Patient Safety Specialist

Essential Duties And Responsibilities

• Serves as a patient safety and high reliability resource to staff, leaders and physicians, serving as a subject matter expert regarding general patient safety topics, causal analysis, and action planning.
• Collaborates with Leaders, Medical Staff, and others to meet the established patient safety goals aligned with reducing harm.
• Facilitates team based causal analysis using evidence-based methodology; develops and assists with implementation of action plans and related training.
• Assists with agenda planning and data preparation for the Harm Committee, Falls Committee, and/or Patient Safety Committee as needed.
• Creates and disseminates regular safety lessons-learned information, ie safety snapshots, safety stories, and safety alerts.
• Provides support to leaders, hospital teams and committees with integrating a culture of patient safety practices into day-to-day operations.
• Serves as an active and visible patient safety champion for frontline staff.
• Completes chart reviews for harms events as needed for performance opportunity analysis. Events may include adverse events, Patient Safety Indicators, and nursing sensitive indicator occurrences.
• Provides staff and Provider training on safety topics such as error prevention, teamwork training, and safety culture.
• Creates and disseminates regular safety lessons-learned information, ie safety snapshots, safety stories, and safety alerts.
• Coordinates culture of safety survey, action planning, and related goal setting; prepares reports of survey data; disseminates to leaders, staff, and Providers.
• Affords support to the patient safety practices section of the Hospital Leapfrog Survey and collaborates with process owners to ensure requirements are met.

Clinical Risk Management

• Maintains hospital-wide incident reporting system to include managing access and system updates; tracking and trending reported incidents; prepares aggregate data for various committees.
• Ensures consistent classification, assigns appropriate leader to investigate as needed, and ensures timely closure of reported incidents.
• Investigates equipment-related problems; assists with medical error disclosure in accordance with policy.

Position Title Patient Safety Specialist

• Makes mandated reports to State regarding adverse events as required by State regulations, in collaboration with the Director and Executive leadership.
• Maintains and updates the hospital’s annual Risk Management Plan, annual risk management report, and assists with risk management policies as appropriate.
• Performs hospital risk assessments, FMEAs, and conducts risk investigations as required.
• Provides staff and Provider training to enhance awareness of their role in reducing liability exposures.
• Maintains awareness of legislative and regulatory activities related to healthcare risk management.
• Disseminates information on claim patterns, risk control, and related regulatory changes as needed.
• Collaborates with Compliance Department and legal counsel as needed.
• Works with legal counsel to coordinate the investigation, processing, and defense of claims against the hospital as needed.
• Collects, maintains and provides legal counsels with information and documents necessary to prepare testimony in pending litigation as needed.

General Duties

• In partnership with the department Director and Manager assists with survey readiness and survey management activities.
• Using established problem-solving methodologies, leads and/or assist with multidisciplinary performance improvement teams.
• Performs project-based chart reviews and staff education in support of performance improvement initiatives.
• Effectively manages assigned projects with a level of independence in performance of the role to include problem resolution.
• Actively participates as the department representative on designated multidisciplinary teams and Committees.
• Supports clinical operations and clinical initiatives as assigned.
• Attends required hospital-wide orientations, meetings, and in-services.
• Maintains professional growth and development through seminars, workshops and professional affiliations to keep abreast of latest trends in field of expertise.

Education And Experience

• Minimum Required Education: Completion of an accredited Registered Nursing program, Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) preferred.
• PREFERRED EDUCATION: Not applicable
• Experience: 5+ years in clinical nursing, medical-surgical or critical care preferred, risk management experience preferred.
• BASIC KNOWLEDGE OF CONCEPTS, PRACTICES, AND PROCEDURES RELATED TO QUALITY AND PROCESS IMPROVEMENT FUNCTIONS AND QUALITY TOOLS AND METHODOLOGIES, TO INCLUDE CAUSAL ANALYSIS ACTIVITIES.
• WORKING KNOWLEDGE OF BASIC BUSINESS SOFTWARE SUCH AS EXCEL, POWERPOINT, AND WORD.