Patient Family Relations Specialist

The mission of the Center for Patients and Families is to serve as a liaison between patients, families, and the organization in acknowledging and responding to concerns and requests in a compassionate supportive manner. The Patient Family Specialist is integral to accomplishing this mission and is responsible for the curriculum and training of the Patient and Family Centered Care values throughout the hospital.

• 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.
• Provide consultation for professional staff and hospital regarding disclosure in collaboration with Risk Management.
• 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 operation.
• Documents information regarding patient and/or staff concerns and requests in the 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. Review data to identify trends in collaboration with clinical and administrative leadership 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.
• Drafts formal responses on behalf of senior clinical and administrative leadership (including the CEO, COO, CM,O 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 informal grievances in 7 days.
• Conducts rounds with patients/families in assigned clinical areas to obtain preemptive feedback regarding the inpatient hospital experience.
• 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.
• Assists with the development and implementation of service improvement initiatives (organizational and area-specific) within clinical service areas.
• Develops appropriate resolutions with Risk Management staff to effectively manage patient incidents and prevent adversarial outcomes.
• 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. Connects patients and families with appropriate hospital services and resources (i.e., social work, interpreter services, chaplaincy, library services, etc.).
• Educates and markets the Center for Patients and Families 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.
• Provides coverage for other service lines as needed to cover vacations, evening, and weekend shifts.
• Maintains department service standards with attention to staff teamwork, communication, cultural respect, and time/priority management.
• All other duties as assigned.

• Bachelor's degree required.
• 5 years of experience in customer service development, training, and implementation.
• Requires ability to advocate for patients and families in a complex clinical environment.
• Requires excellent interpersonal skills with individuals in crisis.
• Requires skills in working with teams to achieve goals.
• Requires excellent negotiation skills in a diverse and multicultural environment.
• Requires a high level of sensitivity to confidential information.
• Requires excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills; ability to effectively communicate with all levels of the organization (senior management and physician leadership to front-line staff)
• Requires superior organizational skills, with the ability…