Job Description Clinical Informatics Specialist

Job Description – Clinical Informatics Specialist

Title

Clinical Informatics Specialist

Description

The Clinical Informatics Specialist shall act as a liaison between the hospital’s clinical areas and the IT department. This includes the primary responsibility of determining the needs and requirements for clinical applications in acute and ambulatory healthcare settings. The Clinical Informatics Specialist will also lead the evaluation, selection, and implementation of clinical systems (i.e. EMR, PACS, digital imaging, etc.). This individual will work with staff and physicians to optimize the usage of clinical systems through education and training, quality outcomes, and providing support in accordance with organizational goals.

Responsibilities

Strategy & Planning

·  Collaborate closely with – and communicate between – IT leadership and the clinical community to provide leadership for clinical systems projects and initiatives.

·  Assist in the development of policies and procedures for the usage of clinical information systems.

Acquisition & Deployment

·  Discover and define the need for new clinical systems, such as patient registries, CPOE, EMR, PACS, interface engines, and other technologies.

·  Develop specifications that will support the design and successful implementation of clinical applications across the organization.

·  Make accurate recommendations that will inform purchasing decisions for new clinical systems and technologies that meet organizational standards.

Operational Management

·  Lead the integration between clinical areas and IT regarding the development and translation of business needs, using the appropriate reporting tools and methodologies.

·  Manage workflow and business process changes to ensure the success and optimization of new or modified clinical information systems.

·  Ensure that new or modified clinical information systems maintain patient confidentiality and privacy, in accordance with HIPAA and JCAHO.

·  Train, educate, and instruct clinical users on features, operation, and usage of software systems.

·  Provide writing and documentation support to capture business area reporting requirements.

·  Develop and implement auditing and review processes to ensure project goals and objectives are met.

·  Deliver regular reports that clearly communicate the results and/or progress of clinical systems initiatives.

·  Monitor system performance, and report to IT when anomalies, errors, inaccuracies, or inefficiencies occur. Make recommendations as needed.

·  Remain abreast of trends and developments in the field of clinical informatics and associated software.

·  Coordinate the collection and analysis of metrics that relate to benefits realization and the return on investment in clinical information systems.

Position Requirements

Formal Education & Certification

·  Bachelor’s degree in Nursing required, with a Master’s degree preferred; a degree in Informatics would be beneficial.

Knowledge & Experience

·  Minimum of 5 to 8 years of direct work experience in an acute care/ambulatory setting.

·  Certifications in clinical management or health information management.

·  Strong and sound competency in mapping real-life nursing practices to informatics applications.

·  Experience evaluating and implementing hospital-wide informatics systems, including […].

·  Adept at persuading and training physicians and staff to adopt new workflows and tools, requiring strong knowledge of change management.

·  Strong knowledge of systems analysis, workflow planning, gathering business requirements and transforming them into functional specifications.

·  Broad knowledge of hospital operations and associate technologies.

·  Able to read and understand technical manuals, procedural documentation, and healthcare guides.

·  Excellent ability to translate technical terminology for consumption by non-technical audiences.

·  Knowledge of adult learning and training methods.

·  Good familiarity with project management, quality assurance, and information systems design.

·  Equipment support experience with […].

·  Able to negotiate with vendors and service providers.

·  Awareness of current IT security standards, applicable privacy laws, JCAHO accreditation standards, and so on.

Personal Attributes

·  Effective written, oral, interpersonal, and relationship-building skills.

·  Self motivated and directed, with keen attention to detail.

·  Analytical and problem-solving abilities.

·  Customer-service orientation.

Work Conditions

·  Sitting for extended periods of time.

·  Dexterity of hands and fingers to operate a scanner, computer keyboard, mouse, and to handle other computer components.

·  Lifting and transporting of moderately heavy objects, such as scanners and boxes of files or paper.

·  Negligible physical hazards.