Upgrading Technology And Installing Radiology Equipment At Bethesda Hospital

Project Overview

Bethesda Hospital being an old patient care unit, it needs to upgrade its technology systems and install new radiology equipment which will help it extend its services. The team will be in charge of updating the software systems and installing the radiology equipment accordingly. According to Thimbleby 2013, every health care institution should focus on ensuring that its technology and systems are modern and improved. Also, each health institution should improve its staffs’ technological knowledge and train them on how to deal with the modern technological equipment and software systems.

Bethesda Hospital is profit making private health facility that has been operational for over 20 years. It deals with a large number of patient diseases and infections. It offers services like surgical treatments, cardiology treatment, fertility treatment and infection control and treatments. In addition to that, it offers emergency unit and general disease treatments to say the least. In that case, it is said to be a surgical and specialists palliative care hospital. With the hospital having served the Western Australian society for those years, it certainly needs technological advancements and development. Also, with the fact that it is a health institution responsible for treating human beings and keeping them as healthy as possible, then it needs improved and modernized technological equipment. Bethesda Hospital Project Team has been working with the hospital’s management team with the aim of supporting and improving the hospital’s technological equipment and devices. The hospital needed to expand its services to cover radiotherapy cancer treatments. The key issue addressed by the management was the problem of choosing and installing the best radiology equipment. Therefore, the Bethesda Hospital Project Team will take over the project as information technology experts. The team’s overall duty will be to choose the right, most effective and efficient radiological equipment that will go hand in hand with the hospital’s software systems and the technology that is being used currently. However, if the team finds out that the hospital still uses outdated technological equipment or software systems, then it has the right to update or replace them as well.

In a project team, every team member must have some skills and attributes that must have led to them being chosen (Wagner et al, 2008). For instance, some team members are experts in certain specific fields, others have more experience in certain fields than others and others may have more knowledge concerning the fields than others among other reasons (Ashcroft et al, 2007). Through the expertise, experience and knowledge (maybe from a lot of research), the individuals gain different unique skills and attributes which they can use in such project as these. Additionally, these skills can be learned from school or through professional learning (Elnaga et al, 2013), e.g. engineer skills. In the case of Bethesda Hospital project, the skills that may be needed are mostly those that are related to information technology and electronic devices. However, other skills that are personally achieved or naturally wielded will also be valuable (Passarell, 2010). The skills that can be found from the team members in this project include the following:

• Good decision making skill
• Strong communication skills; both written and oral
• Data and information analysis skills
• Computer language skill
• Good relationship skill
• Web development and analysis skill
• Project and general management skill
• Systems analysis skill
• Analytical skill
• Interpersonal skills
• Technology management skill
• Effective planning skill
• Proficient team player
• Financial management skill
• Time management skill
• Creativity and innovation skill
• Strong leadership skill

Project Description

In a project team, every team member must endorse their role and responsibility. However, these roles and responsibilities should be listed down before the team starts its project. They help the members to know who is responsible for what, at what time and at what place. This is an activity that will certainly help the whole team manage its time effectively and efficiently. Also, this increases the probability of the project’s success as well as decreases the team’s chances of screwing up and not completing the project within time, budget or schedule. In that case, the following are some of the specific responsibilities for each of Bethesda Hospital Project Team roles and responsibilities:

• Develop the project plan
• To recruit the project staff from the current hospital staff. However should focus on those with radiology experience
• Lead and manage the whole project team
• Divide and delegate tasks to team members according to their expertise, experience and knowledge
• Updating the top hospital management team regularly on project’s progress
• Controlling and monitoring the project development and status
• Enquire for project materials whenever needed from the hospital management team

• To develop the platform for the equipment’s installation. This includes things like room stability and condition
• To install the equipment
• Responsible for testing the equipment’s effectiveness and efficiency
• Provision of the equipment’s sample or design according to the hospital’s needs and wants
• Responsible for correcting any mistake or failure indicated by the equipment before it is officially implemented in the hospital’s operations.

