Job Description:

The position of Quality Consultant at Intermountain Healthcare is accountable for assisting the organization to improve quality and safety and reduce operational risk exposure. Through performance improvement processes and regulatory readiness activities, they will assist in the implementation of Intermountain Healthcare's Quality/Clinical effectiveness function. This position supports a culture of high reliability and the measurement of care quality, identifying opportunities and executing on strategies for performance improvement in the following areas of the organization:

Quality – deliver evidence -based care that meets each individual’s health goals and leads to top performance
Safety – Ensure patients and caregivers are safe, driven through a culture of high reliability, continuous improvement and leadership
Experience – Ensure each Intermountain experience is personalized and caring

The Office of Patient Experience is a resource to the system and drives organizational performance built on influential relationships, a shared vision of excellence, achievement and accountability.

Job Essentials

Support system and local strategic initiatives. Promote caregiver engagement, inter-professional collaboration through evidenced based practices.

• Provide accurate and meaningful data to teams, committees and physician groups
• Understand and apply data dictionaries
• Use data tools to identify opportunities for improvement
• Apply appropriate data collection techniques
• Utilize basic statistical tools (standard deviation, frequency distributions,
• histograms, pareto charts, etc.)
• Apply quality improvement methodologies in PI Teams
• Evaluate and make recommendations for improvement using quality data, event and regulatory compliance reports
• Provide project management and/or facilitation to assigned improvement teams.

Regulatory Compliance:

• Apply a current working knowledge of national, system and local patient safety standards and trends as appropriate to assignment or specialty.
• Provides collaboration and consultative support to Risk Management, Compliance, Medical Staff, Nursing, and others by compiling reports from appropriate sources, participating in applicable Safety Plans
• Network across departments and facilities to achieve objectives and goals
• Participate in or facilitate patient safety improvement teams
• Engage and interacts with staff at all levels to encourage ownership of initiatives.
  
  

Practice Standardization and Policies:

• Advocate and support standardization by educating to centrally developed policies, procedures and processes
• Assist/participate in system teams for the development of policies, procedures, processes, and forms

Education:

• Provide education to focus areas regarding Quality Monitoring and Improvement, Regulatory Compliance, Patient Safety, and Practice Standardization and Policies

Informatics, Data and Analytics

• Support quality measurements for internal use.
• Support the utilization of the electronic health record to maximize safety, quality outcomes, clinical effectiveness and efficiency.
• Advance, with others, the use of predictive analytics and deep learning computing to improve the health, experience and quality of care of those we serve

Standard Competencies

1. Task Management:

• Information gathering and context setting – the ability to gather information from various sources, including the ability to interpret situations from the perspective of the client organization.
• Identifies credible sources of data to support project needs, leveraging multiple data inputs to support varying stakeholder perspectives.
• Skillfully probes to uncover key facts, even if others are reluctant to fully share information.
• Routinely rounds on project stakeholders to seek perspective, identify strengths and risks, and keep team activities aligned.
• Seeks out content experts to obtain appropriate information.
  
• Analytical thinking – the ability to assimilate data and situational analysis from various sources, organize the information, and ultimately create and implement a logical plan of action to make progress against a set of objectives.
• Systematically compares and objectively analyzes alternatives, and weighs costs, benefits, and risks of decisions.
• Notices discrepancies and inconsistencies in available information, and leverages that knowledge to clarify situations.
• Leverages Work Breakdown Structure methods to organize complex efforts into milestones, tasks, subtasks, to achieve clarity around specific work units, including how, when, by whom they will be done, and to ensure that various project components are addressed and integrated.
• Identifies many possible causes for problems.
• Carefully weighs priorities of activities within complex efforts.
  
• Results orientation – the tendency to orient activities towards specific objectives or outcomes.
• Sets aggressive but realistic goals.
• Effectively prioritizes activities to impact most important goals.
• Sets and meets clear objectives for team interactions.
• Maintains persistent commitment to goals despite obstacles or challenges.
• Demonstrates stamina to achieve goals over time.
• Demonstrates urgency and a high capacity for making visible progress against stated goals.
• Adjusts approach as necessary to make progress consistent with stated commitments and available resources.
  
• Attention to detail – individual concern for ensuring that work and information are complete, accurate, and perceived by others in the intended way. This includes technical completeness of verbal and written communication, as well as careful and thoughtful consideration of the impact of communications on others, including appropriate follow-up to ensure commitments are met.
• Appropriately focuses on project detail to support meeting commitments.
• Uses, adapts, develops systems to organize information in support of work progress.
• Regularly and completely tracks project progress against stated commitments – e.g. timing, resources, key deliverables.
• Proactively identifies potential risks associated with each task or step of the project and develops contingency plans to address key risks.
• Routinely rounds with key stakeholders – e.g. team members, sponsors, customers – to ensure project details are progressing according to plan and consistent with stakeholder expectations.
• Completes project documentation that communicates progress, methodology and assumptions.
  
