Job Description

The Patient Safety Specialist is a highly motivated, reliable, clinical expert on internal and external patient safety issues. The incumbent’s expert clinical knowledge and critical thinking skills are essential for completing risk assessments to identify potential or actual risk of harm to patients and for the development/sustainment of patient safety programs. This role includes reviewing referred cases and identifying system quality of care opportunities as well as promotion of patient safety programs to prevent future events. Through collaboration with a multi-disciplinary team, the Patient Safety Specialist identifies and addresses the need for system opportunities in clinical practice, policy, and/or programs to prevent future adverse events. The Patient Safety specialist exercises discretion in independently analyzing high-volume, time-sensitive case reviews that may also include literature reviews, data analysis and collaboration with other departments. The Patient Safety Specialist will have an active role in departmental led Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and formal Proactive Risk Assessments. The incumbent possesses strong interpersonal skills when collaborating with team members across the organization to identify system opportunities through departmental rounding, educational presentations, and culture of safety surveys.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

• Significant Adverse Events (SAE) Investigation: Performs and manages system-wide investigational reviews to determine whether an event meets the criteria for an SAE or California Department of Public Health’s (CDPH) definition of a Never Event.

• Facilitates the formation and ongoing progress of interdisciplinary RCAs and FMEAs event analysis according to The Joint Commission and other regulatory body requirements.

• Identifies opportunities, develops strategies and sets priorities for improving patient and medication safety. Participates in and/or co-leads multidisciplinary committees addressing incident (CS Safe) events to include near misses in order to identify risks and prioritize system improvements to reduce the potential for medication errors and patient harm.

• Utilizes an evidence - based approach in case evaluation as well as proactive educational programs to accomplish patient safety objectives.

• Prepares and presents patient safety reviews to senior leadership and to multidisciplinary meetings, including medication events, utilizing data summary reports (charts, graphs, diagrams).

• Provides education across the organization to a multitude of disciplines focusing on patient safety science principles and event or departmental specific needs.

• Collaborates with Office of Licensure, Accreditation and Regulation (OLAR) and Risk Management to comply with federal and state regulatory and licensing requirements and organizational bylaws, rules, regulations and policies and procedures.

• Participates in the planning and implementation of patient safety events such as the culture of safety survey, patient safety awareness week, the safety fair, etc

• Establishes and maintains uniform, organized filing system and database records. At the direction of management researches, gathers, sorts, compiles and organizes information from the files, from other departments and offices, and from outside agencies, etc., for special reports and information requests.

• Performs clerical duties as needed to include copying, faxing, filing, retrieval, and assuring that material is processed timely and accurately.

• Participates in the planning, creation, review, and refinement of a medication safety plan. Proactively develops and leads implementation of error prevention strategies based on practice standards, literature review, medication safety tools, and analysis of the organization’s medication safety data. Participates in the planning, design, and implementation of the organization’s medication-use technology and automation systems. Builds a culture of safety through surveillance, lesson learned education and communication across the entire organization. Oversees processes to collect information regarding the organization’s medication errors and system failures to ensure that they are captured and that barriers to reporting are addressed. Ensures compliance with state and federal regulatory and legal requirements relating to medication safety by ensuring that the organization’s medication-use processes meet applicable medication management standards and National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs).

• Performs other duties as assigned. Participates in departmental activities that improve processes and efficiency and reduce waste.

Qualifications

Educational Requirements:

• Minimum of a Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts degree in biological sciences. BSN preferred

• Current, active Registered Nurse license required.

Experience and Skillset:

• 5 years prior nursing experience in an acute care setting.

• 1 year minimum experience in a quality improvement/peer review role is strongly preferred

Req ID : 3764

Working Title : Patient Safety Specialist, RN -Peer Rev Quality Svc Pt Safety

Department : Peer Rev Quality Svc Pt Safety

Business Entity : Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Job Category : Compliance / Quality

Job Specialty : Patient Safety

Overtime Status : EXEMPT

Primary Shift : Day

Shift Duration : 8 hour

Base Pay : $95,326 - $152,526

Cedars-Sinai is an EEO employer. Cedars-Sinai does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of the race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, ancestry, physical or mental disability, legally protected medical condition (cancer-related or genetic characteristics or any genetic information), marital status, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, age (40 or older), military and/or veteran status or any other basis protected by federal or state law.