Project Management: Health Department Information System Case Study

This case study examines the information system of a County Health Department, highlighting its current data storage limitations and inefficiencies, particularly in reporting infectious diseases. The assignment focuses on evaluating the existing communication plan, identifying stakeholders like clients, managers, and media, and assessing the project management practices. The analysis reveals communication problems among stakeholders leading to potential scope creep and delays. The assessment aligns the communication plan with project management stages (initialization, requirements gathering, planning, execution, monitoring, and closing), identifying flaws in stakeholder communication, especially between clients and the project team. Recommendations are made to improve communication flow, particularly between the project team, clients, and government agencies, to ensure accurate information dissemination. The conclusion emphasizes that effective communication is crucial for successful project outcomes and overall system improvement.

Running head: INFORMATION SYSTEM IN HELATH DEPARTMENT
INFORMATION SYSTEM IN HELATH DEPARTMENT
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Discussion....................................................................................................................................................2
Report regarding the current communication plan:................................................................................2
Assessment of the communication plan and the project management practice:...................................3
Recommendations:.....................................................................................................................................3
Justification for the recommendation:....................................................................................................4
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................4
References...................................................................................................................................................5

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Introduction
The case study is regarding the information system of the County Health Department. Currently,
the County Health Department has the information system where the storage of data can be done
effectively. However, the flexibility is missing from the way of storing the data. The patients have to
enter the same data in different clinical field. In the other way it can be said the centralization of the
database is missing [2]. The reporting of the infectious diseases are neglected for the inefficiency of the
existing information system. In this situation a project has been developed regarding the improvisation
of the information system of the County Health Department which will develop the integrated health
informatics system [5]. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the existing communication plan
in the organization and the comparison of the project management practices. Certain recommendations
have been made for the improvisation of the projects. The recommendations has been made on the
basis of the findings from the discussion.
Discussion
Report regarding the current communication plan:
In order to discuss the communication plan the classification of the stakeholders are needed to
be done. In the communication plan regarding the project of improvisation of the current information
system in County Health Department, the stakeholders are client, senior manager, sponsors, team
members of the project team, subcontractors, suppliers, unions and government agencies, news media
and the community.
In order to get the effective result in the delivery of the outcome in the project and managing of
the stakeholders in the project the communication plan needs to be effective and realistic. It has been
detected that the communication problem is happening between the different stakeholders in the
project [2]. The lack of the flow of communication between the different stakeholders in this project can
lead to different problems which includes the scope creep of the project and unnecessary delay.
Further, one of the stakeholders involved in the project is media [1]. Due to the miscommunication the
media can inform wrong information about the progress and update of the project to the common
people [3]. The overall effect of the lack of communication can generate negative impact on the
common people regarding the development of the project which is not desirable. It can be said that the
existing communication plan is not suitable for the management of the project in an effective way.

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Assessment of the communication plan and the project management practice:
The outcome of the project can be successful along with meeting all the requirements can be
done if the stages described in the project management practices has been described properly. In the
project management practice there are five stages in the project life cycle which are needed to be
maintained during the development of the project [3]. These five stages are- initialization of the project,
gathering the requirements of the project,planning of the project, execution of the project, monitoring
and control of the project and the closing of the project. Maintaining all these stages during the
development of the project will mitigate the chances of the scope creep in the project and help to
deliver the right outcome.
The evaluation of the communication plan of for the information system can be analyzed with
the reference of the project management practices. This analysis will indicate the effectiveness of the
existing communication plan and will indicate the existing flaws in the flow of the communication. The
project management practices support the flow of communication between different stakeholders
during the development of the project [4]. In this case, it has been seen the flow of the communication
between different stakeholders is not sufficient for the understanding the requirement. The
requirement gathering phase is important phase for the development of the project. The lack in the
understanding the requirement of the client can lead to the scope creep in the project [6]. The scope
creep indicates sudden changes in the requirements of the project during the development phase. The
lack of communication present with the project team members and the clients will lead to the sudden
changes in the requirement of the project. It can be said from this point that the existing communication
plan is not following the conventional practices of the project management.
The government agencies are needed to be informed about the update of the progress of the
project. However, there is no way of communication specified in this case. The employees will be
informed about the progress of the project. However, it has been seen that the main flaw in the existing
communication plan is the lack of communication between the clients and the project team members.
Recommendations:
Certain recommendations can be made for the improvement of the communication system in
the project. The communication between the project team and the client can be improvised. On the
other hand the communication between the project team members and the government agencies can
be initiated so that the media and the government can get the right progress report about the

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development of the project. This flow of communication will be helpful for the people to get updated
about the progress of the project.
Justification for the recommendation:
In the project discussed in the paper, the type of the project is government owned project.
However, there is a communication flow between the project management team and the government
agencies [7]. In this situation it is recommended that the communication flow between the other
stakeholders like clients and the media can be improved so that the right information can be accessed
by all the stakeholders during the course of the improvisation of the information system of the County
Health Department.
Conclusion
The discussion of the paper is regarding the improvement of the existing health information
system of the County Health Department. In this context the detailed discussion about the
communication for the project implementation regarding the improvisation of the existing system has
been discussed. The lack of the communication in the communication plan has been notices in the given
communication plan in the case study. The consequences of the lack of the flow of communication has
been evaluated and the assumption can be made regarding this. In order to avoid the negative effect on
the flow of the communication on the development of the project certain recommendations have been
made. It can be said that the proper flow of the communication will help the project to deliver the right
outcome.

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References
[1] Austin, Erica Weintraub, and Bruce E. Pinkleton. Strategic public relations management:
Planning and managing effective communication campaigns. Routledge, 2015.
[2] Lee, Margaret R. Leading virtual project teams: Adapting leadership theories and
communications techniques to 21st century organizations. Auerbach Publications, 2016.
[3] Binder, Jean. Global project management: communication, collaboration and management
across borders. Routledge, 2016.
[4] Badewi, Amgad. "The impact of project management (PM) and benefits management (BM)
practices on project success: Towards developing a project benefits governance
framework." International Journal of Project Management 34, no. 4 (2016): 761-778.
[5] Yassine, Ali. "MANAGING THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPLEX PRODUCT SYSTEMS–WHAT
MANAGERS CAN LEARN FROM THE RESEARCH." IEEE Engineering Management Review (2018).
[6] Muszynska, Karolina, V. Dermol, A. Trunk, G. Ðakovic, and M. Smrkolj. "Communication
management in project teams–practices and patterns." Managing Intellectual Capital and
Innovation for Sustainable and inclusive Society (2015): 1359-1366.
[7] Cooper, Robert G., and Anita F. Sommer. "The Agile–Stage Gate Hybrid Model: A Promising New‐
Approach and a New Research Opportunity." Journal of Product Innovation Management 33, no.
5 (2016): 513-526.
[8] Landaeta Olivo, Jose Francisco, Javier García Guzmán, Ricardo Colomo-Palacios, and Vladimir
Stantchev. "IT innovation strategy: managing the implementation communication and its
generated knowledge through the use of an ICT tool." Journal of Knowledge Management 20,
no. 3 (2016): 512-533.

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