Position Specification

Director, Nursing Informatics

The Organization

New York Hospital – Queens is licensed for 439 beds, but operates up to 508 beds.  Originally known as Booth Memorial Hospital and sponsored by the Salvation Army, the hospital was purchased by New York Cornell Medical Center in 1993. New York Hospital Queens is presently a member of the New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System and affiliated with the Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

New York Hospital – Queens (NYHQ) is a busy teaching hospital with over 130,000 annual emergency department visits and over 200 interns, residents and fellows.  It is also a clinical research site with over 130 IRB protocols.  This community teaching hospital provides ambulatory care, cancer care, cardiology, community medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, and surgery services including cardiac surgery. NYHQ is a designated AIDS center, and operates the Cardiac Health Center, a community-based cardiac disease prevention, education, and rehabilitation facility.  There are 14 ambulatory sites around the borough, and the hospital has over 4,000 annual live births.  There are 3350 employees and 1300 members of the medical staff.  The hospital remains on track to open a new seven story, 80-bed patient wing in 2010 that also includes a new surgery suite and combines its active cardiovascular service into one delivery area.

New York Hospital Queens is located in Flushing, in the heart of Queens, one of five boroughs of New York City.  Queens is home to the most culturally diverse population in the United States. New York Hospital Queens has worked hard to build services that are sensitive to the customs, traditions and needs of this diverse community. To minimize barriers to communications and understanding, the hospital has multi-lingual physicians, nurses and other staff who speak Chinese, Mandarin, Korean, Greek, Russian, Spanish and other languages used by many of our patients. We offer real-time translation services that enable us to communicate in more than 100 languages and dialects. We also make considerable use of the Language Line® phone lines as well as our new mobile video interpretation technology that brings qualified interpreters “into the room” with the patient and doctor.

The Position

Location

New York City is an active, activity-filled city, one that enables its residents to enjoy an exceptional quality of life. New York City is a city in New York State, and is the largest city in the United States, with its metropolitan area ranking among the largest urban areas in the world. Founded as a commercial trading post by the Dutch in 1625, it has been the largest city in the United States since 1790. It now is home for more than 8.2 million residents within an area of 304.8 square miles New York City is the most densely populated major city in the United States.  It also served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. Located on one of the world's finest natural harbors, New York is one of the world's major centers of commerce and finance. New York also exerts global influence in media, education, entertainment, arts, fashion and advertising. The city is also a major center for international affairs, hosting the headquarters of the United Nations.

New York City comprises five boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island each coterminous with the five counties of Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens, and Richmond respectively.

Many of the city's neighborhoods and landmarks are known around the world. The Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Wall Street, in Lower Manhattan, has been a dominant global financial center since World War II and is home to the New York Stock Exchange. The city has been home to several of the tallest buildings in the world, including the Empire State Building. With its 24-hour subway and constant bustling of traffic and people, New York is sometimes called "The City That Never Sleeps" and the "Big Apple.”  The Queens borough, which has a population of almost two and one half million people, is generally regarded to be the most culturally diverse area in the Country.

For additional information about New York City, please visit: www.nyc.gov or www.nycvisit.com.  

Reporting Relationships

The Director, Nursing Informatics reports to the Vice President and Chief Information Officer (Phil Myones) and also to the Senior Vice President for Patient Care Services (Michaelle Williams). The Director of Nursing Informatics is also the direct supervisor of a team of nursing educators and nurses managing clinical documentation.

Key Working Relationships
In order to be successful, the Director, Nursing Informatics will need to establish effective working relationships with a variety of persons and groups.  Principal among them are: the Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (John Sciortino), the Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer (Dr. Stephen Rimar), the Chief Medical Information Officer (new position); the Assistant Vice President for Patient Care Services (Gail Holtz), members of the Clinical Informatics Committee, as well as staff physicians and nurses throughout the hospital.

Responsibilities & Accountabilities

The Director, Nursing Informatics will lead NY Hospital Queens in supporting and carrying out the IT strategy established by the organization, as well as participate in the ongoing evaluation and updating of that strategy, in concert with senior nursing executives and other senior management of the organization. The Director, Nursing Informatics will implement Information Technology to support nursing throughout the hospital, providing leadership and oversight for nursing documentation and beneficial use of clinical information systems.

The following list identifies some of the specific duties and responsibilities of the Director, Nursing Informatics of New York Hospital - Queens. The Director, Nursing Informatics will need to take a strong, proactive leadership role and call in resources as needed from management, nursing and IT to successfully carry out these responsibilities:

• Provide strategic leadership direction and operational oversight for nursing information processes and operations in the practice setting, making use of broad IT, nursing and healthcare knowledge.