• To access the current software system design
• To decide whether the design will be effective with the new radiology equipment or not
• To provide the new software system design for the hospital
• To build the new software system for the project
• To test the new software system
• To correct any mistakes experienced by the new software system

• Making key decisions for the project and the team members
• To ensure the availability and functionality of any material or resource needed by the team
• Provide funds for the project as requested
• Approving the project’s estimated budget
• Ensure that the team and the hospital knows the main goals and objectives of the project itself

• Analyzing the general technological status of the hospital
• Offering assistant to the software designer and the engineer
• Overseeing the software designer’s work
• Approving the new system and its designs
• Testing the new systems effectiveness and in relation to the radiology equipment

• Provide additional funds for the project in case they are needed
• Approve any project change if reasonable
• Approve the provision of project deliverables
• Responsible for overseeing the projects development and status

• Responsible for approving the chosen staff members who will work in the project
• Document any material and progress of the project
• Responsible for approving the quality of the new system and effectiveness of the radiology equipment
• Responsible for closing the project procedures and activities after completion

The team members are supposed to meet every Friday of every week from 1400HRS to 17OOHRS. The location for the meetings will be in the main training and conference hall on the west side of the hospital. The meeting agendas for every meeting will be sent to every member through emails every Wednesday. This will help the members to research and come up with their opinions on the listed agendas. The meeting procedures and any other document relating to the project will be noted down by the technical expert and manager (Dr. Jim Kohl Fischer) who is the team’s secretary for as long as the project is active. Therefore, in case of any questions or clarifications by any member, you are requested to refer to the documents.

According to my previous experience in working with teams, the following are some of the challenges that we all faced:

• In effective communication due to misunderstandings
• Difficulties in getting ones point across
• Lack of trust
• Low rates of engagement especially during meetings
• Increased conflicts and tension during first days of meeting
• Lack of transparency

To say the least, there are also some positive lessons or benefits that arose from those previous experiences of working in teams. They include:

• Increase in creativity and learning
• Earned the skill of effective problem solving
• Increased degree of being innovative
• Encouragement to take risks, stand up for one’s own believes and ideas
• Improves the morale of the team members
• Encourages one to go after their talent or career

Building a high quality, effective and efficient software and radiology equipment with the best modernized technology support towards improvement of cancer patient health care programs.

• Integrity
• Professional behavior
• Involvement and Participation
• Good quality production
• Respect for members
• Teamwork and collaboration

• No non-professional relationship involvement with the client
• No making promises personally to the client or beyond one’s powers
• No un-official or unauthorized use of client or team materials, devices or equipment. E.g. computers
• No disclosing the team’s confidential information to unauthorized personnel

The team agreed and signed the following list of rules:

• Avoid informal or social discussion during team meeting
• Report to work as requested and expected
• Avoid interruption during team discussions
• In case of any request, the team member should inform the one responsible 24 hours earlier.
• Team members should follow-up their results and provide updates on any task assigned.

A leaning cycle is basically a concept that people use to learn from experience. It contains the lists of stages and activities that help individual complete their duties. In a project team, it will contain all the team members, their roles and responsibilities and their purpose (Pratt et al, 2007). The purpose represents the main activity that will help them perform their responsibility.

ACTIVITY	Member responsible	Role and responsibility
Organizer	Project manager	·         Develop a plan to collect the opinions of the team members ·         Device tools to collect the information ·         Find suitable methods to share and distribute the information to the members
Scribe	Technical expert and manager	·         Documenting the information for future use ·         Ensures that every detail is relevant and providing by each member according to their expertise

A communication plan is a tool used by groups or teams to communicate any information, either internal or external information. The members are given certain responsibilities which they are supposed to perform but the details are to be communicated in the best way possible (O’Sullivan, 2007).

audience	message	Method	channel	frequency	Reason
Project manager	Project procedures, project status, project deliverables	Email/ telephone	Report	Daily	General project status
Engineer		Email	Reports and demonstrations	Weekly	collaboration
Software designer		Email	Report demonstration	Weekly	collaboration
Technical expert and manager		Email	report	Biweekly	Project plans Project status collaboration
Executive stakeholder		meeting	report	Biweekly	Project status
project controller		email	report	As required	collaboration
executive sponsor		email	report	As required	Detailed project status briefing
System analyst		email	Report demonstration	Weekly	Detailed project status briefing

