A portfolio management office just might be essential for healthcare providers trying to navigate away from fee-for-service and toward value-based care.

As Children’s Hospital of Atlanta, which claims that its PMO drives projects designed to improve both care and operational efficiency.

“What we looked at in our organization and what’s important in the industry is how to get from ‘we did 52 projects this year’ to ‘we did 15 meaningful projects that increased the value of our patient care,’” said Heather Spyke, director of IS Portfolio Management and Services for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

Spyke and Bob Schwyn, a partner and director of the Informatics and Technology practice at Aspen Advisors (part of the Chartis Group), will lead a session on how hospitals can transform their PMOs to support value-based care at the HIMSS16 conference in Las Vegas in late February and early March.

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In addition to detailing the lessons and experiences from Children’s Hospital of Atlanta’s PMO transformation, the session will explain how to identify key factors – such as stakeholder commitment and engagement – that ensure consistent high-quality project delivery.

“We went through a transformation where we looked at how we are reporting out, how we are pulling in projects, how are we saying ‘no’— and sometimes it’s hard to say no to a C-level person.”

The reality is that many hospital PMOs still operate in a way that makes it more challenging to deliver value-based care.

“In a portfolio management office, what can look like success is a certain number of projects per year,” Spyke said. “Many of these projects may not even benefit the organization, but they sure look good on a chart.”

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The session will provide a step-by-step guide for PMO transformation based on the experiences of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, including detailing how to assess your PMO’s current performance, identify desired future performance, and build and execute a roadmap to transform the PMO to support the volume to value transition.

“The PMO: Mission-Critical for the Volume to Value Transition” will be held on March 1 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. PST in the Sands Expo Convention Center, Marcello 4404.

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