Job responsibilities
Patient Safety Specialist
Working with senior operational and clinical colleagues, lead on the delivery of quality assurance across the Trust, by providing significant challenge and support within the delivery units, to help them demonstrate the delivery of high quality, safe patient care, or to develop improvement plans where gaps are identified.
To source, collate and analyse relevant, highly complex and sensitive information to the relevant Trust Committees and relevant Executives and other strategic groups and committees (where appropriate) to support and inform decision making and delivery across all aspects of the quality, safety and governance of patient care.
Accountable to the Chief Nurse and Patient Safety Officer for the implementation of the NHS England Patient Safety Strategy across the Organisation.
Support the Chief Nursing Officer in the implementation, monitoring and review of the Quality Strategy, Quality & Governance Framework and Quality plans in line with trust objectives and priorities ensuring that they reflect changing legislation and regulations.
In collaboration with the Delivery Units and corporate services, lead/support the development of a trust wide work programme for quality improvement, including quality priorities and metrics and ensure timely delivery and monitoring for effectiveness and impact on standards of patient and service user care and treatment.
Ensure quality improvement and clinical governance techniques and tools are embedded in trust decision making, planning and performance management processes.
Ensure there are appropriate Trust wide systems in place to monitor quality and safety and identify areas for improvement.
Ensure that there is a comprehensive strategy for clinical audit and effectiveness, incorporating a robust clinical audit programme, across the Trust therefore ensuring that there are also mechanisms in place to audit the adoption of NICE guidance, NICE Quality Standards and Patient Safety Alerts issued nationally.
Ensure there is a programme of effective clinical audit to support emerging clinical risks and the programme is aligned with the Trusts strategic and annual objectives.
Support the integration learning outcomes from complaints, claims, incidents, and patient feedback using reports, data and root cause analysis as appropriate to identify and recommend changes to ways of working and compliance, formulating long term strategic plans and corporate policies as necessary to achieve the agenda.
Ensure effective use of the Ward to Board reporting mechanisms in creating a climate of support and accountability rather than blame.
Provide clinical assurance and management to incidents, and provide clinical support to the Trust Risk processes
Build and maintain strong, effective working relationships with a range of external organisations and stakeholders, including the ICS and Care Quality Commission.
Support the systems for all external assessments of the Trust in relation to quality, including the Care Quality Commission, and Clinical Commissioning Groups.
Act as a subject expert in incident investigations, providing advice and guidance to other Trust staff undertaking the role of investigations lead.
Incident Management / Patient Safety
Support the continual development of an open and honest safety culture; encourage staff to actively report incidents, recognise and acknowledge process and systems failures, recognise human factors and review, reflect and engage in multidisciplinary learning.
Implement robust systems and processes that will reduce clinical risk, reduce levels of harm and reduce hospital mortality
Ensure that all incidents are reported, investigated appropriately, and reviewed in accordance with regulatory requirements and that resultant actions and lessons learned are acted upon.
Develop divisional and departmental key performance indicators (KPIs) and associated dashboards, to ensure the timely delivery of duty of candour, the timely investigation of serious incidents and the continuous improvement of quality of investigations and investigation reports
Provide support to the relevant Executive Directors and Delivery Units who have a designated lead responsibility for ensuring the trust meets required standards
Monitor and review progress against the agreed action plans in support of the CQC Fundamental standards.
Provide regular patient safety reports to the appropriate assurance committees and sub committees of the Board of Directors.
Monitor and review all safety / risk policies, procedures and guidelines on a regular basis ensuring that the trust complies with statutory and local obligations
Develop appropriate education and training opportunities for Trust staff in conjunction with Executive Directors and Senior Managers
Ensure the continual integration between the components of safety including complaints, litigation, clinical incidents/adverse events, health and safety and clinical effectiveness.
Monitor compliance with the Trusts Incident Reporting Procedures including Serious Incidents
Assist in the investigation and reporting of Serious Incidents and other high risk / significant incidents
Ensure best practice with regards to adverse event reporting, monitoring, trend analysis, action plans and changes in practice
Quality
Support the Chief Nurse and Patient Safety Officer and the Chief Medical Officer in coordinating and contributing to the authorship of the Trusts annual Quality Account and contribute to the Trusts Annual Report.
Prepare for regulatory enquiries and visits, for example: CQC enquiries / inspections, NHSE/I enquiries and implementation of guidance.
Support the Chief Nurse and Patient Safety Officer and Chief Medical Officer in relation to responding to Coroners enquiries and any actions required and following receipt of any Regulation 28 Reports
The post holder will be required to liaise closely with the complaints and claims leads to facilitate triangulation of incidents with complaints and claims
You will be required to work with Unit teams to investigate complaints and meet with complainant when appropriate.
Support the effective management of all complaints, working with clinical teams to respond and resolve complaints, whilst ensuring deadlines are met and auditable trails are evident.
To review and sign off all complaint responses, ensuring a robust response with clear improvements identified, prior to being authorised by the Trusts Chief Executive Officer
Governance
To implement sustainable and effective systems of clinical governance within across the Organisation, which meet core and developmental standards, set for the organisation by the CQC and other regulatory bodies.
Accountable to the Chief Nurse and Patient Safety Officer in establishing a comprehensive approach to governance across all teams within the Organisation Ensure all Governance work and Trust wide information is cross referenced to core standards and provide ongoing evidence of compliance through both streams of work.
Assist the Chief Nurse and Patient Safety Officer to set priorities for audit across the Organisation that complements the Trusts objectives as well as National requirements.
Flag and action risks around deficiencies in resources, equipment, and staffing across the service.
Monitor compliance and improvement action plans within the service areas and ensure effective communication of evidence against all CQC outcomes.
Promote a patient safety culture ensuring that lessons are learnt from serious untoward incidents and clinical incidents thereby preventing reoccurrence. Ensure that the lessons learned are effectively shared across a defined clinical area as well as Trust wide where required.
Lead and promote the implementation of changes and improvements to practice and systems in support of the national patient safety and complaints agenda
Provide advice on evidence-based practice and research to support changes required in clinical and professional practice.
Ensure safety improvement actions and programmes integrate the research evidence base for effective clinical approaches (e.g. NICE guidance) wherever this is established
Work in partnership with systems providers to ensure continuous patient safety improvement and best practice, establishing and using relevant surveys as needed.
Enable the organisation to benefit from relevant innovations in patient safety by drawing from experience and expertise in other academic fields and industries
Maintain and continue professional development and keep up to date with national developments and best practice in specialist areas.
To ensure that the Clinical Audit Plan is aligned with Trust strategic objectives and is a key mechanism to further develop a learning organisation
Responsible for promoting a culture of enhanced patient safety including the reporting of an agreed range of key clinical indicators relevant to the defined clinical area (i.e., leading on the High Impact Interventions and CQUINS where appropriate).
To co-ordinate and oversee the management of external incident investigations.
Please refer to the job description and person specification for further information.
