Program Analyst; Informatics

This Program Analyst (Informatics) position is located at Salisbury VA Medical Center in Salisbury, NC. The primary purpose of this position is to improve the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care by integrating clinical and information processes necessary to achieve successful adoption and application of new technologies throughout the VHA.

Duties of this position include but are not limited to:
Coordination of computer programs, programming, coordinating EHR programs for staff use, development of project plans, convening stakeholder groups to prompt requirements, conducting environmental scans for viable solutions to business need, deploying solutions, and performing assessments to ensure the informatics products and services are meeting stakeholder needs. Guides the evolution of clinical software and processes by ensuring clinical software are available for staff use in addition to training on these programs and using creative and well-developed interpersonal skills to achieve effective communication with the end users.

Incumbent contributes to the development of software enhancements, guides process improvement activities, and partners with colleagues working on information technology (IT) for the better provision of patient care by clinical and business staff. Coordinates among multiple services to provide clinical workflows, partnering on the planning and deployment of medical devices in clinical areas, helping to train staff, troubleshooting issues, preparing instructions, and ensuring that patient care technology is effectively and efficiently integrated into the clinical workflow to assure staff proficiency and adoption.

Evaluates content quality and assure access to knowledge resources, eliminating redundancy in duplicate data sources, and improving information interoperability across the organization. Applies statistical (quantitative information derived mathematically), machine learning (use of artificial intelligence to derive knowledge from data to predict outcomes), visualization (representation of data via a chart or other image), inferencing (a way to understand cause-and-effect relationships) and other techniques to enable decision support.

Incumbent may utilize or develop reports and information tools using a variety of methods and tools such as Structured Query language (SQL), SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) from the VISN and the VA corporate data warehouse. Enables healthcare capabilities and the evolution of technology adjoined to the electronic health record (EHR) to deliver quality care by developing, implementing, monitoring, maintaining, and optimizing informatics tools and access to them.

This includes informatics operations that support activities to address the people, process, and technology components of EHR modernization around the four phases of implementation, involving the (1) Preparation, (2) Initiation, (3) Adoption, and (4) Optimization phases. Adapts clinical software and emerging technologies to optimize the delivery of care through effective education and communication, innovations in process management, and high-quality customer service achieved by working in close partnership with clinical and administrative services.

Ensures clinical input in the development and management of the VHA business architecture, which structures and communicates the VHA healthcare business, and includes descriptions of business behaviors, functionality, processes, and the flow of information that is required to achieve VHA's mission. Ensures the VHA EHR and other clinical and business systems operate in a way that improves patient care, ensures patient safety, and meets the needs of providers.

S/he participates in actions to evaluate, test, and report on errors found when working with systems and applications. Applies a true end-to-end process to evaluate workflows, identify issues, develop solutions based on best practice guidelines, and resolves and communicates changes to maintain and optimize processes that deliver HIT solutions. Evaluates, documents, analyzes, prioritizes, and recognizes requirements for the improvement of the EHR and other systems in collaboration with the end-user.

Supports the initial phase of requirements analysis where information is gathered on what an IT system needs to perform by engaging with business owners, subject matter experts (SME), and/or field representatives. Adapts clinical software and emerging technologies to…