SharePoint and Office 365 for Healthcare Project Management in the Era of COVID-19

"Overall, it's been great to have a main hub for our talent acquisition department to use for SOP's, templates, documents, and everything else consistently referenced. It's a knowledge hub for us."

 – SharePoint Review

The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has sent the healthcare industry into overdrive. Healthcare workers are sacrificing a lot, working extended shifts, avoiding going home, or quarantining themselves due to fear of bringing coronavirus home. Under these circumstances, the last thing they need is inefficient processes, preventing them from doing what they do best; provide optimal patient care. To eliminate inefficient processes, the healthcare industry can leverage advanced solutions such as SharePoint and Office 365. With SharePoint and Office 365, healthcare organizations can automate the repetitive and time-consuming process, ensure compliance, enhance communication and collaboration, and modernize and improve patient care. In this article, we'll review how healthcare organizations can use SharePoint and Office 365 to manage COVID-19 related projects and the benefits of using it as a project management solution.

Healthcare Industry can Leverage SharePoint and Office 365

Healthcare organizations can use SharePoint to manage all of their projects. Here are a few ways they can use Office 365 and SharePoint to manage COVID-19 related projects.

COVID-19 Specific Site

Healthcare organizations can create a separate site for COVID-19, where they can add relevant information, initiatives, guidelines, etc. They can further categorize the site for different stakeholders; they can create one for the general public and one for their staff.

In the general public site, they can add information about the coronavirus, provide preventative measures, etc. They can publish online forms which patients can fill from their home in case they contract the virus. By filling out the forms digitally, patients and healthcare workers can save a significant amount of time.

For the employees, they can add organizational policies, SOPs, and much more. They can even use SharePoint to let healthcare workers know about their work shift, even notify them about an appointment.

Self Screening Tool for COVID-19

Due to a limited number of test kits, coronavirus tests can't be performed on everyone, especially those feeling mild symptoms, as these symptoms are relatively similar to those of flu and cold. Health authorities of several countries have provided guidelines about the qualification of patients to get tested. By doing so, healthcare authorities are making sure that the tests are taken by those who need it. As an accessory of the COVID-19 test, healthcare organizations can create a self-screening tool using Office 365 so people can assess if they need medical attention or not. This way, a healthcare organization can prevent unnecessary movement of people and aid in the implementation of lockdowns while providing easy access to patient care.

Why SharePoint for Project Management?

The four essential elements a capable project management solution must have are;

• Document Storage
• Site collections, repositories, and applications
• Customization
• Permissions and security

With SharePoint you get all these essential elements and components in the shape of;

• Lists
• Web parts
• SharePoint sites
• Site collections

Lists

The resources you use to handle a project in the simplest sense are 'lists' of items; it could be a list of tasks, project statement, hazard list or hazard register, etc. You may also add a list for the following processes to a SharePoint account.

• A list of tasks with the ability to indent / outdent, transfer tasks and organize a framework for work breakdown
• Create a documents library with strong native SharePoint capabilities, including co-authoring, check-in / out, version control, etc.
• Project Issues, Risks, Project Statement, etc.

Ultimately, with each list, you are adding project management processes that you need to your SharePoint site.

Web Parts

You keep track of the work and submit updates to your SharePoint Lists, but you need a way to generate reports on the lists to track your progress; that's what web parts are. They provide you with a dashboard of the tasks or items on the lists for easy monitoring and reporting of the progress. You can have web parts in your SharePoint reporting section for the following;

• Open issues
• Work Overdue
• KPIs and traffic light indicators
• Charts for reporting Tasks by Status, and more.

Sites

Through lists and web parts, you can easily monitor and update progress, and communicate through project management dashboards about what is happening in the project.

With a SharePoint site for your project, you can bring all these separate components together, including all your lists, web parts, and document libraries, into one unified shared project site.

Site Collections

A site collection is a collection or group of multiple SharePoint sites. With the help of site collections, project managers can manage several individual projects in different SharePoint pages, and link them together in a list of sites. This provides easy access to all ongoing or finished projects within the project office.

Conclusion

Healthcare workers are our heroes, and we must do everything we can to make things easier for them. With SharePoint and Office 365, healthcare organizations can bring efficiency to their business processes and provide optimum patient care. They can use MS Teams for video consultation to provide support or to discuss the ongoing pandemic with health professionals around the globe to create effective solutions. The best thing about SharePoint and Office 365 is that it follows regulatory compliances, including HIPAA, which means that the healthcare industry can use it without worrying about compliance issues.

Follow the guidelines provided by the authorities, practice social distancing, wash your hand, and wear a mask. 

Wishing you and your family the best of health!