QI & Patient Experience Specialist at New London Hospital – New London, New Hampshire

The Quality Improvement & Patient Experience Specialist promotes clinical quality improvement and patient experience efforts throughout the organization. The role supports and promotes safe, high quality patient care through a systematic, coordinated and continuous approach to improvement. The Quality Improvement & Patient Experience Specialist works collaboratively with providers, leaders and staff to enhance patient experience and ensure adherence to patient and family centered care and patient satisfaction provided at New London Hospital Association (NLHA) sites, which include: New London Hospital (NLH) and Newport Health Center (NHC). This individual will meet with and speak with patients and family members to understand their experiences, resolve concerns, and rebuild trust and understanding where applicable.

The Quality Improvement & Patient Experience Specialist focuses on data & reporting functions for the organization. The role serves as the organization's resource in the analysis, design and development of a broad range of reports, reporting tools, & recurring and ad hoc quality data requests. This role assures compliance with accurate and timely data collection to support reporting and submission requirements, both internally and externally. The position requires the ability to interact effectively with clinical staff, non-clinical staff, leadership and outside parties such as state and federal agencies, payers or organizations which New London Hospital may collaborate. This position must be highly organized and able to develop work products in an accurate and timely fashion subject to strict deadlines in many instances.

These activities are designed to support the Institute for Medicine’s six pillars of Quality Improvement in healthcare, across NLHA.

• Assists in the maintenance of processes which support improvement and safety, enable the collection, storage, and analysis of improvement and safety data, and enable compliance with external regulatory agency requirements.
• Assists with Regulatory activities.
• Supports departments with quality improvement projects.
• Supports efforts with leaders and staff to build awareness of patient/family perceptions of NLH experiences and implementation of effective strategies to improve perception of Patient and Family Centered Care (PFCC) throughout the organization.
• Meets and speaks directly with patients, families and community members via advocacy and experience channels with the goal of understanding experiences and utilizing feedback to identify areas for improvement.
• Facilitates appropriate, timely response to patient and family complaints and grievances as per policy in keeping with statutory and regulatory requirements in writing and in person.
• Supports Health & Safety by demonstrating safe behaviors and following Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) requirements in patient environments.
• Advocates for patients and families, along with the appropriate individuals who can impact their experience.
• Acts as a subject matter expert and resource to staff in relation to patient experience.
• Works closely with the Quality and Safety and the Risk Management/Compliance officer in response to and resolution of issues that represent potential liability, or claims of malpractice or negligence.
• Maintains strict confidentiality and maintains database for the purpose of tracking and trending complaints and grievances. Clearly and concisely documents patient and family feedback for successful response.
• Supports the coordination and further development of NLH’s Patient and Family Advisory Council(s), working with Patients, families and front line staff in the process of co-designing experiences proactively.
• Supports required data submission requirements for grants or accreditation programs.
• Generates reports, reviews data for accuracy, and submits patient data to patient satisfaction vendor per vendor guidelines and deadlines on an ongoing basis.
• Demonstrates logical and critical review of data and systems to assure accuracy of data and reporting.
• Demonstrates proficiency in computer software to create and update reports, display data effectively and create efficient systems for collection and retrieval of data.
• Performs other duties as required or assigned.

• • Ability to handle confidential material with maturity, sensitivity and discretion.
  • High impact communication: excellent oral and written communication skills, including ability to listen, empathize, de-escalate and critically think through issues and potential solutions.
  • Excellent interpersonal skills to include working with external parties, providers and families. Social perceptiveness necessary.
  • Learning and teaching strategies for ongoing service recovery skill building
  • Ability to work with minimal supervision and maintain a high degree of communication of current work activity with supervisors.
  • Excellent self-control and negotiation skills to effectively manage difficult situations and persons.
  • Excellent organizational skills with attention to detail, with ability to shift priorities and tasks as needed
  • Adaptability with a high tolerance for ambiguous work situations.

• Associates degree with 3 years of experience in healthcare. Or 5 years of experience with progressive growth and solid record of very good to excellent performance in a healthcare setting.