Job Board Posting Information
The School of Social Work Job Board posts positions which require an MSW. BSW postings will be published under Other Human Human Service Jobs. Postings are published daily and remain at no charge for two months unless a deadline is specified. Please be sure to include how to apply instructions in your notice and salary information.
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May 2012
Patient/Family Relations Specialist
Hiring Company: Brigham and Women's Hospital
Job Description
1. Manages a timely investigation and response to all patient concerns/complaints/grievances for clinical service areas including interviewing staff and reviewing medical records. Facilitates effective communication between patients, families and providers to enhance patient/family-centered care and ensure common goals. Negotiate and mitigate expectations to promote satisfaction, ensure quality and safety and minimize the risk of adversarial outcomes.
2. Provide consultation for professional staff and hospital with regard to disclosure in collaboration with Risk Management.
3. Responds to requests for intervention to assist in managing difficult patient/family situations. Collaborates with clinical service area management and administrative leadership, frontline staff or other hospital services to provide real-time support and/or improvement strategies to reach effective resolution. Accessible by pager during Family Center’s hours of operations.
4. Documents information regarding patient and/or staff concerns and requests in department database and disseminates data to appropriate leadership staff for quality assurance purposes. Generates specific reports to highlight clinical service areas’ opportunities for improvement efforts, including progress, obstacles and trends in compliment/complaint data. Reviews data to identify trends in collaboration with clinical and administrative leadership in order to develop strategies to improve quality and satisfaction and reduce risk and liability. Utilizes data management system to meet regulatory requirements for CMS, DPH and JCAH for complaint management and resolution process.
5. Drafts formal responses on behalf of senior clinical and administrative leadership (including the CEO, COO, CMO and CNO) in writing to patients and families to compassionately relay regret for their perceived poor experience and inform them of how their feedback is being utilized to implement beneficial practice changes. Meet regulatory compliance requirements for CMS 42 CFR 482.13 for investigating and responding to most grievances in 7 days.
6. Conducts rounds with patients/families in assigned clinical areas to obtain preemptive feedback regarding the inpatient hospital experience. Works with Volunteer Services Office to create a volunteer rounding team to meet clinical, cultural and language needs of patients and families. Serves as the key contact for volunteers, trains volunteers for rounding objective, reviews and follows up on feedback obtained by volunteer rounders. Communicates feedback with appropriate clinical and administrative leadership.
7. Proactively monitors trends in patient/family concerns/complaints to identify systematic, process, or cultural barriers to the delivery of patient/family-centered care. Seeks opportunities for appropriate patient participation in the development of institutional improvement strategies.
8. Assists with the development and implementation of service improvement initiatives (organizational and area-specific) within clinical service area. Participates on organizational and area improvement teams.
9. Develops appropriate resolutions with Risk Management staff to effectively manage patient incidents and prevent adversarial outcomes.
10. Provides training/education in clinical service areas and throughout the institution on effective tools for establishing interpersonal connections with patients and families. Identifies opportunities for staff education and facilitates competency learning of clinicians, administrative management and staff in customer service improvement. Serves as a key contact for translating patient/family satisfaction data into outcome measures.
11. Connects patients and families with appropriate hospital services and resources (i.e. social work, interpreter services, chaplaincy, library services etc.).
12. Educates and markets the Patient/Family Relation Department’s services to leadership and frontline staff; including patient consultation and intervention, compliment/complaint facilitation, written responses, amenity services, staff training and patient satisfaction and project improvement support.
13. Provides coverage for other service lines as needed to cover vacations, evening and weekend shifts.
14. Maintains department service standards with particular attentions to staff teamwork, communication, cultural respect, and time/priority management.
Requirements/Qualifications
1. Bachelor degree required or 5 years equivalent related job experience. Masters preferred in a Communications or Human Services related field.
2. Patient Relations experience preferred.
3. Curriculum development and training experience preferred.
4. Participation in improvement projects or teams preferred.
5. Spanish speaking preferred.
Contact Information
Maureen B. Fagan DNP/MHA
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Executive Director, Center for Patients and Families
Telephone:617-732-4420
e-mail : mfagan@partners.org
