Public Health and Prevention Specialist V

TX-HHSC-DSHS-DFPS • Austin, TX

23h • Hybrid

About The Position

This is a complex (senior-level) job that involves mandated healthcare safety training, statewide education and advocacy, state and federal reporting, learning needs assessments, infection control and response assessments, and healthcare worker training tracking. The role requires planning and analyzing user requirements, processes, or problems to enhance, update, or maintain data reporting systems, including performance and reporting quality assurance. It ensures healthcare safety data quality in processes and evaluation related to healthcare injuries, adverse events, healthcare-associated infections, and sharps injuries. The position works with and on behalf of general hospitals, long-term care facilities, nursing homes, and other facilities on safety measures in healthcare. The role is involved in public health education program activities and provides consultative services and technical assistance to epidemiologists in DSHS, the general public, professional organizations, local and regional health departments, government agencies, and application users. The position also works on disease outbreaks in Texas as needed. This role collaborates with healthcare and public health leaders on acute, sensitive, and high-profile activities, requiring professionalism, poise, productivity, and the ability to produce accurate reports and data under pressure, with independent motivation to be a strong steward for the State of Texas.

Requirements

• Bachelors degree in public health, healthcare, nursing, human services, or related field or higher with at least 2 years of work experience in a public health agency, healthcare setting, or academics.
• At least 1 year of professional work experience in data entry or database management.
• Knowledge of healthcare, public health, and/or healthcare safety and quality principles.
• Knowledge of accessibility and plain language principles and requirements.
• Knowledge of public health and/or healthcare quality priorities.
• Knowledge of CDC, Texas, healthcare, and/or public health reporting and/or data management.
• Knowledge of public entity operating procedures, guidelines, and processes.
• Knowledge of scientific or technical writing and presentation guidelines.
• Skill in establishing goals and objectives and coordinating the achievement of established goals and objectives.
• Skill in interpersonal relationships and in establishing and maintaining effective working relationships.
• Skill in independently coordinating solutions and complex problem solving.
• Skill in expertly written technical or scientific analyses, documentation, and reports.
• Skill in identifying problems, evaluating alternatives, and negotiating and implementing solutions.
• Skill in translating complex technical information verbally and in writing for non-technical audiences.
• Skill in developing, testing, maintaining, troubleshooting large data systems.
• Ability to plan, organize, schedule and monitor completion of assigned projects.
• Ability to develop and evaluate policies and procedures.
• Ability to use personal computers and to use Microsoft Office products (e.g., Word, PowerPoint and Excel).
• Ability to exercise independent judgment, set priorities and meet deadlines.
• Ability to autonomously identify problems and develop creative solutions.
• Ability to create concise, well-written communications, documents, briefing documents, and reports.
• Ability to organize and present complex information to a variety of audiences verbally and in writing.
• Ability to communicate clearly, concisely and effectively.
• Ability to work effectively as a team member with regional and local health department personnel and private sector health care professionals.
• Ability to analyze systems and procedures.
• Ability to gather, assemble, correlate, and analyze information.
• Ability to work independently and deliver results in an environment of broad, consultative management.

Responsibilities

• Develops, advises, and interprets policies, procedures, legislation, rules, grant strategies, and regulations related to healthcare safety.
• Collaborates with program staff to conduct public speaking, lead projects, inform prevention processes and standard of care, and clarify definitions, standards, and policies related to the reporting and implementation statewide of healthcare safety.
• Develops, updates, and maintains processes associated with healthcare safety and public health reporting.
• Provides consultative services and technical assistance to program staff, governmental agencies, community organizations, or the general public.
• Represents the Healthcare Safety Units as a subject matter expert when speaking to internal and external stakeholders.
• Prepares and runs administrative reports, including ad hoc reports, related to healthcare safety data.
• Coordinates on the analysis and assessment of Healthcare Safety Unit data and develops plans and recommendations to improve processes and procedures.
• Maintains knowledge and understanding of healthcare safety programming and data sources by participating in ongoing training and update calls/meetings.
• Communicates timely and effectively with local, regional, state, and federal agencies and key partners.
• Creates, develops, presents, and distributes training materials and tools for public health and healthcare partners related to healthcare safety.
• Develops and makes available multi-media training for healthcare facility staff related to healthcare safety data sources.
• Monitors and evaluates the effectiveness and impact of educational activities.
• Researches empirically-based information on healthcare safety and follows CDC and other authority's guidelines on healthcare safety rules, reporting, prevention, control, and improvement.
• Prioritizes multiple tasks simultaneously and independently seeks answers to complete tasks.
• Contributes to projects to enhance, update, and/or data reporting systems and processes (the Texas-specific system is called "TxHSN").
• Coordinates with internal and external users to identify requirements and specifications to meet Unit business function requirements, and addresses errors and needs as they arise.
• Performs quality assurance and user acceptance testing to ensure data quality and functionality are maintained.
• Completes agency assignments related to Unit projects, including procurement, grant writing and reporting, project work plans, and working with colleagues.
• Coordinates with IT, web services, and internal/external colleagues to create customized reports, user interface, customized workflow tools, and data conversion mapping.
• Collects, organizes, analyzes, and prepares high-quality, technically written communications, reports, and reviews.
• Reviews and evaluates processes to identify gaps in resources and recommends improvements for Healthcare Safety Data collection.
• Collaborates with staff in problem-solving of technical issues.
• Contributes to activities related to grant applications, including completion of activities and creation of reports related to grant deliverables and milestones.
• Actively participates and/or serves in a supporting role to meet the agency’s obligations for disease outbreaks, disaster response and/or recovery or Continuity of Operations (COOP) activation.

Benefits

• Insurance coverage and other benefits available through the State of Texas Group Benefits Plan administered by the Employee Retirement System of Texas (ERS).

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior