Guylaine Cyr

Pluralism in PMO performance: The case of a PMO dedicated to a major organizational transformation

The focus of this article is on the contribution made by the project management office (PMO) to organizational performance. It explores the particular case of a PMO dedicated to a major organizational transformation within a Canadian university hospital. The national government has asked hospitals to provide strict control over their budgets through implementing strong governance mechanisms. How can PMO performance be assessed within this context? Perception of two different groups has been analyzed within a competing values framework, allowing for a combination of four different performance conceptions. Results show certain similarities in the barriers to PMO performance but, most importantly, they reveal that between the two groups a paradox exists regarding what is valued in PMO performance. Results bring empirical evidence of the application of the competing values framework to the health care sector, but also to a wide variety of industries, public or private.

Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices in the Context of a Redevelopment Project in a Canadian Healthcare Organization

PURPOSE The recent introduction of a project management office (PMO) in a major healthcare center, led by a nurse, provides a unique opportunity to understand how a PMO facilitates successful implementation of evidence-based practices in care delivery. DESIGN A case study with embedded units (individuals, projects, and organization). In this study, the case is operationally defined as the PMO deployed in a Canadian healthcare center. METHODS The sources of evidence used in this study were diverse. They consisted of 38 individual interviews, internal documents, and administrative data. The data were collected from March 2009 to November 2011. Content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. FINDINGS PMO experts help improve practices, and the patients thus receive safer and better quality care. Several participants point out that they could not make the changes without the PMOs support. They mention that they succeeded in changing their practices based on the evidence and acquired knowledge of change management with the PMO members that can be transferred to their practice. CONCLUSIONS With the leadership of the nurse director of the PMO, members provide a range of expertise and fields in evidence-based change management, project management, and evaluation. CLINICAL RELEVANCE PMO facilitates the implementation of clinical and organizational practices based on evidence to improve the quality and safety of care provided to patients.

Families' and Decision Makers' Experiences With Mental Health Care Reform: The Challenge of Collaboration

Family-driven collaboration is fundamental to developing a new model of health care and eliminating fragmented services in mental health. The province of Québec (Canada) recently undertook major transformations of its mental health care system. These transformations represent an opportunity to improve collaboration between families and health care practitioners and to understand which factors facilitate this collaboration. This article describes how families and decision makers perceive collaboration in the context of a major transformation of mental health services and identifies the factors that facilitate and hinder family collaboration.

The Experience of Patients Engaged in Co-designing Care Processes.

This article presents the experiences of patients engaged in co-designing care under a program entitled, “Transforming Care at the Bedside,” based at an academic health sciences center. This descriptive, qualitative study collected data through individual interviews. Participants included patients from 5 units in an academic health sciences center in Quebec, Canada. A total of 6 individual interviews were conducted in November 2014, 15 months after the Transforming Care at the Bedside work began in September 2013. Content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. Being listened to and informed gave patients an opportunity to better understand patient needs and the complexity of care in the unit and in the organization. The experience enabled patients to better translate the patient experience for the team’s benefit and influence the team’s perspective and decisions. Through this experience, several patients felt motivated and empowered and that they afforded consideration through this experience. This study highlights the importance of creating opportunities for patients and health care providers to share their unique experiences and expertise to better understand each other’s reality. In this context, they developed a more comprehensive understanding of the issues and worked together to implement realistic changes on behalf of the patients.