Track Progress of Improvement Projects

The team leader of each improvement project or support staff from the quality department should continuously track the progress of all improvement projects. Project tracking involves monitoring and reviewing the project accomplishments and results against documented estimates contained in the initial improvement action plan. Unexpected changes in the project scope and or status can have a cascading effect on the project. That’s why it is important that the organization’s quality council (or other oversight group) regularly review the status of all projects.

The project tracking process should allow the oversight group to anticipate and deal with problems that occur during the project. Project tracking tools such as flow charts, PERT (Program Review and Evaluation Technique) charts, and Gantt charts can serve as visual planning tools as well as project tracking tools. Computerized project tracking software is also available. Whatever format you use to track projects, your monitoring plan should allow you to identify:

Differences between planned start dates and actual start dates for each activity.
Differences between planned finish dates and actual finish dates for each activity.
The percentage of completion for each activity and the project as a whole.
ctivities performed out of sequence.
Milestones achieved or missed.
Differences between estimated costs and actual costs for activities and the whole project.
Activities, issues, departments, or individuals of particular importance or concern.
Corrective actions taken when the actual results and performance of the project deviate from the plans.

Your plan for monitoring the progress of projects should also clearly spell out what groups or individuals will be kept informed. This will include the oversight committee and various managers and other interested parties. Each of these groups or individuals may have a different “need to know” level that influences the type of reports created. For example, the quality council may need the entire list above, whereas managers of involved departments may just need to know general information about the progress of the project.

Both extra-project status reporting (from the project team to other parts of the organization) and intra-project status reporting (from team members to the leader) are critical to project success. Status reporting need not be a tedious or time-consuming process. In fact, the simpler, the better. This is an excellent application for e-mail. Simply post a status report form and designate where it should be sent. Team members can fill it out and hit “send” and be done with it. The key is consistency – project status needs to be collected regularly, in writing, from everyone working on the project. Status reports form the basis for overall project monitoring. Projects usually get behind schedule a day at a time, not a month at a time. Having a means of documenting and tracking these delays is important for spotting the trends that lead to major setbacks. Weekly status reports from team members are recommended.

Evaluate Project Success

As the improvement project nears completion, it is important to evaluate the impact of process changes. Performance measures relating to the original goals of the project are used to measure the effectiveness of actions plans. The following questions should be addressed when evaluating the impact of the improvement project:

Were project goals achieved? It should first be determined if the goals established at the start of the project were achieved. If the goals were not achieved or were modified, then the reason(s) should be documented. If some goals were not met, have the project team reconvene to answer the following questions: Were the goals achievable? What were the limiting factors? What modifications in the action plans need to be made? Are the performance measures used to evaluate the success of the project still appropriate?
Did the project produce any unanticipated outcomes? Sometimes there are unanticipated consequences to changing a process. Whatever the outcome, it is important to understand the benefits and/or address any new issues that may have arisen.
What lessons were learned? Everyone involved with the project, including team members and people who were impacted by the process changes, can participate in the lessons learned discussion. Ask people to identify the key factors that lead to success or failure of the project. It may be difficult for people to document and openly share those things that did not work. However, sharing what worked and what was less than successful is important. The knowledge gained during all phases of the performance project should be shared with others who may benefit from the lessons learned.

Don’t Waste Project Resources

Performance improvement projects require staff time and other resources that are typically in short supply in health care organizations. The use of effective project management strategies will help to ensure that project resources are not wasted. Be sure that project pre-work is done and that project teams have a clear understanding of the goals. Next, use project planning tools to “chart the course” for the project. Everyone should know what activities must take place, when, and who is responsible person. Lastly, closely monitor the progress of performance improvement projects, objectively measure success and pass along lessons learned to future project teams.

To Learn More: Patrice L. Spath is available for in-house presentations on this and other health care performance improvement topics. For further details, visit Brown-Spath & Associates on the web at: http://www.brownspath.com or write to: Brown-Spath & Associates, PO Box 721, Forest Grove, OR 97116.

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