Patient Safety and Systems Improvement Specialist II

Lehigh Valley Health Network; Allentown (Lehigh County); On-site; USD 95,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, PA seeks a Patient Safety and Systems Improvement Specialist to translate safety science into practice, strengthen system robustness, and mitigate clinical risk.

Working with clinical, operational and executive leadership, you will lead risk assessments, redesign care processes, and coach teams on patient safety methodologies; day shift at Lehigh Valley Hospital—Cedar Crest.

Qualifications

• Associate degree in a clinical discipline (e.g., Nursing, Advanced Practice, Respiratory Therapy, Dietary/Nutrition, Physical/Occupational Therapy).
• 1 year prior clinical experience in an applicable discipline (e.g., RN, APP, RT, Dietary, PT/OT), with exposure to patient safety, quality, or process improvement work.
• 3 years of relevant clinical and/or safety-related experience.
• CPPS - Certified Professional Patient Safety - Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety Within 2 Years

Responsibilities

• Evaluate patient safety events and near-misses to identify contributing factors, surface hazards, and system vulnerabilities.
• Conduct proactive and prospective risk assessments to identify latent risks before harm occurs.
• Lead multidisciplinary improvement initiatives to redesign processes and reduce preventable harm.
• Apply resilience engineering principles to assess adaptive capacity and design safer systems.
• Coach staff on patient safety science and improvement methodologies and report progress to stakeholders.
• Prioritize risks with leadership and translate findings into actionable, owned interventions aligned with standards (NPSG, TJC, CMS).
• Apply Human Factors Engineering and design principles to evaluate and redesign workflows, technologies, and environments.
• Conduct contextual inquiry and field observation to map work-as-done versus work-as-imagined for system redesign.
• Perform work system analysis using qualitative methods to map interactions and influence on outcomes.
• Facilitate simulation-based testing and cognitive load assessments to validate interventions before implementation.

Education

Associate’s Degree In a clinical discipline

Job description

Imagine a career at one of the nation’s most advanced health networks.

Be part of an exceptional health care experience. Join the inspired, passionate team at Lehigh Valley Health Network, a nationally recognized, forward-thinking organization offering plenty of opportunity to do great work.

LVHN has been ranked among the “Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report for 23 consecutive years. We’re a Magnet(tm) Hospital, having been honored five times with the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s prestigious distinction for nursing excellence and quality patient outcomes in our Lehigh Valley region. Finally, Lehigh Valley Hospital - Cedar Crest, Lehigh Valley Hospital - Muhlenberg, Lehigh Valley Hospital- Hazleton, and Lehigh Valley Hospital - Pocono each received an ‘A’ grade on the Hospital Safety Grade from The Leapfrog Group in 2020, the highest grade in patient safety. These recognitions highlight LVHN’s commitment to teamwork, compassion, and technology with an unrelenting focus on delivering the best health care possible every day.

Whether you’re considering your next career move or your first, you should consider Lehigh Valley Health Network.

Summary

The Patient Safety and Systems Improvement Specialist advances the safety of healthcare delivery and clinical operations by strengthening system robustness and resilience. This individual applies and translates safety science principles — including Human Factors Engineering, systems engineering, and resilience engineering — into practice. This role examines the complex interactions among people, technology, tasks, workflows, environments, and organizational conditions that shape how work is done and how processes function, ultimately influencing patient outcomes and operational performance. In partnership with clinical, operational, and executive leadership, the specialist evaluates work systems and related safety events to surface hazards, identify systemic vulnerabilities, and mitigate clinical risk. This is accomplished through a range of reactive and proactive risk assessments that inform system redesign across the care continuum.

Job Duties

• Evaluate patient safety events and near-misses using structured methodologies (e.g., ACA/RCA2/RCA3, Common Cause Analysis, cognitive interviewing, and event re-enactments) to identify contributing factors, surface hazards, and system vulnerabilities.
• Conduct proactive and prospective risk assessments (e.g., Failure Mode and Effects Analysis/FMECA, Prospective Risk Assessment, Success Cause Analysis) to identify latent risks and hazards before harm occurs.
• Lead and facilitate multidisciplinary improvement initiatives using structured methods such as Kaizen events, value stream mapping, workout sessions, and agile methodology to redesign processes and reduce preventable harm.
• Apply resilience engineering principles to assess organizational adaptive capacity, studying how frontline teams successfully manage complexity, and design systems that better anticipate, monitor, respond to, and learn from emerging risks.
• Coach and mentor staff and safety team members on patient safety science and improvement methodologies, and communicate findings and progress to stakeholders across all levels of the organization, from frontline staff to senior leadership.
• Partner with clinical, operational, and executive leadership to prioritize risks and translate findings into strong, actionable, and sustainable action items — ensuring interventions address contributing factors, are clearly owned, and are tracked through to effectiveness, in alignment with regulatory/accreditation standards (NPSG, TJC, CMS).
• Apply Human Factors Engineering and human-centered design principles — including cognitive ergonomics, card sorting, ethnography, and journey mapping — to evaluate and redesign clinical workflows, technologies, and environments.
• Conduct contextual inquiry and direct field observation to understand how work is actually performed at the frontline, capturing the gap between work-as-imagined and work-as-done to inform system redesign.
• Perform work system analysis using qualitative research techniques (ie focused group analysis, contextual inquiry, journey mapping) to map system complexity using SEIPS-based interaction analyses to understand how people, tools, tasks, environments, and organizational conditions interact and influence processes and patient outcomes.
• Facilitate simulation-based testing (ie. in situ simulation, tabletop exercises, heuristic evaluations, monte carlo simulation, card sorting) and cognitive load assessments (e.g., NASA-TLX, SUS) to evaluate system design, identify usability issues, and validate proposed interventions before implementation.

Minimum Qualifications

• Associate’s Degree In a clinical discipline (e.g., Nursing, Advanced Practice, Respiratory Therapy, Dietary/Nutrition, Physical/Occupational Therapy)
• 1 year Prior clinical experience in an applicable discipline (e.g., RN, APP, RT, Dietary, PT/OT), with demonstrated exposure to patient safety, quality, or process improvement work and
• 3 years of relevant clinical and/or safety-related experience.
• CPPS - Certified Professional Patient Safety - Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety Within 2 Years

Physical Demands

Lift and carry 25 lbs. frequent sitting/standing, frequent keyboard use, *patient care providers may be required to perform activities specific to their role including kneeling, bending, squatting and performing CPR.

Job Description Disclaimer: This position description provides the major duties/responsibilities, requirements and working conditions for the position. It is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current position, however management reserves the right to revise or change as necessary to meet organizational needs. Other responsibilities may be assigned when circumstances require.

Lehigh Valley Health Network is an equal opportunity employer. In accordance with, and where applicable, in addition to federal, state and local employment regulations, Lehigh Valley Health Network will provide employment opportunities to all persons without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or other such protected classes as may be defined by law. All personnel actions and programs will adhere to this policy. Personnel actions and programs include, but are not limited to recruitment, selection, hiring, transfers, promotions, terminations, compensation, benefits, educational programs and/or social activities.

Lehigh Valley Health Network does not accept unsolicited agency resumes. Agencies should not forward resumes to our job aliases, our employees or any other organization location. Lehigh Valley Health Network is not responsible for any agency fees related to unsolicited resumes.

Work Shift

Day Shift

Address

1200 S Cedar Crest Blvd

Primary Location

Lehigh Valley Hospital- Cedar Crest

Position Type

Onsite

Union

Not Applicable

Work Schedule

Monday to Friday; 0800 to 1630

Department

1004-09549 COH - Patient Safety