Building and Aligning a Project Management Function Inside an FQHC

Driven by an influx of infrastructure support funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, Neighborcare determined that developing an organizational skill in project and change management would be critical to the effective utilization of the funds. The project management team was created to drive action and accountability from leadership, ensure thorough implementations, create capacity and reduce burnout, build inclusive staff and patient engagement-- with the overall goal of supporting patient care. Neighborcare built a governance structure to include leaders from around the organization to promote a coordinated prioritization of the projects in the organization, which served to unite the leadership team with a collective responsibility. To ensure successful adoption and coordination, a standard framework and common understanding of a project, the roles and responsibilities and the tools and processes were adopted. A dedicated change management framework was applied to introduce and sustain the change, building and utilizing the same tools which would be provided. The insights gained from applying project management organization and framework within a healthcare setting are described, which will inform the benefits realized and challenges encountered in adopting a centralized project management team.