From the experience, I realized that to be a leader is a pretty hard responsibility. A leader has to be committed, determined, be able to persevere and work under pressure, be a role model to others among others. To be a leader, one has to be extremely creative and innovative. Therefore, to lead a project successfully(especially one that is full of experts, experienced and skilled team members), a person must have certain unique and excellent skills, either learnt or naturally earned. During the experience, I also realized that to be an ICT manager or an IT manager also requires specific character that can be represented by a smart and intelligent person. However, some of the general qualities. Skills or techniques that an ICT project manager should have are: excellent communication and interpersonal skills, creative and innovative skills, analytical skills, strong leadership skills, desire to work in a team and a good team player, effective and efficient management skill (either to manage information, members or technology), capability of learning among others. With this skills and attributes and many others, an ICT project manager has the capability of succeeding in achieving the goal of the project as well as that of the team as a whole.

References

Ashcroft, L., & Watts, C. (2007). ICT skills for information professionals in developing countries: Perspectives from a study of the electronic information environment in Nigeria. IFLA journal, 31(1), 6-12.

Beede Emerole, D., Mounanu, O., & Agbaeze, E. K. (2015). Health Workers and Response to Changes in Technology in Nigeria: The Role of Competence Management.

Brown, P. L., & Abell, S. K. (2013). Examining the learning cycle. Perspectives: Research & Tips to Support Science Education, K, 6.

Elnaga, A., & Imran, A. (2013). The effect of training on employee performance. European Journal of Business and Management, 5(4), 137-147.

Goldsack, J. C., & Robinson, E. J. (2014). The impact of health information technology on staffing. Journal of Nursing Administration, 44(2), 117-120.

Maier, S. J., & Marek, E. A. (2006). The learning cycle: A reintroduction. The Physics Teacher, 44(2), 109-113.

Marek, E. A. (2008). Why the learning cycle? Journal of Elementary Science Education, 20(3), 63-69.

Mooij, T. (2009). Education and ICT-based self-regulation in learning: Theory, design and implementation. Education and Information Technologies, 14(1), 3.

Morton, S., & Burns, N. (2010). 11. Understanding and overcoming resistance to innovation. In Creating Wealth from Knowledge: Meeting the Innovation Challenge (p. 251). Edward Elgar Publishing.

Narasappa, K. C., & Kumar, P. D. (2016). ICT Skills for LIS Professional in the Digital Environment.

O’Sullivan, K. J. (2007). Creating and executing an internal communications plan for knowledge management systems deployments. Journal of Knowledge Management, 11(2), 102-108.

Passarelli, G. (2007). Employees’ skills in the Italian private sector: qualification, competences and task discretion.

Passarelli, G. (2010). Employees’ skills and organizational commitment. International Business Research, 4(1), 28.

Payne, T. H., Bates, D. W., Berner, E. S., Bernstam, E. V., Covvey, H. D., Frisse, M. E., … & Lehmann, H. P. (2012). Healthcare information technology and economics. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 20(2), 212-217.

Pratt, M. G., Rockmann, K. W., & Kaufmann, J. B. (2006). Constructing professional identity: The role of work and identity learning cycles in the customization of identity among medical residents. Academy of management journal, 49(2), 235-262.

Sahinidis, A. G., & Bouris, J. (2008). Employee perceived training effectiveness relationship to employee attitudes. Journal of European Industrial Training, 32(1), 63-76.

Thimbleby, H. (2013). Technology and the future of healthcare. Journal of public health research, 2(3).

Thimbleby, H. (2013, September). Improving safety in medical devices and systems. In Healthcare Informatics (ICHI), 2013 IEEE International Conference on (pp. 1-13). IEEE.

Vathanophas, V. (2008). Competency requirements for effective job performance in Thai public sector. Contemporary Management Research, 3(1), 45.

Wagner, H., Dainty, A., Hague, R., Tuck, C., & Ong, M. H. (2008). The effects of new technology adoption on employee skills in the prosthetics profession. International Journal of Production Research, 46(22), 6461-6478.