Senior Patient Family Relations Specialist

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The Brigham and Women's Hospital, Inc. Mass General Brigham relies on a wide range of professionals, including doctors, nurses, business people, tech experts, researchers, and systems analysts to advance our mission. As a not-for-profit, we support patient care, research, teaching, and community service, striving to provide exceptional care. We believe that high-performing teams drive groundbreaking medical discoveries and invite all applicants to join us and experience what it means to be part of Mass General Brigham.

The focus of this position is to support patient and family rights and needs, assist in resolving concerns, highlight compliments of staff, and foster a welcoming environment. The role serves as a liaison between patients, loved ones, and staff in acknowledging and responding to feedback (grievances, complaints, assists, and compliments) in a compassionate and supportive manner. The Patient and Family Relations senior specialist serves as an internal clinical and operations resource for PFR, serving as a mentor and coach for specialists and representatives, performing chart reviews, clarifying medical terminology, and modeling best practices related to correspondence, family meetings, rounding, and interacting with clinical care teams.

The senior specialist takes lead on cases escalated from staff and those referred by senior leaders. A significant portion of the role involves supporting care teams in managing challenging behaviors, up to and including care agreements and dismissal management. The senior specialist embodies the institution's commitment to optimizing the patient experience and cultivating a strong patient and family centered culture.

This role reports to the AMC senior manager, Patient and Family Relations. Because this role in an active change management environment, the senior specialist will need to demonstrate maturity, flexibility, and open mindedness as the contours of this position will actively evolve over time.

Indicate key areas of responsibility, major job duties, special projects and key objectives for this position. These items should be evaluated throughout the year and included in the written annual evaluation.

• Serves as an internal clinical and operations resource for the rest of the team, performing chart reviews, clarifying medical terminology, and interacting with clinical care teams.
• Serves as a role model, mentor, and coach for recruiting, onboarding, training, evaluating, and integrating staff into PFR and PFR workflow.
• Performs chart reviews, clarifying medical terminology, and interacting with clinical care teams.
• Meets with patients and families in the ED, inpatient units, and the PFR office.
• Negotiates and mitigates expectations to promote satisfaction, ensure quality and safety, and minimize the risk of adversarial outcomes.
• Serves as a team lead for meetings with safety specialists, risk managers, and leadership.
• Serve as a team lead for Apology and Disclosure and other family meetings, and as a resource to care teams in managing challenging behaviors and patient dismissals.
• Conducts timely investigations and response to patient grievances, complaints, and concerns, including interviewing staff and reviewing medical records.
• Facilitates effective communication between patients, families, and staff to enhance patient and family-centered care and support mutual goals.
• Prepares formal correspondence and documentation, both patient-facing and internally, such as letters, emails, and reports, with efficiency and accuracy.
• Mediates and mitigates expectations to promote satisfaction, ensure quality and safety, and minimize risk of adversarial outcomes.
• Identifies patterns of service breakdowns and escalates to senior manager to share with Patient Experience measurement and improvement team.
• Supports patients and families in understanding patient rights and responsibilities, responds to patient complaints or concerns in accordance with DPH, CMS and The Joint Commission regulatory standards for patient complaints and grievances.
• Documents patient and staff concerns/requests in confidential department database.
• Rounds in high-volume clinical areas to obtain preemptive feedback from patients, visitors, and staff regarding AMC care experiences, when appropriate, and aligned with hospital safety policies.

• Bachelor's Degree Healthcare Administration required or Bachelor's Degree Related Field of Study required…