How to See a Project Through to Completion
Although your title may not officially be “project manager", chances are that you’ve dealt with numerous projects so far in your healthcare career. Special projects can break up your daily routine and bring exciting challenges to your work. On the same note, however, projects can become a significant source of stress if they’re not managed properly. Moreover, if you fail to execute any of the steps or details involved in your project, you may not be asked to lead any other projects in the future.

The project management steps below guide you through the process of managing any project, step by step.

Define the Scope
The first and most important step in any project is defining the scope of the project. What is it you are supposed to accomplish by managing this project? What is the project objective? If you’re unclear on the exact purpose of the project, it will be doomed from the very beginning.

Equally important is defining what is not included in the scope of your project. If you don't get enough definition from your boss, clarify the scope yourself and send it back to your supervisor for confirmation.

Determine Available Resources
Determine what people, equipment, and money you will have available to you to achieve the project objectives. You probably won’t have direct access to these resources—so you’ll also need to find out who controls these resources. Also be sure to abide by all rules and processes; you don’t want to obtain a resource only to find out later that you need to give it up because you didn’t follow procedure.

Assemble Your Project Team
While you are the one in charge of the project, it’s your project team members who will make everything happen. They are the ones who will help you achieve success—so choose them carefully if you’ve been given authority to do so. Once your team is formed, get everyone together and start a dialog. As project manager, it’s your responsibility to keep the team informed of progress every step of the way. Let them know of your success as you complete each milestone, but also inform them of problems as soon as they come up. If changes are being considered, tell the team about them as far ahead as you can. Make sure everyone on the team is aware of what everyone else is doing.

Check the Timeline
Deadlines are critical. As you develop your project plan, you may have some flexibility in how you use time during the project, but deadlines usually are fixed. If you decide to use overtime hours to meet the schedule, you must weigh that against the limitations of your budget.
Remember, being a project manager is both challenging and rewarding. By following the steps above, you can maximize your chances for success.

“You create your opportunities by asking for them."
—Patty Hansen

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has developed an online educational tool for fee-for-service (FFS) healthcare staff who are relatively unfamiliar with the Medicare program, as well as for those professionals looking for easy access to the many resources on the CMS Web site.

The interactive tool—Guided Pathways to Medicare Resources for Medicare Fee-for-Service Healthcare Professionals—uses a road trip motif, and leads users through nine broad sections of information covering the Medicare program, with links to further pertinent information.

The information found in this resource is helpful for physicians, nurses, medical administrators and other healthcare professionals involved in providing FFS healthcare to people with Medicare. The Guided Pathways provide information that will increase your awareness of the CMS Website, the Medicare Learning Network Section of the Website, and many other available resources for Medicare FFS healthcare professionals.

The Guided Pathways is presented to the learner in ways which are visual and dynamic while at the same time providing useful information, education, and resources about the Medicare Program and the overall structure of the CMS website. You can get on track today by visiting http://www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/training/guidedpathways/index.html

“To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe."
—Marilyn vos Savant

Whether you’re composing an e-mail, completing your resume or just leaving a note for your boss; clear and concise writing is critical. Indeed, the wrong word here or a typo there can leave your readers frustrated and confused. Simply put, if you want your audience to read and understand your message, you must present it in a concise fashion.

Being concise means that you say what you need to say in as few words as possible. Sounds simple, right? But the reality is that this can be a demanding task. Here are a few tips to help you keep your prose spare and meaningful:

1. Stray from the passive tense. In sentences written in passive voice, the subject receives the action expressed in the verb; the subject is acted upon. The result is a wordy and weak sentence. For example, “Research will be presented by Dan at the conference." Stick to the active tense, in which the subject performs the action. For example, “Dan will present his research at the conference."

2. Get rid of redundancies. By simply doing a quick proof read, you can probably catch quite a few redundancies. Here is an example, “remand back." You don’t remand back because remand already means “to send back." Other instances you will want to avoid or eliminate: gathered together, close proximity, close scrutiny, end result, absolutely necessary, totally destroyed. In each case, the only word necessary is the italicized word.

3. Tighten your copy. You can most likely cut three to five words out of every sentence you write. For example, make “over a period of 10 year" read “for 10 years." Make “made his objection known" read “he objected." Make “he placed the blame directly on the governor’s shoulders" read “he blamed the governor."

4. Kill qualifiers and intensifiers. You may think that extra adverbs and adjectives will help get your statement across, but it just creates a wordy message. Don’t say “really happy" say “ecstatic." Don’t say “very unique" say “unique." Don’t say “truly honest" just say “honest." Your message will be more concise and to-the-point.

Remember, you don’t have to be a grammar teacher to convey a clear message. You do, however, have to take some extra time to ensure your writing is free of redundancies and extra, meaningless words. The result will be a concise message that is understood by all of your readers.

“That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way."

—Doris Lessing

A man received a parrot for his birthday. This parrot was fully-grown with a bad attitude and an offensive vocabulary. Every other word was an expletive. Those that weren't expletives were, to say the least, extremely rude.

The man tried hard to change the bird's attitude and was constantly saying polite words, playing soft music—anything that came to mind. Nothing worked. He finally yelled at the bird, but the bird only got worse. He then shook the bird and the bird got more angry and exceedingly rude.

Finally, in a moment of desperation, he put the parrot in the freezer.
For a few moments he heard the bird squawking, kicking and screaming and then, suddenly, all was quiet.

The man was frightened that he might have actually hurt the bird and quickly opened the freezer door. The parrot calmly stepped out onto the man's extended arm and said: "I'm sorry that I offended you with my language and actions. I ask for your forgiveness. I will try to improve my behavior."

The man was astounded at the bird's change in attitude and was about to ask what changed him when the parrot continued, "May I ask what the chicken did?"

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