Patient Experience Program Manager

This job is responsible for providing professional expertise and guidance to site-based management, medical providers and staff in support of the creation of a strong and sustainable culture of patient-centered care that helps to deliver on the Virginia Mason Franciscan Health's (VMFH) mission to keep people and communities healthy and lead to better performance outcomes for the organization. Work focuses on change that will bring about higher clinical quality and efficiency, a safer patient environment, heightened employee engagement, improved financial results and greater competitive advantage. Inasmuch as patient experience is a mission-critical key to the future success of the organization, work goes beyond clinical experience of care to all interactions and touch points, with focus on alignment across all segments of the continuum and the spaces in between.

Key Responsibilities Include:

• Drives the implementation, sustainment and continued improvement of a foundational approach/model which identifies the strongest influences on the patient experience and tactics for cultural transformation to ensure the consistent delivery of holistic patient-centered experience/care.

• Promotes the concept that the patient’s physical comfort as well as their educational, emotional and spiritual needs are key to the sustained delivery of patient-centered care.

• Advocates and supports the development of a strong base of engaged and committed caregivers who are dedicated to fulfilling the CHI-FH mission of patient-centered care; provides support to empower caregivers to provide outstanding service to patients, visitors and fellow caregivers.

• Understands/communicates the linkage between positive patient experience and business performance, including the roles that pricing, service offerings, physician referrals and brand identity play in determining where patients seek care and as a source of competitive differentiation/advantage.

• Oversees the patient/family advisory council and serves as liaison between the assigned VMFH entity and the local community to support organizational commitment to actions/outcomes focused on the patient experience and a holistic patient-centric culture.

• Serves as advisory resource and subject matter expert to help the organization better understand and assimilate patient experience concepts/best practices and related organizational goals for continuous frontline improvements.

• Identifies best practice methodologies for gauging patient satisfaction; reviews and analyzes community/consumer feedback/data to identify the factors that matter most to patients served and uncover operational insights.

• Works collaboratively with executive management to build strategies and operational plans to incorporate the voice of the patient in decisions that impact them.

• Keeps abreast of current literature and best practices to identify new opportunities to improve the patient experience; researches successful external patient experience programs to make recommendations for future improvements to CHI-FH programs.

• Oversees the site-based patient advocacy function to ensure that patients’ needs are met and concerns are timely resolved in line with patient experience standards and initiatives.

• Provides on-the-job training to Patient Advocate on proper interactions with patients/families; monitors patient rounding and letters to ensure compliance with established standards.

• Monitors complaint/grievance processes; ensures compliance with risk management rules/regulations and timeline requirements.

• May investigate and respond to grievances and patient complaints directly as necessary; follows up to ensure issues are responded to and documented in a timely and professional manner and are consistent with VMFH service recovery standards.

• Ensures that lessons learned from resolution of problems/issues are incorporated in future opportunities to provide improved patient-centric service.

• Monitors and conducts internal reviews/audits to ensure compliance with all standards and regulatory requirements related to patient-family experience.

• Develops/applies appropriate audit tools to measure compliance.

• Identifies non-compliance issues/concerns and causes thereof, risk exposures and recommends necessary, effective and adequate corrective action. Develops/implements effective tactics/solutions to address and resolve issues/concerns.

• Identifies and validates evidence-based best practices to guide management in performance improvement activities; researches nature/scope of impact on existing activities and makes appropriate recommendations.

• Participates in the development, evaluation, implementation and ongoing maintenance of policies, standards, procedures and automated tools that support VMFH goals and department-specific objectives/initiatives; serves as department representative on cross-functional and interdisciplinary teams as assigned.

• Provides ongoing consultation and serves as a resource to physicians and staff regarding patient experience initiatives and issues for the full care continuum; in conjunction with other internal/external departments, prepares training materials and delivers staff development and in-service training relating to regulatory requirements, quality improvement principles, standards and tools and compliance issues.

• Provides guidance, training and presentations to management, medical providers and staff with respect to the application of continuous quality improvement principles/practices related to patient-centered service quality improvement; reviews real-time patient feedback with individual departments to discuss results and prioritize patient experience improvement objectives.

