Senior Patient Family Relations Specialist

Brigham and Women's Hospital
United States, Massachusetts, Boston
75 Francis Street (Show on map)
Dec 03, 2025
The focus of this position is to support patient and family rights and needs, assist in resolving concerns, highlight compliments of staff, and foster a welcoming environment. The role serves as a liaison between patients, loved ones, and staff in acknowledging and responding to feedback (grievances, complaints, assists, and compliments) in a compassionate and supportive manner. The Patient and Family Relations senior specialist serves as an internal clinical and operations resource for PFR, serving as a mentor and coach for specialists and representatives, performing chart reviews, clarifying medical terminology, and modeling best practices related to correspondence, family meetings, rounding, and interacting with clinical care teams. The senior specialist takes lead on cases escalated from staff and those referred by senior leaders. A significant portion of the role involves supporting care teams in managing challenging behaviors, up to and including care agreements and dismissal management. The senior specialist embodies the institution's commitment to optimizing the patient experience and cultivating a strong patient and family centered culture. This role reports to the AMC senior manager, Patient and Family Relations. Because this role in an active change management environment, the senior specialist will need to demonstrate maturity, flexibility, and open mindedness as the contours of this position will actively evolve over time. Principal Duties and Responsibilities: Indicate key areas of responsibility, major job duties, special projects and key objectives for this position. These items should be evaluated throughout the year and included in the written annual evaluation. Serves as an internal clinical and operations resource for the rest of the team, performing chart reviews, clarifying medical terminology, and interacting with clinical care teams. Serves as a role model, mentor, and coach for recruiting, onboarding, training, evaluating, and integrating staff into PFR and PFR workflow. Performs chart reviews, clarifying medical terminology, and interacting with clinical care teams. Meets with patients and families in the ED, inpatient units, and the PFR office. Negotiates and mitigates expectations to promote satisfaction, ensure quality and safety, and minimize the risk of adversarial outcomes. Serves as a team lead for meetings with safety specialists, risk managers, and leadership. Serve as a team lead for Apology and Disclosure and other family meetings, and as a resource to care teams in managing challenging behaviors and patient dismissals. Conducts timely investigations and response to patient grievances, complaints, and concerns, including interviewing staff and reviewing medical records. Facilitates effective communication between patients, families, and staff to enhance patient and family-centered care and support mutual goals. Prepares formal correspondence and documentation, both patient-facing and internally, such as letters, emails, and reports, with efficiency and accuracy. Mediates and mitigates expectations to promote satisfaction, ensure quality and safety, and minimize risk of adversarial outcomes. Identifies patterns of service breakdowns and escalates to senior manager to share with Patient Experience measurement and improvement team. Supports patients and families in understanding patient rights and responsibilities, responds to patient complaints or concerns in accordance with DPH, CMS and The Joint Commission regulatory standards for patient complaints and grievances. Documents patient and staff concerns/requests in confidential department database. Rounds in high-volume clinical areas to obtain preemptive feedback from patients, visitors, and staff regarding AMC care experiences, when appropriate, and aligned with hospital safety policies. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) - Demonstrate a commitment to supporting MGB DEI initiatives, using the organizational tools and training provided to help identify and dismantle systemic racism within departmental processes, and all other forms of possible discrimination. Other duties as assigned. Qualifications: Bachelor's degree in clinical field, social work, psychology, human services, or related field preferred. 5-8 years of clinical and/or operational experience in a hospital or health care setting, or 4 years of demonstrated high performance in a Patient and Family Relations specialist position. A combination of education and experience may be substituted for requirements. Skills/Abilities/Competencies: Strong understanding of health care operations with particular expertise in understanding and communicating clinical aspects of chart review and clinical conversations with care teams. Models succinct and comprehensive patient care report narratives so "the ask" and context are clear for the reader or listener. Ability to communicate, both verbally and in writing, clearly, compassionately, sensitively, and in a health literate way, with patients and their loved ones, physicians, colleagues, and all levels of the organization. Excellent interpersonal service skills with demonstrated qualities of compassion, respect, calm demeanor, and strong emotional self-regulation via phone and in person, while assisting a wide range of customers with varying needs. Flexible thinker, with the ability to advocate for patients and families, balancing the needs of the care team. Experience in managing multiple tasks and functions, in a fast-paced environment, prioritizing and meeting deadlines. High level of sensitivity to confidential information. Exhibits excellent organizational and collaboration skills. Excellent maturity and mediation skills in a diverse and multicultural environment. Ability to continuously respect and value diversity. Experience working with data and data tracking. Computer Skills: Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Supervisory Responsibilities: No direct reports; indirectly provides leadership and guidance to colleagues with less experience. Fiscal Responsibility No direct budgetary responsibility. Demonstrates fiscal responsibility by effectively using Mass General Brigham resources. Working Conditions: The duties require daily use of computer, phone, printer and fax. The employee is frequently required to sit; talk, hear, use hands to finger; handle; or feel; reach with hands and arms, and is occasionally required to stand and walk. Duties require frequently lifting and/or moving up to 5 pounds and occasionally lifting or moving up to 20 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by the job include close and distance vision and depth perception. Possible local travel to Mass General Brigham sites. The Brigham and Women's Hospital, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. By embracing diverse skills, perspectives and ideas, we choose to lead. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religious creed, national origin, sex, age, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation, military service, genetic information, and/or other status protected under law. We will ensure that all individuals with a disability are provided a reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment.