Effective Resource Allocation Strategies For Hospital Projects

Project Scope Control System

The process of assigning and managing the assets in efficient as well as in effective manner to achieve the desired strategic goal of business. This report will include various strategies to ensure the effective allocation of resources in order to provide innovative, quality, and accessible care to all hospital campuses in United State. This report will also include various methods for estimating the cost of the project and also conduct earned valued management.

Project Scope control is a part of the controlling and monitoring process group and also focuses on the management of the project. It refers to the process of managing the changes in a specific project [3]. A project management plan, project document, organization process assets, and work performance data is the list of the input that will be included in the control inputs for successfully launching the telemedicine options.

Budgeting Process- It refers to the preparation of a plan for an organization for its budget for a specific period 4]. It involves the process of reviewing past budgets, forecasting income and expenses, and distributing the funds as per the requirement of the departments.

Techniques of the budgeting process include-

Analogous Estimation - It is an estimation that is based on the estimation of the other projects. It is assumed that the cost of this project will be the same as the cost of a similar project [5].

Parametric Estimation- This is determined by identifying the duration or unit cost and units required for the activity or project. It means that if any of the projects consist of activities that are similar to the activities of the other project, in such a scenario, the average cost per unit is used to determine the estimated cost of the other projects [3].

Bottom-up- It refers to the process of estimating the cost of each item in each activity including material and cost. This process is very consuming but one of the most accurate techniques. It includes the details of the lowest possible level [5]. For preparing the budget, it is considered as one of the best approaches.

Three-point- It is a technique of management that is used to determine the future events probable events based on the available information 8]. The estimation of three-point looks at three values-

• The most likely estimate (M)
• The most optimistic estimate (O)
• A pessimistic estimate (L)

EVM is a method which is used by the project managers for medium complexity projects as well as high complexity projects. The method of periodically comparing the budgeted cost with the actual cost during the project is termed EVM [3]. As per this method, the scheduled activities are combined with the detailed estimated cost that is associated with each activity of the hospital. This methodology is also useful in integrating the costs, schedules, and scope for evaluating the project performance. The EV of a specific project can be calculated by multiplying the percentage completed by the total project budget [6]. This method is helpful to the project managers in providing the basis to assess the progress of work for management actions that are proactive and also providing a summary to the managers for effective decision making [4]. This will also help the project manager in providing information related to the project performance against the policies of baselines.

Estimating Techniques for Budgeting Process

Earned Value = % of completed work*BAC (Budget at Completion).

The budgeted cost work scheduled (BCWS) comprises the estimation of the cost in detail for each of the activities in the specific project. The planned value refers to the amount of work that has been done to a predetermined date [6]. A project manager must know if the project is within the budget and is on schedule. This can be analyzed by the project manager by calculating the variance. The difference between the estimated figures and the actual performance is known as a variance [2]. The difference in the values of earned and planned is known as a scheduled variance.  This is expressed by the following formula-

Scheduled Variance = Earned Variance – Planned Variance

The scheduled variance will be negative if the earned value is less than the planned value. This indicates that the project is behind the schedule. For example, at 2 months,

EV= $75000

PV = $ 10000

SV = $ 7500 - $ 10000

      = - $ 2500

SV % = (SV/PV)*100

          = (-$2500/$10000)*100

          = - 25 %

This is reflecting that the project is 25 percent behind the schedule. This is one of the important components, time component, from the cost perspective. To arrive at these costs though, a project manager should have the knowledge of the completed and planned work. This is how the three pillars- time, scope, and cost come together in the EVM.

Cost Variance = The difference between the project’s actual cost and the estimated cost is known as cost variance [7]. A negative variance of cost indicates that the project is performing poorly than expected, a zero variance reflects that the project is exactly on target while a positive variance indicates that the project is performing better [2]. For example-

CV = EV – AC

EV = $ 75000

AC = $150000

CV = $ 75000 - $ 150000

      = $ 75000

CV % = (CV/EV)*100

          = (-$75000/$75000)

         = -100 %

It is reflecting that the project is 100 percent, which means that the project is performing very poorly and the project manager should take corrective actions to improve the same to reduce this cost.

The resource assignment matrix is one of the most common RACI charts which refers to responsible, accountable, consult, and that needs to be informed. This RACI chart is one of the useful tools that ensures that a clear assessment of the roles of the resources and also of the responsibilities when the team consists of the external as well as internal resources [1]. This chart defines the roles and responsibilities of the internal department. This matrix of resource assignment can be developed at various levels of the work breakdown structure.

Earned Value Management Techniques

Conclusion

This report revolved around the allocation of the resources in the healthcare business in order to achieve the pre-determined goal. This report has included the system of the project scope control, techniques of the budgeting process, and techniques of earned value management. The project performance was analyzed by comparing the budgeted figures with the actual performance of the budget. At the end of this report, a resource assignment matrix was included.

The use of telecommunication technologies will be helpful to this business to achieve provide accessibly, quality, innovative medical care in all 43 hospital campuses across the US, to improve the health of the care services. The business should make efforts to reduce the cost of the product. These initiates may include, the company should look for cheaper resources, using the agile techniques of management, managing the budget correctly, and many more. The efficiency of the staff should also be improved in order to achieve the task within the schedule time.

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