Quality Improvement Analyst III at Louisiana Public Health Institute – New Orleans, Louisiana

Why is this a great job? The Quality Improvement Analyst III role offers an opportunity for a public health professional interested in working directly with health system administrators to support and facilitate statewide quality improvement initiatives. Working with the PelEX and Human Services Research (HSR) teams means the Analyst will gain diverse experiences around healthcare quality improvement, health data management, and clinical HIT products. The position involves operating the data analytical program for the Louisiana Quality Network (LQN) project, supporting data quality and technical assistance alongside PelEX data engineering staff and HSR analysts. LPHI is offering a compelling compensation package for a candidate who is passionate about leveraging data to improve the quality of care in Louisiana. LPHI’s mission and core values provide a fulfilling and supportive work environment where you can contribute to a healthier Louisiana.

POSITION DETAILS

Job Title: Quality Improvement Analyst III
Salary: $95,000-$130,000 (Professional 4)

• Salary is based on various factors unique to each candidate, including skill set, experience, qualifications, and other job-related reasons

Work Schedule: 40-hour work week

• LPHI offers traditional (M-F, 8 am-5 pm), flexible (for example, M-F 10 am-7pm), and compressed work schedules (for example, M-Th 8 am-7 pm). Schedule details finalized between employee and manager.

Location: This is a Louisiana-based, hybrid position with occasional (<5%) travel required

• LPHI maintains an office in New Orleans if the employee prefers to be full-time in-office
• Employee must reside in Louisiana during the time of employment

Team: PelEX-HSR

Reports To: Chief Data and Strategy Officer

Supervises: None

Benefits:

• LPHI contributes 7% of pre-tax salary to the employees’ 401k per pay period regardless of employee contribution, after six continuous months of employment
• 100% paid premiums for employee health (Core plan), dental, short-term disability, long-term disability and term life insurance beginning on the first day of the month, on or following one month of full-time employment
• 100% paid Employee Assistance Program
• 100% paid parking at 601 Tchoupitoulas Parking Garage
• Traditional, flexible, or compressed work schedules
• Resources committed to professional development
• Holidays, Vacation and Sick Days:
• 15+ paid holidays per year that includes Thanksgiving Break and Winter Break
• 10 vacation days accrued per year, years 0-2
• 15 vacation days accrued per year, years 3-5
• 20 vacation days accrued per year, year 6+
• 3 personal days
• 1 floating holiday (employee’s choice)
• 12 sick days

ABOUT THE POSITION

The Quality Improvement Analyst supports the Louisiana Quality Network (LQN), a multi-site network of health systems participating in the Louisiana Department of Health’s Managed Care Incentive Payment (MCIP) program. This role serves as the primary analytic and data operations lead for LQN, with responsibility for supporting standardized data extraction, data quality assurance, measure calculation, and reporting across participating hospitals.

The Quality Improvement Analyst works closely with hospital partners, LPHI data engineering staff, and LSU Health Sciences Center (LSUHSC) collaborators to ensure the secure receipt, validation, and analysis of clinical and administrative data used for quality improvement and incentive reporting. A core function of the role is providing technical guidance to health systems to ensure data submissions meet specification requirements and support accurate, reproducible measure calculation.

The position requires strong technical skills in SQL and healthcare data analysis, as well as practical experience with clinical quality improvement, particularly in Medicaid and Medicare-related programs. The Quality Improvement Analyst participates in cross-organizational coordination, contributes to documentation and reporting deliverables, and supports the ongoing operation and refinement of the LQN data infrastructure.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

LQN data operations and quality improvement

• Serve as the primary analytic and data operations lead for the Louisiana Quality network (LQN) project.
• Develop, document, and maintain technical specifications for standardized data extracts submitted by participating health systems.
• Provide technical assistance to hospital partners on data extraction, formatting, and submission to support accurate measure calculation.
• Identify, document and resolve data quality issues related to completeness, validity, and consistency of submitted data.
• Design and guide implementation of data quality checks, business rules, and validation processes in collaboration with data engineering staff.
• Support the development and maintenance of a standardized data model to use for clinical quality measure calculation.

Data ingestion, analysis, and reporting

• Design, validate, and maintain analytic metrics derived from ingested clinical and administrative data, including cohort definitions, quality indicators, and longitudinal measures, with attention to reproducibility, versioning, and cross-site comparability.
• Develop routine and ad hoc reporting products, including dashboards in Power BI, summary tables, and analytic extracts, to support internal monitoring, external reporting, and contract deliverables; ensure results are interpretable, well-documented, and aligned with partner requirements.
• Work closely with data engineering teams to ensure data extracts are ingested, validated and allow for clinical quality measure calculation.
• Serve as a technical liaison between LPHI, LSUHSC, participating health systems, and data engineering vendor.
• Provide regular updates on data intake status, data quality findings, and analytic deliverables.
• Collaborate with data engineering, analytics, and business intelligence staff to define and apply data standards and best practices.

