Trello and Smartsheet Software Assist Staff with Idea Boards

Submitted by Crystal Lehto

Radiology has at the very least over 12 idea boards across 3 campuses within the Medical Center. There was a great opportunity to share ideas across modalities/campuses as it was learned that some areas had implemented ideas where other areas were challenged on the very same idea.

Trello is a free online project management system in which one can easily set up to meet one’s needs. We saw an opportunity to use this as an ‘online’ idea system portal. Trello is easy to set up and manage, which allows you to take photos of the idea cards and upload or you can enter the information into the system (user preference). Trello can be accessed by all either by PC or Smartphone. Trello provides a great visual of new ideas, in progress, or completed; one can also attach documents to support the ideas such as data.

Trello has been used by other teams in the hospital such as Quality and Patient Safety and the Patient Family Advisory Council.

Trello is not meant to take the place of the ‘physical’ idea board huddle; it is intended to encourage more huddles both ‘virtual’ and ‘physical’. From an administrator stand point, Trello links in nicely with other software applications such as Smartsheet. Each month completed ideas are being submitted to administration, which often involves multiple reminders. Trello and Smartsheet can now set up automatic monthly reminders to all leads to submit these completed ideas via Trello. Reports can easily be extracted via Smartsheet.

Below is a screenshot of one of our several virtual ideas boards in Trello; this board seen is actively used by the Interventional Radiology team on the University campus.

Smartsheet is a project management tool that is primarily used by leaders and administrators who track projects and completed ideas. Trello was chosen solely to focus on ‘idea systems’ whereas Smartsheet was chosen to house all quality projects that are either active, complete, or abandon.

Smartsheet has more advanced options over Trello in that it allows project leads and sponsors to see the timeline associated with the project plan. It also allows the end user to build the worksheet that makes sense, such as red, yellow, green scorecard. Smartsheet is very easy to use; if one is familiar with Excel then one can navigate and build. You can also add documents to support the project along with photos, team members, etc.

The screenshot below is an example of one project that is active in Radiology focused on scheduling.