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Kern Health Systems Levels Up Project Portfolio Management with TeamDynamix

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Simple yet powerful platform gives project managers more visibility and control

The 330,000 members of Kern Family Health Care, a Medi-Cal managed care health plan serving residents of Kern County, California, rely on high-quality service for their patient care. Delivering on this promise isn’t possible without an efficient project management team to administer the 30-plus active projects that Kern Health Systems has going at any given time.

Before TeamDynamix, Kern Health Systems was using another project management tool, but it wasn’t meeting the organization’s needs. For instance, the software did not offer the ability to manage projects within a portfolio.

LaVonne Banks, director of Kern Health Systems’ enterprise project management office (EPMO), wanted a flexible yet affordable project portfolio management (PPM) platform that could do both, without requiring separate software systems—and Banks and her team have discovered that TeamDynamix is just what the doctor ordered.

Keeping Projects on Course

With a staff of more than 450 employees, Kern Health Systems works with health care providers to make sure members get the medical care they need. Banks oversees a team of 10 project managers who ensure the organization’s many projects are completed successfully.

About 90 percent of the organization’s projects have a technical component, such as integrating new state or federal rules and regulations into the software systems that Kern Health Systems uses to authorize procedures and process claims. These projects can range from just a few weeks to more than a year in duration, Banks says.

Previously, department heads would describe their project requests using a Word document and would submit this form to Banks’ office by email. EPMO staff would maintain a shared spreadsheet with information about projects that were proposed, approved, and underway.

However, this process was inefficient, and project managers did not have easy visibility into the status of projects. Looking to improve its project management process, Kern Health Systems implemented TeamDynamix in the summer of 2021.

“With TeamDynamix, I always have a source of truth on project data,”

Tracking Project Requests in TeamDynamix

Now, EPMO staff leverage TeamDynamix to manage the project requests and intake process.

With a simple and intuitive user interface, TeamDynamix makes it easy for project managers to evaluate project requests, approve and prioritize initiatives, assign resources and track and report on progress. TeamDynamix helps EPMO staff keep projects on course, establish clear expectations, and allocate resources more effectively.

“With TeamDynamix, I always have a source of truth on project data,” Banks observes.

‘Incomparable’ Value

Using TeamDynamix brings greater transparency to the project management process. It also saves Banks and her staff a great deal of time when they want to understand the status of projects and report this to organizational leaders.

“I love the platform’s reporting features,” she says. “They’re super easy to use. Being able to pull reports and quickly see real-time data is wonderful.”

Another key benefit of TeamDynamix is that it helps EPMO staff get out ahead of potential issues before they become full-blown problems. While some challenges are beyond the control of project managers, having greater insight makes it more likely that projects will be completed on time and under budget.

“We can quickly identify resource constraints and make adjustments when unexpected circumstances arise,” Banks says. “Because we can identify these issues earlier, we have a better chance of staying on top of resource management.”

Better transparency leads to more accountability and, ultimately, a higher success rate on projects.

When you consider that project portfolio management tools can cost several times as much for similar features and functionality, “the value of TeamDynamix is incomparable,” Banks concludes.

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