Clinical Informatics Specialist

Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS) is a non-profit on a mission of improving the health of our community in all we do. Our team cares for more than 1 million people across the region through five hospitals and a variety of outpatient locations. Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC) has campuses in Gainesville, Braselton, Winder, Dahlonega and Demorest – with a total of more than 850 beds and more than 1,200 medical staff members representing more than 60 specialties.

Job Summary 

• The clinical informatics specialist (CIS) functions as a consultant, educator, and evaluator to maintain and improve system services and to mentor clinician users to become better technology consumers.
• Their work is aimed at helping prioritize work which improves clinician efficiency and satisfaction/ease of use of clinical information systems by reducing clinical information system burden/friction in order to give clinicians more time with patients, reduce burnout, and increase the joy of patient care with technology and data.
• The CIS also helps to mentor and mature all members of the information technology family in clinical informatics. The CIS consistently searches for and implements systems and system improvements that allow clinicians to provide high quality care, in the most efficient manner possible, utilizing technology.
• This position carries out complex scientific and information assessments to support patient care policies and practices, including decision support and stakeholder engagement.
• The CIS will work with other healthcare professionals across NGHS to establish methodologies and protocols for collecting, retrieving, analyzing, standardizing and sharing programmatic data across program areas.
• The CIS serves as a liaison between clinicians and the information technology services division.
• The CIS provides the necessary intersection of clinical and operational expertise to develop programs and integrate new knowledge and innovation as part of the clinical information systems and the electronic health record (EHR) development and ongoing optimization.
• The CIS utilizes a system's model approach in collaborating with multiple departments and disciplines to guide informatics development and implementation of clinical process redesign and information flow as it relates to the health systems' EHR.
• This role supports the use of informatics practices to integrate clinical health, environmental health, and population health data to improve patient care outcomes.
• This role will be responsible for educating users about product functionality, facilitate assessments of current practice and translation of end user needs into the optimal configuration and build of applications that supports clinical care across the healthcare system.
• The CIS takes a data-driven approach for project prioritization and strategies and assembles pre and post implementation data and analytics for health information technology projects to showcase, market, and tell the story of the benefits of our endeavors to leadership and the broader organization

Minimum Job Qualifications

• Licensure or other certifications: Current Georgia License to practice in a clinical profession (i.e. Registered Nurse, Pharmacist, Therapist, etc.) if individual has a clinical background.
• Educational Requirements: Masters degree in Informatics or other related field
• Minimum Experience: A minimum of five years of information technology experience is required.

Preferred Job Qualifications

• Preferred Licensure or other certifications: Epic Certification or proficiency in a clinical application. Professional certification in clinical informatics, such as the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Informatics Nursing Certification. or
• Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS).

Job Specific and Unique Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong analytical and interpersonal skills; excellent verbal and written communication skills; demonstrated ability to work with management and customers; proven ability to work independently or as a team member; strong problem solving and troubleshooting skills; initiative in enhancing system productivity, functionality, and performance.
• Knowledge of interoperability with various applications, management information systems, data structures, systems analysis and design, and programming languages.
• Ability to understand patient care processes and translate them into technical requirements.
• Ability to be innovative in developing solutions to improve patient care.
• Knowledge and expertise in patient care management, clinical quality analytics, and value-based reimbursement/accountable care programs.
• Ability to serve as a policy adviser and leader bringing specialized knowledge and skills in the area of information architecture, information resource management planning, enterprise-level information systems development and integration, and organizational change management.
• Ability to incorporate clinical research and evidence based knowledge into clinical informatics practice.
• Ability to oversee or make recommendations on complex, system/community-wide IT projects, policies and concerns.
• Excellent communication (written, verbal and presentation) and people-facing skills, Establishes and maintains positive peer, leadership and customer relationships, interacting positively and productively with teams across organizational lines. Demonstrates skills in leadership, critical thinking, and consensus and relationship building.
• Ability to assess organizational, environmental, and Informational factors to support patient care policies and practices.
• Strong ability to organize, prioritize and make decisions. Demonstrates ability to support strategic planning to manage data and IT systems, oversee implementation and operations of IT projects.
• Ability to think logically and analyze and enhance work flow efficiencies and problem solve system issues.
• Must be able to function in dynamic environment subject to changes in schedules and priorities, working on multiple projects/ issues concurrently. Responsibilities may require evening and weekend work in response to needs of the systems supported.