  

2. Leading through Influence:

• Fostering teamwork (influence) – the ability to align team members around common objectives.
• I nfluence skill – the ability to gain support for ideas, proposals, solutions through clarity of communication, linkage to client interests.
• Promotes balanced discussion around issues, ensuring that various perspectives are represented.
• Skillfully identifies and communicates the business constraints around specific problems, in order to guide decisions.
• Positions key stakeholders to take ownership of key decisions, to foster commitment.
• Offers trade-offs; provides paths to compromise to gain commitment across stakeholders.
• Identifies win-win situations.
• Appropriately enlists resources outside the immediate team to share expertise or best practices.
• Builds relationships with key resources across the organization who can provide information, resources, assistance to project teams, e.g. Finance, CTIS, clinical experts.
• Identifies key decision makers and spends the time necessary with them, as well as those who influence them, to shape directions and decisions.
• Effectively orchestrates group decisions by meeting first with key decision makers and stakeholders individually and shaping discussions in advance of the group meeting.
• Carefully frames issues and alternatives before seeking input from senior management.
  
• Managing performance – the ability to provide effective direction, assignments, feedback, coaching to individuals in support of project goals.
  
  

3. Communications:

• Impact awareness – the ability to anticipate the effect of information or actions on others, and to tailor one’s behavior to achieve the desired effect on others.
• Considers in advance the impact of words and actions, and tailors them to have the desired impact across constituencies and stakeholders, e.g. physicians, nurses, administration.
• Demonstrates interest in the details of process work, and appropriately gets involved in those details to develop deep process understanding and trust with stakeholders.
• Demonstrates ability to meet stakeholders where they are, by identifying information and framing it appropriately to be persuasive to others, especially in response to specific stakeholder concerns.
• Selects appropriate analogies and examples to illustrate points.
• Interper sonal awareness – the ability to correctly interpret others’ perceptions and feelings, and to translate this understanding into empathic awareness.
• Accurately interprets verbal and non-verbal cues from others to gain a deep understanding of others’ perspectives, strengths, and weaknesses.
• Asks probing questions to draw out other’s concerns and perspective.
• Takes time to get to know people personally.
• Restates other’s concerns and perspective to demonstrate understanding.
• Is timely and responsive to requests from others.
• Finds ways to approach conflict and issues to balance preserving the relationship with confronting and resolving the issue at hand.
  
• Concern for clarity – individual concern that stakeholders across a project gain common understanding around project commitments, how they will be met, when, and by whom.
• Develops clarity around project purpose, objectives, and measured goals. Positions local leadership to own these goals.
• Develops clarity around project structure, following principles of work breakdown structure, to organize project activities from overarching goals, to milestones, to discrete work units.
• Develops, communicates, and regularly updates a clear project schedule to communicate what needs to be done, and the team’s status relative to those items.
• Holds effective team meetings to discuss project progress, and to highlight and resolve issues.
• Clarifies roles and responsibilities of project participants, including stakeholders, team members, sponsors.
• Negotiates clear definitions on timing, and appropriately leverages local leadership to maintain accountability around those commitments.
• Develops subgroups as needed to make progress against tasks and milestones. Ensures clear communication exists between subgroups.
• Continually keeps stakeholders, including team members and sponsors, apprised of project progress.
• Clearly and regularly connects work and strategy to patient Experience.
  
• Self-confidence – self-belief in one’s ability to succeed, including a willingness to assert specific viewpoints even when those points are not native to the perspective of others on the project team.
• Demonstrates a positive “can-do” attitude.
• Takes a stand on important issues, voicing opinions in a tactful way.
• Assumes a role within the team as the authority on project management, process improvement, by creating value and sharing expertise.
  
  
  

Additional Details:

Entry Rate: $33.96

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Nursing, Business, Healthcare Administration, Public Health or other business related field. Education must be obtained through an accredited institution and will be verified.
• Trained in improvement science (i.e., Six Sigma, Lean, or Workout and Project management, ATP)
• Three years of experience leading successful Quality improvement projects in clinical setting(s).
• Experience with change management with the ability to provide leadership in the adaptation and implementation of new processes and /or technology that enhance Quality.
• Effective verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills.
  

Preferred Qualifications

• CPHQ Certification.
• Experience working in a complex health system (hospitals, ambulatory clinics, post-acute care, etc.)
• Experience with external entities that drive and support Quality approaches and standards, including government agencies, academic institutions, universities and related organizations of higher education, and other public institutions is preferred.

Physical Requirements:

Interact with others requiring employee to verbally communicate as well as hear and understand spoken information.
- and -
Operate computers, telephones, office equipment, and manipulate paper requiring the ability to move fingers and hands.
- and -
See and read computer monitors and documents.
- and -
Remain sitting or standing for long periods of time to perform work on a computer, telephone, or other equipment.

Location:

Heber Valley Hospital, Park City Hospital, Primary Childrens Hospital

Work City:

Salt Lake City

Work State:

Utah

Scheduled Weekly Hours:

40

The hourly range for this position is listed below. Actual hourly rate dependent upon experience.

$35.33 - $55.64

We care about your well-being – mind, body, and spirit – which is why we provide our caregivers a generous benefits package that covers a wide range of programs to foster a sustainable culture of wellness that encompasses living healthy, happy, secure, connected, and engaged. Learn more about our comprehensive benefits package and our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion .