Patient Safety and Quality Specialist .FTE

Position: Patient Safety and Quality Specialist .9 FTE
** FTE/Scheduled Weekly

Hours:

** 0.90 / 36 / 1st Shift (United States of America)
M-F daytime hours. No weekends or holidays.
** PRIMARY FUNCTIONS
** Utilizes data, evidence-based practice, and quality improvement tools to coordinate and lead Waverly Health Center’s (WHC’s) improvement and patient safety efforts.
** ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
** Improvement Expert:
* Is a content expert, and remains current and well-informed on various process improvement tools, including but not limited to those associated with Lean, continuous improvement, sustainability, Joint Commission (JC), Root Cause Analysis, etc.
* Accepts the responsibility for defining and consistently pursuing own continuing education requirements.
* Remain current and well-informed on patient safety practices in hospital and clinic settings.

Improvement Identification:
* Proactively identifies opportunities for improvement and patient safety within the organization through various methods including but not limited to use of relevant data.
* Identifies, extracts and analyzes data, formulating recommendations for process improvement.
* Effectively prioritizes improvement activities to create patient safety in all patient care areas of the hospital and clinics.
* Actively reviews patient surveys/feedback to identify opportunities for improvement and ensure a positive patient experience.
* Serves as a regulatory expert for the hospitals and clinics and completes regulatory education with staff as appropriate. Rounds in departments to identify regulatory opportunities for improvement.

Improvement Leader:
* Effectively works with committees, departments, and staff (including practitioners) to lead and facilitate improvement and patient safety activities.  Maintains accountability in this regard of self, peers and staff.
* Develops and conducts employee education regarding general performance improvement tools.
* Coordinates and facilitates Patient Safety Committee and data sharing including culture of safety.
* Attends department huddles and provides input towards current process improvement metrics.

Improvement Implementation:

Effectively works with all areas including, Non-Clinical, Clinical and Practitioners, to implement improvements within the organization that result in long-term, sustained changes:
* Utilizes relevant data to determine priority of improvement efforts.
* Drives improvements through proactive collaboration with staff.
* Assists in conducting root cause analyses on events or metrics with clear outcomes and process improvement at completion.
* Works with each department as-needed to standardize processes using evidence-based standard-of-work.
* Works with Information Systems as needed to optimize electronic methods of work.
* Actively participates on appropriate committees to share information and implement positive change/process improvements.

Data Knowledge:
* Remains current and generally informed on applicable state/federal/accreditation regulations on clinical quality data reporting requirements, including but not limited to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Joint Commission (JC), Iowa Healthcare Collaborative (IHC), etc.
* Remains current on the facility’s publicly reported quality data, including trends and benchmarking variations, in order to identify improvement efforts.
* Identifies and tracks indicators to effectively measure improvement and patient safety efforts.
* Becomes a content expert for measures associated with improvement and patient safety efforts.

Systems Utilization for Data Analysis:
* Maintains a high-working knowledge of Excel/other programs in order to effectively analyze data and identify improvement opportunities.
* Maintains a high-working knowledge of the variance reporting system. Ensures variances have appropriate follow up in a timely manner and closes them when complete.
* Effectively shares data with staff, providers, and leadership.

Team Participation:
* Maintains active membership in committees/taskforces and departmental projects.
* Represents WHC by participating as directed on local/state/national projects/initiatives as deemed relevant for WHC.
** MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
** Education,…