.
• A birds-eye view of how resources are used allows project managers to allocate them more effectively if needed.

Alignment with PRINCE2, PMBOK, and NHS Standards

PRINCE2 is a globally recognised project management framework built on seven principles:

1. Continued business justification.
2. Learning from experience.
3. Defined roles and responsibilities.
4. Management by stages.
5. Management by exception.
6. Focus on products.
7. Tailoring to suit the project environment.

The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is a compilation of standard processes, best practices, and guidelines for project management.

NHS standards are a collection of guidelines that set the quality and operational benchmarks for the UK’s National Health Service. These standards are in place to ensure the NHS provides high-quality care for all patients.

Project management in the healthcare industry requires project managers to adhere to general, widely recognised guidelines on the process, as well as healthcare-specific guidelines that govern the industry.

Microsoft Purview for Security and Audit Compliance

Microsoft Purview is a unified platform for data security and compliance. It includes tools to:

• Discover and classify data.
• Protect data with sensitivity labels, encryption, and access controls.
• Audit user and admin activities across Microsoft 365 and other environments.

Middleware for Unified Data Exchange

Middleware acts as a bridge, breaking down data siloes and enabling unified data exchange between different applications, systems, and databases (including cloud-based, on-premises, and legacy applications). It helps these systems work together as a cohesive whole, making the project management process less complicated.

This software is particularly beneficial in the healthcare industry, where data may be housed in different systems or databases, including legacy applications. It enables project managers to access the information they need from a single application and facilitates enhanced automation and data retrieval.

TPG PSLink for Reporting across Healthcare Systems

TPG PSLink is a middleware product designed for data synchronisation between project management systems and ERP systems. It ensures the availability of consistent, up-to-date data for PPM by transferring tasks, costs, and actual times between the different systems. This gives organisations integrated data for reporting on project health and resource use.

When to Adopt Microsoft-Based Project Management

Microsoft-based project management is ideal for healthcare organisations already invested in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem and looking for project management solutions with tight integration, scalability, and robust features to help manage complex projects.

Extending Project Management in Healthcare with TPG ProjectPowerPack

TPG ProjectPowerPack is a PPM project tool for Microsoft 365. It’s designed to provide a unified project management ecosystem and solve the common challenges that project managers face, including those in the healthcare industry. TPG ProjectPowerPack is built on over 27 years of consulting expertise, providing a trustworthy solution for project management in healthcare.

Case study: Find out how TPG ProjectPowerPack has helped this client solve its project management in healthcare challenges.

Conclusion – Project Management in Healthcare Industry

This article has demonstrated that healthcare projects require structured governance to ensure patient safety, clear accountability, effective risk management and efficient resource use. The focus of clinical governance is on care quality and patient outcomes. In a highly regulated healthcare environment, this requires cross-department collaboration.

Among the challenges in healthcare are compliance demands, data security threats, multi-stakeholder alignment, change resistance, and fragmented EPR (Enterprise Performance Reporting) / ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) data. Using risks and issue logs as well as benefits dashboards counts as best practice as does aligning project management and healthcare standards in the interest of transparency and strong governance.

With a tool like TPG ProjectPowerPack, you can unify data, strengthen security, and enhance project management across healthcare systems.

FAQs

Should we not be comparing corporate project management to healthcare project management here instead?

Corporate project management often prioritises financial metrics, market share, and generalised business goals, using varied methodologies for tech, marketing, or operations with broader business audiences.

Healthcare project management differs from corporate PM due to its focus on patient outcomes, safety, and strict regulations, involving clinical complexities, diverse stakeholders (doctors, nurses, IT, patients), and projects like EHR implementations or clinical trials.

How does Microsoft Project support healthcare compliance?

Microsoft Project supports healthcare compliance by providing project and portfolio management (PPM) capabilities that help healthcare organisations manage compliance-related projects and track regulatory requirements.

Can Power BI integrate with EPR / EHR data for clinical reporting?

Yes. This integration allows healthcare providers to consolidate data from different systems for comprehensive analysis and interactive data visualisation.

How does TPG ensure security and data governance in healthcare implementations?

TPG ensures security and data governance by aligning to industry standards, including GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act), and using robust security measures including multi-factor authentication (MFA) and data encryption.

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Is there anything you would like to add regarding project management in the healthcare industry? We’ll be happy to respond to your comment below.

Achim Schmidt-Sibeth
Senior Marketing Manager

After earning his engineering degree in environmental technology, he gained many years of experience in project management through his work at an engineering office, an equipment manufacturer, and a multimedia agency. Achim Schmidt-Sibeth and his team have been responsible for marketing and communication at TPG The Project Group for many years now.

Read more about Achim Schmidt-Sibeth on LinkedIn.

 

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