Project management

• Lead day-to-day coordination for the LQN project as the primary analytic and partner management support.
• Coordinate work across multiple partners (hospital partners, LPHI data engineering, LSUHSC collaborators, and vendors) to keep data submissions and deliverables moving.
• Manage timelines and deliverables for data intake and reporting.
• Facilitate stakeholder communication by providing regular updates and serving as a technical liaison between organizations.
• Drive issue management and resolution, identifying, documenting, and resolving data quality issues (completeness, validity, consistency).

ABOUT YOU

Position Requirements

Required

• A master’s degree in epidemiology, informatics, statistics, health services research or a related field
• 8+ years of experience supporting clinical quality improvement initiatives in healthcare or a related sector
• Proficiency in at least one statistical or analytic programming language (SAS, Python, or R)
• Proficiency in SQL and experience working with relational database management systems
• Experience developing analytic outputs or dashboards using data visualization tools
• Experience analyzing electronic health records and/or claims data
• Working knowledge of clinical quality measurement, including measures relevant to Medicaid and/or Medicare programs
• Familiarity with healthcare data privacy and security requirements, including HIPAA

Preferred

• Experience supporting managed care incentive programs, value-based payment programs, or quality reporting initiatives
• Proficiency with Microsoft Power BI
• Experience working within complex healthcare organizations such as hospitals, health systems, or health plans
• Familiarity with healthcare coding systems (e.g., ICD-10, CPT, HCPCS, LOINC)
• Experience working in or directly supporting clinical environments
• Prior experience supporting Clinical HIT products, including EHR systems
• Ability to work in the New Orleans area

Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities

• Strong commitment to LPHI’s Strategic Plan Priorities, Mission, Vision and Values
• Ability to demonstrate LPHI's Core Competencies
• Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and partners
• High emotional intelligence, including experience working with individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds
• Demonstrated practice of a learning orientation
• Ability to champion and manage change
• Ability to deliver with quality and impact, including attention to detail, while meeting deadlines and milestones
• Demonstrated ability to apply systems thinking and act strategically
• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Professional credibility and demonstrated ability to garner trust and confidence among team members and organizational leadership
• Knowledge of Human Subjects Protection and HIPAA requirements
• Excellent working knowledge of statistical programming languages and statistical applications, particularly related to predictive modeling
• Experience with relational database management systems, particularly Microsoft SQL Server
• Proficiency in understanding and application of SQL, R, SAS, Python, and data visualization software

Your Impact at LPHI
The work you do at LPHI supports the organization’s ability to operate effectively and serve its mission. Your role contributes to how work gets done across teams—helping ensure efforts are organized, responsive, and aligned to organizational priorities that improve and advance health equity.

We value collaboration, respect for lived experience, and continuous learning, and we strive to create an environment where every team member can contribute fully to advancing Health Equity, strengthening Partnerships and Collaboration, building a Healthier Louisiana, and supporting a Thriving Organization.

How We Work

Work Environment & Physical Considerations:

We operate in a flexible work environment that includes both hybrid and fully remote roles, depending on position responsibilities and organizational needs. Our approach emphasizes trust, accountability, collaboration, and clear outcomes.

In all roles, employees can expect:

• Clear goals, priorities, and performance expectations
• Regular communication with supervisors and colleagues to support alignment and progress
• Thoughtful use of technology to enable effective collaboration and productivity
• Shared responsibility for maintaining a consistent organizational voice and upholding our values

Some positions require a hybrid schedule, with periodic onsite presence to support collaboration, relationship-building, and key meetings. Other positions are designated as fully remote. Work arrangements are determined by role requirements and may evolve over time based on operational needs.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Statement: Louisiana Public Health Institute is committed to accessibility and inclusion by providing reasonable accommodations and, when appropriate, flexible work arrangements, for qualified individuals with disabilities to support the job application process and performance of essential job functions consistent with applicable laws and organizational requirements. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at HumanResources@lphi.org.

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Statement: Louisiana Public Health Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of actual or perceived race (including hair texture and natural hair styles), color, religion, religious creed (including religious dress and religious grooming practices), sex (including pregnancy, perceived pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions), gender, gender identity (including transgender identity, status and transitioning), gender expression and sex stereotyping, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, legally protected medical condition or information (including genetic information), family care or medical leave status, military caregiver status, military status, veteran status, marital status, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking, enrollment in a public assistance program, engaging in protected communications regarding employee wages, requesting a reasonable accommodation on the basis of disability or bona fide religious belief or practice, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal laws. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any of these factors.

*As with all positions at LPHI, this position is funded through grant and/or contract funding, which is renewed under the provisions of the grantor of the contract. Positions are contingent upon the continuation of grant/contract funding.