CMC Project Planning & Execution 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A cardiac rehabilitation program coordinator discovers mid-project that Joint Commission standards require an unplanned documentation update. This is an example of:
- Scope creep
- A regulatory constraint requiring formal change control (Correct answer)
- A risk that was not identified
- A communication failure
Correct answer: A regulatory constraint requiring formal change control
Regulatory requirements are external constraints; encountering a new one mid-project should trigger the formal change control process to assess impact on scope, time, and cost.
Question 2: The Schedule Performance Index (SPI) for a cardiac imaging equipment installation project is 1.15. This means the project is:
- 15% over budget
- 15% ahead of schedule relative to plan (Correct answer)
- Spending 15% more than expected
- 15% behind schedule
Correct answer: 15% ahead of schedule relative to plan
An SPI greater than 1.0 indicates the project is ahead of schedule, delivering more work than planned for the elapsed period.
Question 3: When developing a communication plan for a hospital-wide cardiac quality project, the MOST important factor to determine first is:
- The preferred meeting format
- The information needs and communication preferences of each stakeholder group (Correct answer)
- The project manager's reporting schedule
- The budget allocated for communication materials
Correct answer: The information needs and communication preferences of each stakeholder group
Effective communication planning starts with understanding what information each stakeholder needs, how often, and in what format.
Question 4: A cardiac center is piloting a remote patient monitoring program. The project team uses a feasibility study to evaluate the initiative. The feasibility study primarily assesses:
- The detailed implementation steps
- Whether the project is viable technically, financially, and operationally (Correct answer)
- The final project budget
- The marketing strategy for patient recruitment
Correct answer: Whether the project is viable technically, financially, and operationally
A feasibility study evaluates technical, financial, and operational viability to determine whether a project should proceed before detailed planning begins.
Question 5: Which quality tool would BEST help a cardiac project team understand the cause-and-effect relationship between a high readmission rate and its contributing factors?
- Pareto chart
- Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram (Correct answer)
- Run chart
- Histogram
Correct answer: Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram
The fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram maps potential causes across categories such as people, processes, equipment, and environment to identify root causes of an outcome.
Question 6: During procurement planning for a cardiac surgery simulation lab, the team decides to lease equipment rather than purchase it. This decision is the outcome of which analysis?
- Risk register review
- Make-or-buy analysis (Correct answer)
- Variance analysis
- Stakeholder impact assessment
Correct answer: Make-or-buy analysis
Make-or-buy analysis compares the costs and benefits of producing or acquiring internally versus purchasing or leasing from external sources.
Question 7: A project team managing implementation of a new cardiac EHR module identifies that end-user training has high resistance. The MOST effective mitigation strategy is:
- Mandate training attendance through hospital policy without explanation
- Engage physician champions early to model adoption and address clinical concerns (Correct answer)
- Delay go-live until resistance disappears
- Remove the training requirement and rely on self-directed learning only
Correct answer: Engage physician champions early to model adoption and address clinical concerns
Physician champions who model adoption and address peer concerns are the most effective lever for reducing clinical resistance to new health IT systems.
CMC Project Planning & Execution 4
A cardiac rehabilitation program coordinator discovers mid-project that Joint Commission standards require an unplanned documentation update.
This is an example of: