How a Hospital Improved Project Management to Make a Difference in the Lives of Children

The CIO of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)

wanted to more effectively manage the Hospital’s substantial

investments in information technology and services, specifically

what work was getting done and by whom. To manage resources

effectively and plan for the future, the CHOP Information

Services (IS) department:

Implemented a project/portfolio management solution based

on Microsoft Project Server and UMT Project Essentials

Revised processes and governance to move to a culture of

compliance

Provided better, more reliable data to improve productivity

and demonstrate value

SITUATION

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is the oldest hospital in the United States dedicated exclusively to pediatrics. In 2013, for the third year in a row, it earned the top spot on the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll of the nation’s best children’s hospitals. Its nearly 1.2 million annual patient visits generate $2 billion in revenues; the Hospital employs more than 10,000 people. CHOP’s efforts to provide the best possible patient care include making large investments in information services and technology.

The Hospital’s mission drives the passion and job satisfaction of its IS employees. “If you ask anyone around here, they’ll say it’s all about taking care of our sickest patients,” says Dr. Bryan Wolf, CHOP CIO. Indeed, CHOP has received awards for its investment in electronic health records, clinical and business systems, analytic platforms, data centers, and information security. These commitments involve almost 200 IS projects, including several complex multi-year implementations.

To do all this work efficiently, in 2008 CHOP’s IS Department established a central Project Management Office (PMO) to collectively manage a number of enterprise clinical and business projects as well as all IS-sponsored projects. Wolf wanted to be better positioned to explain to fellow executives whether IS could deliver a proposed project, or how a current one was doing against its budget. “As our IS governance committee considered funding decisions, we’d have a list of projects with estimated hours,” Wolf says. “So a given project might be 10,000 hours—but plus-or-minus 100 percent. Our data lacked precision, which meant we lacked confidence.”

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ORGANIZATION PROFILE

Since its start in 1855 as the nation's first hospital devoted exclusively to caring for children, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has been the birthplace for many dramatic firsts in pediatric medicine. The Hospital has fostered medical discoveries and innovations that have improved pediatric healthcare and saved countless children’s lives. Over 150 years of innovation and service to our patients, their families and our community, reflect an ongoing commitment to exceptional patient care.

INDUSTRY

Health Care

COUNTRY / REGION C

Philadelphia, PA

SOFTWARE USED:

UMT Project Essentials

Microsoft Project Server

The problem was visibility. “We didn’t know what was being done, or by whom,” says Kevin Killian, PMO Health Systems Director at CHOP. “We had some oversight, but we didn’t have strong enough methodologies or governance. And with insufficient understanding of current projects, we didn’t know how much more we could take on in the future.”

An early initiative of the centralized IS PMO was to install Microsoft Project Server software. But the software proved complicated to use, especially because it was dependent on sound processes to create good data. “We soon realized we needed a partner who understood Project Server and could help us build our capabilities,” Killian says.

SOLUTION

In 2010 CHOP brought in UMT for the first of what turned out to be three major engagements. The goal was to upgrade to the 2010 version of Project Server software, and to develop a roadmap to get the most out of it. “I see five layers to any solution,” says Tom Malfi, partner at UMT. “The technology is informed by the data, which comes out of sound processes, which is shaped by good behaviors, which is enforced by governance.” As CHOP worked with Malfi to develop its roadmap, it focused on each of these layers to provide the solution.

One of the key steps was effectively tracking everyone’s time. So Wolf tied salary reviews of all IS employees and contractors to compliance with time entry. “Having the support of Bryan and the senior leadership was so important to our success,” says Stephen Schmidt, IS PMO Manager at CHOP. “We needed everybody to be compliant, and his commitment helped to influence and change the culture to align with sound project and portfolio management (PPM) practices.”

Wolf also acted as a change agent by using Project Server to make decisions—and showing his staff that he was doing so. “When the CIO is using the tool and the data to determine, for example, the business case for new headcount, it strengthens and improves commitment to PPM practices and enforces the correct behavior,” Schmidt says.

The second UMT engagement involved reporting—getting data out of Project Server and into CHOP’s analytics tools. “CHOP IS did a remarkable job of absorption,” says Malfi. “With each engagement, they made sure that new processes and cultures were fully institutionalized and sustainable. Then they would move the organization to the next set of capabilities.”

In the third engagement, which is currently ongoing, CHOP is installing the UMT Project Essentials application to provide a better line of sight to financial data and

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The UMT Project

Essentials application

builds on Microsoft

Project Server to

provide financial

management tools for

capital-intensive

enterprises such as

healthcare

organizations.

