The following project communication plan seeks to identify and outline communication needs in the project of upgrading the Hospital EHR system as well as the timelines for that communication. The plan will provide all stakeholders in the project with adequate and relevant information about the progress of the project, achievements of the major milestones and cost alignment with the projected budget at every stage of implementing this Electronic Health Record project (Collins, 2016).
Target Audience
This communication plan will include the following audience.
Project team : This will include all the Information system technicians undertaking the project as well as their supervisors and managers.
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Healthcare workers : This will include all the nurses, doctors, and pharmacists among other healthcare practitioners working in the hospital.
The vendor : This will be the company contracted to undertake the EHR upgrade project.
The Hospital Management : this will include the hospital leadership such as the Chief executive officer, the finance manager, head of the nursing department, and head of the clinical department (Wang, Z., & Hu, 2012).
Project Information
This communication plan will involve six major information categories. This information will greatly facilitate the involvement of all stakeholders involved in this EHR upgrade project.
Approval Information : The information will be communicated to seek approvals in the process of executing the project. It will include budgetary adjustment requests and their justification, project modification approval requests and justification, as well as other deliverables that may require approval from different stakeholders in the execution of this project (Jha, 2010).
Project Status Information : This will include information about the completed milestones of the project. For instance, the completion each milestone such the start of the project, contract signing, obtaining vendor consultants, software implementation and project completion will be communicated to stakeholders appropriately (Dokkum & Ravesteijn, 2016).
Project Specifications Information : This type of information will include all the software and hardware specifications for the new EHR system being developed. This information will guide the vendor in executing the project.
Project Execution Information : this will include information on major timelines of the project as well as the rules of engagement when executing the project (Jha, 2010). Moreover critical procedures of the project execution such problem escalation procedure will be covered under this type of information.
Project Publicity : this will involve ensuring that all stakeholders within the hospital know the project. The healthcare workers, as well as other workers, will be informed of the existence of the project from the onset and be prepared for its rollout (Dokkum & Ravesteijn, 2016).
Project Closure : This will involve presenting reports at the end of the project to summarize the entire project, its milestones, any challenges encountered, the cost implications, and the expected efficiencies from the perspective of patient care.
Communication Platforms
The message will be conveyed on the following platforms depending on the target audience as well as the nature of information.
Emails will be a platform for engaging stakeholders in a formal way. It will also facilitate document sharing among different stakeholders in the project (Ding, 2015).
Noticeboard will be a platform for communicating information that should be availed publicly to all stakeholders in the project (Jha, 2010).
Meetings: Several interdepartmental meetings will help in passing the information to the relevant stakeholders. For instance, the kick-off meeting will be a platform for communicating the project ground rules (Jha, 2010). Moreover, meetings will be held periodically with hospital management to communicate the progress of the project.
Newsletter: this will also be a platform for communication and keeping all stakeholders abreast of the project progress (Ding, 2015).
The Communication Plan summary
| Communication Type | Prepared By | Sent By | Reviewed By | Received By | Frequency | Delivery |
| Approval Information Communication | Application Analyst | Project team leader | Project manager | Hospital Management | As required | |
| Project status information communication | Application Analyst | Project team leader | Project manager | Hospital Management | Monthly/ at the end of every milestone | Email/ meetings |
| Project Specifications Information | Head of Clinical department | Head of Clinical department | Head of Clinical department | Project manager | Once. At the start of the project | Emails and meetings |
| Project execution Information | Application Analyst | Project manager | Project manager | Project Team | Weekly | Meetings/ emails |
| Project Publicity communication | Project manager | Hospital Management | Hospital Management | Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and Lab Technicians | At the end of every milestone | Noticeboard/ Newsletters and meetings |
| Project Closure | Application Analyst | Project manager | Project manager | Hospital Management | Once. At the end of the project | Emails and meeting. |
Reference
Collins, G. (2016). Communication; Project communication strategy; From project kickoff to daily meetings. The Complete Software Project Manager, 6 (3), 129-144.
Ding, R. (2015). Communication Is the Key. Key Project Management Based on Effective Project Thinking, 275-298.
Dokkum, E. V., & Ravesteijn, P. (2016). Managing project communication. Strategic Integration of Social Media into Project Management Practice Advances in IT Personnel and Project Management, 35-50.
Jha, S. (2010). The project managers’ communication toolkit. Journal of IT Project Management, 33 (13), 543-556.
Wang, Z., & Hu, Q. (2012). The Research on the Impact of Project Communication to Project Performance. Advances in Electronic Engineering, Communication and Management Vol.2, 195-201.
