Director Nursing Informatics

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Director of Nursing Informatics leads and develops the nursing informatics team while guiding the strategic and operational use of clinical information systems across the health system. This role partners with nursing, clinical, and IT leadership to plan, implement, and optimize technology that supports clinical workflows, patient safety, and quality care. The position serves as a liaison between clinical operations and information systems to ensure technology solutions align with organizational goals and regulatory standards. The Director evaluates system performance, promotes effective adoption of new functionality, and supports cost-effective improvements. The role also provides clinical informatics leadership for enterprise initiatives and facilitates multidisciplinary collaboration on technology projects.

Position: Director Nursing Informatics

Department: Nursing Informatics

Schedule: Full Time

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES / DUTIES:

PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT & TRAINING

• Oversee assigned staff including supervising tasks and department function; promote guidance and developmental opportunities including performance evaluations and training. Resolves grievances and other personnel problems within position responsibilities.

• Create and foster a team-oriented work environment

• Develop, coach, and mentor staff for future leadership roles and succession planning and retention initiatives.

• Provide effective direction, guidance, and leadership over the staff for teamwork and motivation and fosters the effective integration of efforts with system-wide initiatives.

• Monitor productivity and performance to identify and evaluate strengths and training opportunities in relation to operational effectiveness. 

• Responsible for managing the full employee life cycle from candidate to organization exit.

LEADERSHIP

• Provide leadership in the advancement of Boston Medical Center Heath System’s nursing informatics department and represents nursing informatics on organization committees.

• Assists in the creation of annual goals for the informatics departments and evaluates their outcomes. 

• Establish solid relationships with technical, clinical, and operational leadership to enhance the overall use of system and technical tools.

• Drive the utilization and enhancement of clinical systems and technical tools to support evidence-based practice, nurse efficiency and quality care.

• Lead interdisciplinary teams and manage projects that drive the advancement of nursing practice through technology utilization.

• Support the development and maintenance of enterprise-wide policy and procedures related to the technology and systems and its impact to patient care and operations.

• Provide clinical expertise in the analysis, design and development of clinical related components of BMCHS’s current and future clinical technologies. Provides guidance and subject matter expertise to assist with integration of related processes (i.e. clinical workflow) necessary to achieve successful integration of new technologies.

Governance/Project Management:

• Participate in the ITS governance process, to assure that nursing initiatives are successfully prioritized, with resources assigned, funding obtained and agreed upon timelines.

• Assure nursing requests are well documented and are aligned with the department’s operational and quality goals. Establish clear business cases, identifies goals and objectives and highlights the benefits and potential challenges for nursing’s requests.  

• Lead inter-disciplinary project workgroups to make design decisions by building consensus, engaging the necessary resources and escalating issues to appropriate project management and governance councils. Ensure workgroup goals are aligned with overall project/departmental goals. Is responsible for directing the workgroups project timeline, scope, deliverable and budget in conjunction with the project manager/lead utilizing standardized project management.

• Assure projects are well organized and provide clinical or operational benefits. Report on progress throughout the projects and document outcomes at the conclusion of the work.

• Utilizes comprehensive operational readiness strategy including execution of a testing plan, designing the training program, creating a communication plan and forming a go-live support plan. Participates in post-deployment phases. Assesses and evaluates all feedback and ensures that the data collected is utilized to make future improvements. 

Optimization:

• Identify opportunities for improving operational and system performance and escalate issues and problems requiring immediate attention according to the standardized incident management process. Identify opportunities for improving efficiency/reliability of ITS applications.

• Provide clinical guidance for the ongoing optimization of eMERGE (Epic) tools in conjunction with analysts, trainers, project managers, business owners and clinical leads

• Support the Nursing Informatics Council and the nursing informatics staff council facilitation. Provide guidance on how a proposed solution will be used and adopted by users.

• Collaborate with decision support and business intelligence workgroups to develop interventions designed for improvement of patient care based on clinical evidence.

• Assure nursing metrics, dashboards and other types of reporting needs are available, successfully tested and meet the needs of clinical leadership.

• Identify staff needs related to education and training in the overall use of technology. Work collaboratively with the training and educational teams to assure lesson plans, communication and training tools drive overall usability of the software and staff competency.

Professional Development:

• Present at national and regional conferences and user groups highlighting the work that has been accomplished at Boston Medical Center.

• Lead efforts for the nursing informatics department to publish and publicize outcome of BMC initiatives.

• Seek opportunities to review and implement evident based practice in BMCHS’s nursing informatics systems.

• Identify opportunities of professional growth and accept ownerships to participate in activities to meet these developmental goals.

• Adhere to all of BMC’s RESPECT behavioral standards.

JOB REQUIREMENTS

EDUCATION:

• Graduate of an accredited Baccalaureate Program in nursing is required. 

• Master’s degree in Nursing, Management Information Systems/business Administration or healthcare related field required or equivalent combination of education and experience required

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS REQUIRED:

• Active RN license, in good standing, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, by your start date.

• Formal training and education in Nursing Informatics and ANCC Informatics certification required

• Epic certification preferred (or obtained within 6 months of assuming the role)

EXPERIENCE:

• Requires at least 10 years of health care experience, a minimum of 3 of those years should be in a direct patient care role required

• Requires minimum of 5 years nursing informatics experience, including experience in workflow development as well as managing or supporting the system life cycle, i.e. planning, analysis, design, development, testing, implementation, and maintenance required

• 3 - 5 years as a nurse leader preferred

• Preferred experience in organizing, planning and executing projects from vision through implementation, involving internal personnel, contractors and vendors.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS:

• Accomplished leadership and management skills with proven ability to support and develop staff to achieve results effectively.

• Demonstrated effectiveness in project management through broad collaborative skills, deliberate decision making and effective delegation and follow up. Embracing a collaborative multi-disciplinary approach to problem solving and process redesign.

• Solid understanding of change management: utilizing decision making, delegation and follow up skills to drive execution.

• Expert knowledge of clinical workflow, operational processes and quality improvement practices.

• Working knowledge of current/evolving patient care delivery models and challenges within hospital operations, human resource processes, healthcare finance, payment systems and patient safety.

• Strong planning, organization, critical thinking, decision-making and communication (verbal and written) skills.

Compensation Range:

$140,500.00- $204,000.00

This range offers an estimate based on the minimum job qualifications. However, our approach to determining base pay is comprehensive, and a broad range of factors is considered when making an offer. This includes education, experience, skills, and certifications/licensures as they directly relate to position requirements; as well as business/organizational needs, internal equity, and market-competitiveness. In addition, BMCHS offers generous total compensation that includes, but is not limite