Case Study: Enterprise Portfolio Management

Exhibit 1— Resource Capacity Time Tracking Dashboard

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improve budget forecasting. “Our project portfolio is changing, and we need forecasting to understand those changes at a granular level,” says Schmidt. “Project Essentials is the best tool on the market for this sort of work. In implementing the tool, UMT offers great expertise in project portfolio management, as well as familiarity with our system, which accelerates implementation.”

BENEFITS

With its PMO initiative in conjunction with UMT, CHOP IS now has useful data and an understanding of its project portfolio components. It can better manage resources, improve productivity, do more work, and demonstrate the value it brings to the organization’s mission of healing sick children.

1. Quality data

“To me the top benefit is that we now have the ability to consume and act on data,” says Wolf. He now goes into executive meetings with much more precise information: plus-or-minus 10 percent, say, rather than 100 percent. He also has more confidence in those numbers. And he can get them when he needs them. “I get data in time to make better decisions for the coming year,” Wolf says.

2. Understanding of project portfolio

The data provides the IS PMO at CHOP with a better understanding of the many projects in its portfolio. “We now have the ability to execute on our plans and track our progress,” Schmidt says. “And we can identify a potential problem before it occurs.”

These benefits also extend into portfolio selection. “By May we know our capacity level for the fiscal year that starts in July,” says Killian. “So if we’re being asked to start 95 projects in July, we can get an early start at resetting the project sponsors’ expectations. We have the information that we need to be proactive and avoid the risk of not delivering on what we promise. This improves the perception of the IS department across the organization.”

3. Improved resource management

The PMO uses this understanding of its projects to manage people more effectively. “We capture all work, operational efforts, and project assignments in Project Server. Utilizing analytics we have visibility into total demand for all resources for the complete portfolio. This on-demand information allows managers to make informed decisions about resource allocation,” Schmidt says.

“Our project portfolio

is changing, and we

need forecasting to

understand those

changes at a granular

level,” says Schmidt.

“Project Essentials is

the best tool on the

market for this sort of

work. In implementing

the tool, UMT offers

great expertise in

project portfolio

management, as well

as familiarity with our

system, which

accelerates

implementation.”

Exhibit 2—Planned Work and Capacity by Time Dashboard

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The information above is being provided by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia without consideration and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia does not make any

representations or warranties in regards to either UMT or its initiatives. The experiences of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have been identified as being

specific to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and there is no assurance that other company’s would experience similar results or achieve comparable benefits;

and the actual results may differ materially from those identified by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and UMT above.

ABOUT UMT CONSULTING

UMT is a recognized provider of Project Portfolio & Integrated Portfolio Management solutions and management consulting best practices. For over two decades UMT has helped Global 2000 companies gain transparency across their business and technology asset portfolios, rationalize costs, collaborate to make smarter investment decisions and improve project success rates to maximize ROI.

UMT is Microsoft's Worldwide PPM Partner of the Year 2013 and has been twice named a Gartner Cool Vendor in PPM and is positioned as a Visionary in Gartner's Integrated IT Portfolio Analysis Magic Quadrant. UMT has offices in New York, Bellevue, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Reston, the United Kingdom, and Romania.

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Previously, managers did not have clear insight into which staff members were over-allocated and which were underutilized. Now, Project Server data provides the necessary visibility to enable IS managers to utilize resources more effectively to meet demand.

Good decisions result not just from the Project Server software implementation, but also from the IS organization’s maturing capabilities and governance. “It’s still a work in progress, we improve every year,” says Schmidt. “But we’re very fortunate that we did the right things in the beginning, and that we had UMT’s guidance on what to do and how best to do it. Today we benefit from good data, aligned practices, and data quality governance: a great foundation.”

4. Improved productivity

Everyone involved in the initiative speaks of how much more work they can do. “I have not explored the data to demonstrate it, but I would say we can do twice as many projects now as we could five years ago,” Wolf says. By fully utilizing its staff, IS gets more done with roughly the same amount of money.

The department expects the data to not only improve performance, but also help document those improvements. “We have never had a measure of the value IS brings to the organization,” Wolf says. But the accumulating data is getting the PMO to the point where it can show the cost and value of a project, and allocate those costs back to service units. Indeed, in a recent hospital-wide labor productivity initiative, IS had the most accurate labor utilization data of any department. “Having the PMO and Project Server was step number 1,” Wolf says. “This work was absolutely essential to do, and it would have taken us far longer to do it without UMT’s expertise and guidance.”

Exhibit 3—Dashboards Supporting PMO Decision Making