Patient Safety Specialist (RN)

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta•Brookhaven, GA

About The Position

The Patient Safety Specialist uses nursing knowledge and best practices to coordinate patient safety programs, activities, and education. The role documents, analyzes, and investigates safety-related events and their resolution, collaborating with executive and clinical leaders, front-line staff, physicians, risk management, physician peer review, quality teams, and stakeholders across the system. The specialist serves as a patient safety expert, consultant, resource, and collaborator; manages occurrence notification processes and serious-event reviews; and supports the development, implementation, and monitoring of risk-reduction action plans. The role also provides education, conducts patient safety rounds, supports regulatory compliance, and represents Patient Safety on committees and workgroups.

Requirements

Five years of RN experience in a clinical setting; pediatric experience is preferred.
Licensure as a Registered Nurse in Georgia or multi-state licensure through the Enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact.
Graduation from an accredited school of nursing and a baccalaureate degree in another field, or graduation from an accredited school of nursing and five years of progressing nursing experience; a Bachelor of Science in Nursing is preferred.
Strong analytical, quantitative, and project management skills.
Excellent communication skills.
Presentation and platform skills.
Knowledge of Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Teams, and Visio.

Nice To Haves

BSN or master's degree.
Experience in a pediatric setting.
Knowledge of Joint Commission and other applicable regulatory standards.
Experience in process improvement or a related field.
Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS) through the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

Responsibilities

Serve as a patient safety expert consultant, resource, and collaborator for clinical leadership and staff, the medication safety officer, medical safety coordinator, and related safety committees.
Maintain the occurrence notification system, root cause analysis processes, and related action plans.
Manage the occurrence notification system by identifying patient safety and clinical outcome trends and referring reports for follow-up and action planning.
Manage and conduct investigations and root cause analyses of events as assigned.
Identify patient safety action plans based on investigation findings and collaborate to implement error-reduction strategies.
Mentor clinical departments as a safety coach and promote effective internal communication about patient safety.
Develop and provide education for physicians and clinical staff about patient safety issues and trends.
Ensure system compliance with Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goals and other regulatory initiatives.
Conduct regular patient safety rounds.
Analyze human, organizational, process, and systems factors contributing to adverse events in collaboration with performance improvement consultants.
Maintain professional development in methodologies, facilitation, interviewing, investigation skills, and continuous quality improvement tools.
Represent Patient Safety on system-level committees and workgroups, providing input on safety risks and mitigation strategies.
Serve as subject-matter expert and program owner for defined ONS buckets and safety domains.
Manage ONS intake, triage, trend identification, escalation, and event closure.
Review ONS and related data for trends requiring action and oversee serious event management processes and outcomes.
Facilitate complex root cause analyses for serious events and near misses.
Conduct in-depth chart and policy reviews, staff interviews, and workflow mapping; partner with providers to discuss medical decision-making.
Partner with risk managers to ensure thorough, efficient event evaluation and a coordinated institutional response.
Partner with accreditation to plan, support, and evaluate events with a regulatory component, ensuring requirements are met and safety learnings are shared.
Partner with leaders to develop, implement, and monitor action plans resulting from event investigations and root cause analyses.