• Develops and delivers presentations/education to mentor/coach various key leadership and management staff to promote awareness, understanding, acceptance and engagement of patient experience concepts and tools; facilitates service improvement workshops/meetings in partnership with line management.

• Reviews and makes recommendations with respect to off-the-shelf patient experience training materials; in conjunction with other internal/external stakeholders, develops, customizes and/or adapts site-based education/training to encourage/support wide-spread understanding of patient experience measurement and its importance to the organization.

• Clearly communicates and persuades audiences in the effectiveness of using data to drive decisions in service improvement activities; collaborates extensively with facility management to review data from multiple sources and jointly identify feasible operational changes that promote and support patient experience enhancements.

• Explains and reinforces methods for sustaining newly implemented process improvements and building towards an effective patient-centric customer service model; keeps abreast of established VMFH standards/initiatives/resources to provide direction/collaboration in adapting to culture/needs of the assigned facility.

• Facilitates and/or coordinates facility-based and system improvement teams working on patient experience initiatives and/or improvement plans through activities such as: developing agendas, identifying resource needs, facilitating meetings, explaining service tools to be used, identifying issues, providing analytic/problem-solving support and preparing team leaders; influences process improvement efforts to facilitate sustained patient-centric focus throughout the care continuum.

• Develops, maintains and monitors initiatives, programs, and standards to proactively identify continuing patient experience challenges.

• Conducts surveillance rounds to assess the degree to which service excellence concepts and related training have been understood/applied and to proactively identify continuing challenges.

• Observes environment/activities, asks questions and discusses issues with healthcare staff as necessary.

• Participates in the development, revision and implementation of patient experience/service improvement standards.

• Maintains current knowledge of Value-Based Purchasing related to service quality indicators and service improvement methodologies through regular review of the literature, attending conferences, participating in professional organizations, etc.

• Identifies and validates service quality evidence-based best practices to guide areas in performance improvement activities.

• Analyzes healthcare-related statistical data and performs continuous data monitoring and reporting.

• Gathers data/metrics/reports from various internal/external resources to prepare for management presentations with respect to patient experience-related results and recommendations.

• Prepares graphs, tables, charts, diagrams, storyboard/Power Point presentations and reports from various data sources to describe and summarize patient and staff satisfaction data and measures that will provide insight in identifying potential improvement areas; interprets, and presents data to key stakeholders, including administration, department heads, and clinical and non-clinical managers; identifies, interprets, and reports trends.

• Creates relevant outcome measures; evaluates results/outcomes of assigned initiatives/interventions and communicates results in collaboration with department managers and/or executive leadership.

• Provides survey education, particularly for the CMS-required CAHPS survey process, and works together with leadership to uncover feedback trends and help prioritize patient experience improvement efforts.

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, organizational development or a healthcare-related field and four years of related work experience that demonstrates the attainment of the requisite job knowledge, skills/abilities.
• Or any equivalent combination of education and experience which provides the required knowledge, skills and abilities to perform the essential functions of the position.

Virginia Mason Franciscan Health has a rich history of providing exceptional healthcare, dating back to 1891. Building upon a legacy of compassionate care and innovation, our organization has evolved over the years through strategic partnerships and integrations to expand our reach and services across the Puget Sound area.

Today, as Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, we remain deeply committed to healing the whole person – body, mind, and spirit – in the communities we serve. This commitment is strengthened by the diverse expertise and shared values brought together through our growth.

Our dedicated providers offer a full spectrum of health care services, from routine wellness to complex disease management, all grounded in rigorous research and education. Our comprehensive network of 10 hospitals and nearly 300 care sites strategically located across the greater Puget Sound region reflects our ongoing commitment to accessibility and comprehensive care.

We are proud of our pioneering medical advances and numerous awards and accreditations that reflect our dedication to excellence. When you join Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, you become part of a team that delivers top-quality, professional healthcare in modern, well-equipped facilities, and contributes to a legacy of service built on collaboration and shared purpose.