Location
Canada
Activity area
Healthcare
Company Overview
Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital (JGH) is a 637-bed facility founded in 1934. Affiliated with McGill University, it has an excellent reputation for serving patients from throughout the region, regardless of race, religion, language, or ethnic background. It is one of two bilingual hospitals, serving both the French and English speaking communities.
Healthcare in Canada is publicly administered by each province. In 2015, the province of Quebec enacted what was known as Bill 10, which called for a major overhaul of the system. The entire province was divided into a new set of healthcare regions integrating university centers for health and social services. These regions are called CIUSSS (Centre Intégré Universitaire de Santé et de Services Sociaux). JGH is in the west-central Montreal CIUSSS.
- Location: Canada
- Industry: Healthcare
Finding a tool that lets you manage portfolios of projects as well as the projects themselves, that’s not easy to find – especially given our budget. Sciforma does all we asked – and more.
Julie Vaillant
Planning, Project, Strategy Coordinator
Initiative Overview
As each CIUSSS is responsible for all local health and social services (including mental health), providers were required to implement a wide range of collaborations and partnerships. For the JGH, that meant rapidly creating partnerships with clinics, pharmacies, primary health care facilities, community and medical groups, as well as other hospitals and partners such as schools.
After this major change in the Quebecois health care system, JGH was required to rapidly establish interfaces with 30 other facilities, becoming a major transition period for their organization. Up to that point, the hospital’s project managers had been using a patchwork of solutions including Microsoft Word, Excel, and Project, as well as dedicated financial software. But when suddenly faced with hundreds of projects to execute very quickly under tight budgetary constraints, JGH needed a solution that would be implemented quickly and broadly. They required a solution that could centralize requests and could handle project portfolios – all at a reasonable cost. Most importantly, it had to be able to serve a user base of both French and English speakers.
Sciforma Solution
JGH found that Sciforma met all their requirements. In particular, they cited the following advantages:
- An “out-of-the-box” solution. Sciforma could be implemented rapidly and at an affordable price. JGH only pays for the features they use.
- The Sciforma solution is 100% configurable, which allows them to adapt it to fit their needs.
The JGH is now managing over 350 projects using the Sciforma solution.
Realized Benefits & Next Steps
Adaptability.
The Sciforma solution is flexible in terms of access management and the choice of methodologies. For example:
- The project team members have their own portals — an out-of-the-box Sciforma feature — with forms for inputting ideas and project requests.
- Access is personalized, so each user sees just what they need to see.
- JGH chose to configure the tool in English, but users can opt for a French or English interface.
- Terminology that differs across healthcare sectors is accommodated.
- Project Managers can implement their own methodologies.
- Read-only access is free.
Consolidation.
The JGH is now managing over 350 projects using the Sciforma solution. The Gantt chart functionalities are far more powerful and much easier to use than the patchwork of solutions the JGH had used before.
Accounts & budgets.
The Sciforma solution integrates intelligent budget management for 25 JGH accounts. Projects and portfolios are affiliated with the accounts, so it’s always clear what is available in a given budget. Performance timetables can be simulated, and project priorities established.
Performance.
Managers use the Sciforma tools to autonomously manage their own projects. They enter performance data into the Gantt chart, so they always have a detailed overview of how a project is moving along and how closely they’re tracking with schedules and budgets.
Integrated dashboards.
Dashboards are integrated in the Sciforma tool and include pre-formatted information. Reports are generated automatically.