Essential Tasks and Responsibilities

• Collaborates with clinical leadership in project/program planning and development that supports department and organizational initiatives. Participates as a project leader and management support, focusing on initiatives supporting clinical care services. Provides technical assistance and consultation to leadership regarding project activities. Develops outcomes-oriented work plans and manages project activities and deliverables.
• Design and develop clinical analytics by understanding the data elements that are necessary to calculate the analytics as defined by either the stakeholder or payer contract and be able to identify where the data elements are documented in the electronic health record and create the necessary data mapping in order to have the data elements automatically get added to the analytics calculation for presentation in a dashboard to the end user/stakeholder.
• Assesses, plans, designs, implements and evaluates clinical workflow and business processes to define technology needs. Continually assesses the education needs of staff, patients and families. Plans and contributes to formal and informal education for staff, patients and families.
• Ensures clinical practices and corresponding policies and procedures related to health IT follow appropriate Practice Acts, DNV requirements and other applicable regulations and standards.
• Collaborates with other healthcare professionals to design, develop and assess methods to collect, share, standardize and integrate health data and the information systems used to manage it.
• Develop care management workflows that utilize provider/patient attribution, risk scoring, clinical quality metric dashboards, care gaps, outreach encounter documentation, and clinical decision support tools.
• Develop workflows that utilize the cost and utilization dashboards as well as customized reports generated from tools such as Slicer Dicer, Reporting Workbench, etc.
• Provides critical analysis and evaluation of health IT and recommends revision of clinical systems, processes, and workflow to ensure achievement of positive patient outcomes.
• Combines knowledge of patient care, informatics concepts, and change management to effectively address the information and knowledge needs of patients.
• Participate in reviews of requests for changes, enhancements, additions to ensure feasibility, quality and appropriateness, Determine appropriate solution for modification.
• Actively participates in in implementations of new systems, system upgrades and enhancement of current system functionality, participating in any phase of large or small projects as assigned.
• Maintains understanding and working knowledge of current information systems, associated workflows and relationship to other systems within the organization.
• Acts as a change agent in the identification, development, planning, implementation and value measurement of informatics strategies to support and integrate quality patient care and professional practice.
• Works collaboratively with system users, technical staff, other ITS groups and vendor support resources in problem solving issues related to information systems.
• Collaborates in all aspects of planning, design, development, training, implementation, communication, maintenance and evaluation of existing or new functionality related to information systems.
• Actively works to develop understanding of customer/department operations, systems and processes, assessing current practice and translating end user needs into optimal configuration and build of applications and system workflows, ensuring effectiveness and efficiency.
• Participates in development and execution of a standardized methodology for testing major system functions before system changes/upgrades are moved to production environment.
• Take initiative to maintain and increase detailed functional knowledge of application modules including integration points with other modules and technical implications, and to learn new skills.
• Maintains membership on or consultation to appropriate committees, workgroups, or task forces as needed to facilitate the ongoing process of the design, implementation and revision of automated and manual components of health information systems.
• Serve as primary liaison between patient care services, clinical analysts and training team to facilitate IT support and response to system issues and needs.
• Promotes the use of health IT to improve patient safety by designing, developing, implementing and educating on decision support tools.
• Collaborates with educators and trainers responsible for preparing the clinical workforce for the use of technology to improve clinical practice.
• Maintains professional skills and stays informed of changes in the healthcare industry/ regulations and vendor technology and the impacts on assigned systems. Develops, implements, and adheres to policies, procedures, and standards to meet all regulatory requirements such as HIPAA, as well as currently accepted legal standards.
• Participates in department and NGHS teams, committees, projects and initiatives as appropriate to support achievement of department and organizational goals.
• Applies human factors and ergonomics to the design of systems and devices.