• Serve as a consultant to the and to the Senior Vice President for Patient Care Services and the Vice President, CIO for nursing informatics issues.

• Provide consultation, direction and leadership in nursing and clinical IT initiatives, including the selection, development, implementation and maintenance of systems that support nursing and clinical charting/documentation.

• Collaborate with many different groups within the hospital or health system, as with outside vendors, to seek any changes and modifications of applications to ensure efficient, effective use in achieving system goals. Works specifically to gain the support and consensus of nurse, clinician, physician leadership regarding information technology needs and priorities.

• Coordinate, assess and evaluate the entry, retrieval, analysis and accuracy of information used in and for patient care.

• Educate nurses and other clinicians in the use of nursing and clinical information systems and nursing documentation, order entry, and data management. Additionally, oversee other nursing educators, trainers and clinical implementers, and anyone who has responsibility for nursing documentation or preparing the nursing workforce for the initial and ongoing use of technology to improve nursing practices.

• Conducts needs assessments and analyzes current practice, workflow, and the impact of existing and proposed informatics solutions on that workflow; based on the assessments, develops functional and technical specifications.

• Collaborate with and facilitate the work of clinical information systems analysts and other IT staff in planning and establishing effective application adoption, pre-training, “go-live” and post-implementation schedules.

• Establish and maintain programs for assisting nurses to advance in nursing informatics and develop effective programs for evaluation.

• Maintain a broad knowledge of new technologies and act as a resource to the clinical staff, nursing leadership and the IT department in assessing new technological opportunities that improve/impact care delivery, enhance patient safety, and workflow efficiency.

• Oversee integration of nursing information technology processes with system wide clinical information technology applications and strategies.

• Design and lead implementation of technology to improve nursing work processes, decrease work intensity, improve quality and safety of patient care

• Provide leadership to plan, develop, prepare and implement both strategic and tactical applications that will aid in areas including, but not limited to clinical documentation, order entry, nurse scheduling, staff management, compliance with Joint Commission accreditation standards, as well as those that measure and improve day-to-day patient care delivery outcomes and costs.

Challenge & Opportunity

New York Hospital - Queens is a fiscally healthy, growing with more than 3350 employees plus 1300 physicians and affiliates who have a significant need for high-availability and efficient access to data and IT applications service and support – with an appetite that is only expected to grow in the coming years. The hospital is in the midst of clinical implementations and will require strong leadership to leverage clinical and quality of care benefits. There will be much opportunity for personal and professional growth as the organization continues to grow in its service to Queens and surrounding community.

Compensation

An attractive, competitive compensation program will be tailored to the specific needs of qualified candidates.  The final candidate also will receive full relocation assistance and benefits, which are usual and customary for this level position in the organization.

The Candidate

Education / Certifications

• Required:

• BSN or advanced degree in Nursing is required.

• At least 5 recent years of direct patient care / clinical nursing experience.

• Registered Nurse license. ANCC Certification.

• Preferred:

• A Master’s Degree in Nursing, Management Information Systems / Business Administration, or PhD or other completed formal training in Nursing or Clinical Informatics.  

Professional Qualifications

• Several years in technical supervisory role experience in information systems, including leading clinical information project or development team.  

• Strong clinical information system / clinical applications user and supervisory experience, with emphasis on knowledge/experience with Eclipsys Sunrise advanced clinical solutions, workflows, Nurse documentation, order sets.

• Experience with / understanding of JCAHO standards and requirements as well as CMS regulations.

• Previous experience in selection and contracting for clinical systems.

• Experience/knowledge working in a complex integrated teaching organization with multiple relationships.

• Excellent communications skills and the ability to make effective presentations, communicating technical concepts to non-technical audiences.

• Strong planning / organization skills; ability to set and manage priorities and align resources to fulfill priorities.

• Strong coaching / staff mentoring skills.

• Ability to become a trusted advisor and partner – to senior executives, to staff, to customers.

Personal Characteristics

• Extremely collaborative work style; an energetic and dynamic person who can provide clear direction and encouragement to others.

• Proactive, self-directed person who shows initiative and drive.

• Strong relationship builder with wide variety of people.

• Empathetic; ability to be sensitive to or understanding of the roles of others (e.g., physicians, clinicians and others with knowledge or expertise outside their own )

• Sense of humility, lack of arrogance/ego; someone who can work closely with others in complex and competitive setting.

• Positive “can-do” attitude, high energy, enthusiasm and a strong work ethic.

• High integrity, honest, credible and trust-worthy.

• Warm and open, approachable with a pleasant, accommodating sense of humor.