Healthcare workforce solution

One of the initial difficulties was understanding the unique requirements and constraints of the medical industry, including compliance with regulations such as HIPAA. I collaborated closely with stakeholders, including the client, development team, and regulatory bodies, to ensure that the project adhered to all necessary guidelines. For this project, we had a web application and a mobile application. The web application was for the facility and the agency. The mobile application was for the nurses to choose the shifts of their choice from different facilities that were under this ecosystem. The facility used to create the shifts and managed agency and invoices generated by the agency while from the agency portal, the nurses were managed with their payroll and ongoing assignments.

We've implemented a robust process definition engine that provides centralized control over every functionality within our system. This empowers us to seamlessly manage and customize features, allowing us to disable specific functions for particular stakeholders effortlessly through the main controller.

Our notification engine follows a well-defined process, and we've established a dedicated table for tracking the progress of notifications. From initiation to delivery, we meticulously monitor each step, ensuring transparency and accountability throughout the entire lifecycle.

What sets our system apart is the implementation of an exceptional traceability mechanism. We've engineered a comprehensive system to keep a close eye on project statuses. In the rare event of errors, our traceability mechanism shines by quickly pinpointing issues and facilitating swift rectification. This not only minimizes downtime but also enhances the overall reliability and maintainability of our processes.     

Balancing the Needs of All Stakeholders

One of the key lessons we learned during the project was the importance of balancing the needs of all stakeholders in the staffing process. By engaging with nurses, staffing agencies, and healthcare facilities, we were able to understand the unique challenges faced by each stakeholder and design a solution that met the needs of all parties. This helped to ensure that the solution was well-received and effectively addressed the staffing challenges faced by the industry.

The Importance of Real-Time Communication

Another important lesson we learned was the importance of real-time communication. By integrating the staffing solution with existing communication channels, we were able to provide real-time updates on the availability of nurse resources and the status of staffing requests. This improved the accuracy and speed of staffing decisions and reduced the administrative burden for all stakeholders.

Technology Stack 

Flutter

Flutter is an open-source mobile application. We used Dart programming language and provided a fast, expressive, and flexible way to build high-performance native apps for iOS and Android. 

Local and central database solution 

The client wanted two ways for the API interaction. One was when we had good connectivity and the other scenario was when we don't have an internet connection. In both cases, few features were to be working from the mobile end. So we designed a mechanism where the intermediate process was saved into the local database of the mobile and every midnight we used to run a cron to sync these collected data to the central database while triggering the required APIs at that point.  So we had a centralized database for nurse staffing. By centralizing all staffing information in a single database, we were able to provide stakeholders with a clear and complete view of the staffing process. This improved the transparency of the process, reducing the risk of errors and misunderstandings, and helped to ensure that all stakeholders had access to the information they needed to make informed staffing decisions. 

Node JS 

We used NodeJS as the backend code.

Angular JS

We used angular for the web application 

Socket IO

This Socket IO is an excellent choice for building real-time messaging applications. It's bidirectional communication capabilities and event-driven architecture made it well-suited for our interactive messaging systems for our different stakeholders.

Synfusion library

We used the Syncfusion library for Angular and Flutter which is a comprehensive set of UI components and tools designed to enhance the development of Angular applications. We used a wide range of components, including grids, charts, calendars, schedulers, and reports.

Mouseflow and mixpanel

As understanding user behavior and traceability is important for this application we used this web analytics tool that provides insights into user behavior on websites. It records and analyzes visitor interactions, allowing website owners to understand how users navigate their site, interact with different elements, and identify areas for improvement.

Challenges :

• Complex Staffing Algorithms: Developing accurate and efficient staffing algorithms was challenging. Balancing factors like patient acuity, nurse skill sets, shift preferences, and regulatory requirements required careful consideration and extensive testing to ensure optimal results.

• Integration with Existing Systems: Integrating the nursing staffing solution with existing healthcare systems' manual allocation was challenging. Diverse data formats, interoperability issues, and varying system architectures required extensive customization and data mapping efforts.

• Maintaining streamlined data: As we had both mobile(Flutter) and web applications (Angular) so we had a unique challenge to maintain the accurate data flow irrespective of multiple tech stacks 

• Timezone issues: As we had multiple stakeholders and the US has multiple timezones we had to manage these adaptive timezones where there should not be any issues as the time was very critical for the application as it was required for the patient care to the payment sections 

• Adoption and Change Management: Encouraging nurses and other stakeholders to adopt and embrace the new solution was difficult. Resistance to change, training requirements, and cultural barriers were addressed through effective change management strategies and comprehensive training programs.

• Data Quality and Accuracy: Ensuring data quality and accuracy was crucial for the success of the nursing staffing solution. Incomplete or inaccurate data could lead to incorrect staffing decisions and compromise patient care. Establishing data validation processes and ensuring data integrity were ongoing challenges.

• Regulatory Compliance: Complying with healthcare regulations and staffing standards added complexity to the project. Navigating and implementing requirements related to nurse-patient ratios, licensing, certifications, and labor laws posed challenges. The solution had to be designed to accommodate these regulations and facilitate compliance.

• User Experience and Usability: Designing a user-friendly interface that accommodated the diverse needs of nurses, agencies, Facilities, and administrators was a significant challenge. Ensuring ease of use, intuitive navigation, and efficient workflows required careful attention to user experience design principles and iterative user testing.

• Scalability and Performance: The nursing staffing solution needed to be designed to handle increasing data volumes and user loads as the organization grew. Ensuring scalability, performance optimization, and efficient database management presented challenges that had to be addressed during the development and testing phases.

• Security and Privacy: Protecting sensitive patient and staff information was of utmost importance. Implementing robust security measures, such as data encryption, access controls, and secure authentication, while adhering to data privacy regulations like HIPAA, presented challenges that required expertise in healthcare cybersecurity.

• Stakeholder Communication and Managing changes requests: Engaging and managing multiple stakeholders was typical part as there were multiple change requests from these it was very tough to handle the changes along with the current sprint works.

• Ongoing Maintenance and Support: Providing ongoing maintenance, bug fixes, and user support post-implementation was crucial for the long-term success of the solution. Ensuring efficient issue resolution, timely updates, and user assistance posed ongoing challenges in terms of resource allocation and service level management.

After the project was delivered successfully, I carried out a thorough post-project evaluation. This involves evaluating the success of the project's objectives and getting input from team members and stakeholders. I was able to share insightful observations and lessons learned with the organisation because I had recognised areas of success and areas that needed improvement.

Overall, it was a very satisfying experience working as a TPM on this project. I was successful in meeting the client's expectations by utilising my technical know-how, strong communication abilities, and proactive project management techniques. I am happy with how well our team worked together and the beneficial effect our project had on the healthcare sector.