Informatics Coordinator

Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center is an 881-bed quaternary care academic medical center that is a joint venture between Baylor College of Medicine and CHI St. Luke’s Health. Located in the Texas Medical Center, the hospital is the home of the Texas Heart® Institute, a cardiovascular research and education institution founded in 1962 by Denton A. Cooley, MD. The hospital was the first facility in Texas and the Southwest designated a Magnet® hospital for Nursing Excellence by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, receiving the award five consecutive times. Baylor St. Luke’s also has three community emergency centers offering adult and pediatric care for the Greater Houston area.

Provides technical assistance, support and guidance to users on usage of the electronic health record (EHR) system in accordance with established internal protocols and guidelines. Work focuses primarily on ensuring that assigned work sites (e.g.  hospitals, clinics etc.), existing and newly‐acquired, have the knowledge and understanding necessary to fully utilize system functionality to meet patient care standards and operational needs. Work includes: 1) providing direct support for providers and clinicians across the continuum of care and assisting with optimization adoption; 2) soliciting feedback, providing additional support/training and explaining/monitoring related workflow changes as necessary; 3) troubleshooting user issues and escalating more complex problems to higher‐level authority in accordance with established protocols; and 4) following up regularly with department management to ensure identified issues have been resolved. Work also includes identifying areas/issues (e.g. safety/quality of care) with potential to impact organizational conformity with community standards of care for referral to the Informatics team.

Incumbents have daily contact with providers/employees with varying levels of computer sophistication. In responding to the need for support, an incumbent must listen carefully to the user, ask pertinent questions to diagnose the nature of the problem, and determine the best approach to resolve the problem. Considerable tact is required for interacting with contacts who may be experiencing frustration with use of the system.

Incumbents are responsible for maintaining current knowledge of the overall functionality of, and current workflow processes/procedures relating to EHR systems and related operations sufficient to explain significant aspects and available capabilities to users, assist user in navigating the system and to articulate common challenges and lessons learned on practical ways to overcome them. Work requires strong customer service, communication, problem‐solving and troubleshooting skills, as well as the ability to keep abreast of new system technologies/applications and changing organizational needs, objectives and priorities.

Work requires regular travel to assigned work sites and an incumbent will be required to take call on a rotating basis.

ESSENTIAL KEY JOB RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Rounds regularly on assigned work sites to answer questions, provide additional training, identify issues/concerns and facilitate continued integration of automated systems; resolve issues within defined scope of responsibility and in accordance with established procedures.
2. Serves as initial point of contact for end users when issues arise; troubleshoots workflow/process issues and common equipment issues and triages technical issues in accordance with established procedures.
3. Gathers specific information on workflows and assists with workflow development and modification; identifies issues that will need to be reviewed by the Informatics team in order to facility conformity with community standards of care.
4. Provides on‐site supplemental training to providers and staff as necessary; identifies issues for referral to the Informatics and/or Training team.
5. Participates in the development and implementation of targeted support plans for struggling providers and staff; may shadow user(s) to gain a better understanding of the challenges from the user perspective.
6. Provides support to sustain and promote implementation of organizational change management (OCM) adoption tools and methodologies; provides support for acquisitions and new hires.
7. Maintains a physical presence in the unit/clinic during periods of go‐live/stabilization to support staff on workflow and new processes; assists with optimization adoption efforts.
8. Works closely with the Enterprise Adoption Team, participating in the review and assessment of adoption risks/successes and in the deployment of mitigation efforts in sync with national efforts.
9. Masters all competencies and models all service standards for EHR training modules; maintains ongoing relationships with credentialed trainers to keep abreast of current on training tools, changes, alerts and tips.
10. Works closely with operations to participate in on‐boarding planning for individuals and acquisitions; attends related planning meetings.
11. Brings concerns to clinic/inpatient managers or appropriate informatics department management, serving as a resource for interventions related to emergent/ongoing issues and supports an environment of proactive service recovery.
12. Collects feedback on issues/problems related to the clinic/hospital charting/documenting, ordering and or referral process.
13. Follows up regularly to ensure identified issues have been resolved.
14. Attends routine meetings/forums convened to provide additional information, discuss issues/concerns and develop address related issues and create a forum to update and interact with broad groups of managers
15. Assists with policy/procedure manual updates and revisions in MS Word, training materials using PowerPoint, process flow documents using Visio, and tracking sheets in MS Excel.
16. Participates in regularly scheduled meetings to represent assigned work unit(s) and to gather/provide feedback relating to Epic, discuss user needs and future optimization, determine priorities, address changes to workflow or current functionality and other topics of similar significance.

17. Attends meetings to discuss user needs and how best to meet them within current Epic functionality or to explore whether future optimization is warranted.
18. Provides ”Go Live” support, responsible for planning, developing and running all clinical workflow dress rehearsal’s (WDR’s) for new or acquired clinic go‐live.
19. Participates in Go‐Lives, community connect and EPIC Care Link support; maintains constant contact with application teams to assure up‐to‐date knowledge required for readiness to provide effective support as needed, including
capturing patient data/documentation, routing orders/referrals/messages, closing‐out patient encounters and related actions.
20. Documents and interprets common themes of end users’ EPIC support needs during support assignments to be used to address/solve common concerns, determine additional support and confirm the support given is appropriate to facilitate the adoption of the workflow to provide effective patient care.
21. Assists with issues/questions at defined support assignments and identifies correct path of escalation when needed; identifies break‐fix issues versus issues to bring to analyst(s).
22. Provides guidance to providers/managers in understanding reports/metrics and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
23. Describes the metrics, KPIs, and MUs being monitored to clarify how they relate to workflow and can be used to uncover the reasons/causes for problematic results.
24. Assists providers/managers to customize reports/dashboards as needed.
25. Performs related duties as required.

26.  Travel 85-90%

Disclosure Summary

The job summary and responsibilities listed above are designed to indicate the general nature of the work performed within this job. They are not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all job responsibilities required of employees assigned to this job. Employees may be required to perform other duties as assigned.

Required Education and Experience

• An equivalent combination of post‐secondary clinical education may be substituted for two years of the experience requirement.
• Three (3) years of related healthcare work experience that would demonstrate attainment of the requisite job knowledge/abilities.
• LPN or MA clinical experience is strongly preferred.
• Ambulatory Clinic Operations Experience
• Preferred:  Epic, E-Clinical Work and EHR Go Live experience

Required Minimum Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Training

• Knowledge of the electronic health record system concepts, programs and equipment and peripheral devices sufficient to perform the duties of the position.
• Knowledge of business practices and internal policies, procedures, processes and flow of data/work applicable to the assigned work unit.
• Knowledge of the standards and practices associated with effective customer service and service recovery, and of methods for eliciting factual data regarding issues/problems.
• Knowledge of the meaning of basic medical terminology and abbreviations.
• Ability to convey technical information effectively in verbal and written communication.
• Ability to read, understand, interpret and apply the information in technical manuals and procedural guidelines sufficient to ensure timely execution of procedures and proper operation of equipment.
• Ability to understand the framework of EMR systems and patient care that drives the content of reports/metrics, and to explain to managers/providers.
• Ability to create accurate documentation and customize manager/provider dashboards to facilitate understanding and serve as the basis for appropriate action.
• Ability to effectively train end users in business practices associated with automated systems.
• Ability to demonstrate tact, diplomacy and sensitivity in communications with actual and/or potential difficult interactions.
• Ability to read, understand and communicate in English sufficient to perform the duties of the position.
• Ability to use office equipment and automated systems/applications/software at an acceptable level.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships as required by the duties of the position.
• Problem solving, critical thinker and customer service.