Together, we do amazing things every day.
Imagine a supportive employer, a career that fits your lifestyle, and many learning opportunities. With the Hamilton Family Health Team, you can have all of that, and more. We work hard to create an innovative and diverse workplace that values the contributions of our employees. No matter what your role, working with us is about making a difference – every day!
Your Opportunity:
The Patient Experience Specialist is responsible for building, implementing, and continuously improving HFHT’s patient relations and patient experience programs. This role is the primary point of contact for patients, families, and caregivers navigating concerns, complaints, or compliments about their care — and a key driver of how HFHT listens and responds at an organizational level.
You will work collaboratively with physician affairs, clinical managers, and primary care practices to co-design patient relations processes that are consistent, equitable, and person-centered. You will bring data to life through quarterly trend reports and an annual patient experience report, and you will play an active role in HFHT’s Patient and Family Advisory Group — including leading the planning of Patient Experience Week each year.
Roles and Responsibilities:
Patient Relations
- Serve as the primary contact for patients, families, and caregivers with concerns, complaints, or compliments, ensuring responses are timely, compassionate, and resolution-focused in accordance with the Excellent Care for All Act, 2010.
- Manage the end-to-end patient relations process — intake, acknowledgement, investigation, resolution, and follow-up — within legislated timeframes and organizational policy.
- Co-design and evolve the patient relations process in collaboration with physician affairs and clinical managers, ensuring consistency across HFHT’s sites and practices.
- Apply equity, diversity, and inclusion principles in all interactions, ensuring culturally sensitive and responsive engagement with the diverse communities HFHT serves.
- Liaise with primary care practices to support concern resolution at the practice level, coaching staff and providers on service recovery and conflict resolution.
- Identify and surface themes from patient feedback to inform quality improvement and organizational learning.
Patient and Family Advisory Group
- Support the coordination and facilitation of the Patient and Family Advisory Group (PFG), including meeting preparation, agenda development, and action follow-up.
- Build trust-based relationships with patient and family advisors, supporting their meaningful participation in organizational work.
- Lead the planning and execution of Patient Experience Week in partnership with the PFG.
- Identify opportunities to embed patient and family voice into quality improvement, program development, and organizational decision-making.
Data Analysis and Reporting
- Administer and analyze HFHT’s patient experience survey program, ensuring data accuracy and meaningful interpretation.
- Develop and produce quarterly patient experience trending reports for the Quality Committee.
- Lead the development of the annual patient experience report, synthesizing survey data, patient relations themes, and advisory group insights.
- Support the Manager in preparing patient experience summaries for the Board Quality Committee and other governance audiences.
Collaboration and Engagement
- Work cross-functionally with clinical managers, physician affairs, and program leads to embed patient experience principles into operations and improvement work.
- Support staff and provider capacity to respond to patient concerns with empathy, professionalism, and a focus on resolution.
- Stay current with best practices through external networks including the Ontario Patient Relations Association and the local Ontario Health Team.
Qualifications and Skills:
- Undergraduate degree in a health-related field, social sciences, communications, or a related discipline.
- Three (3) to five (5) years of experience in patient relations, patient experience, health advocacy, or a related healthcare role.
- Demonstrated experience managing patient complaints and concerns with a person-centred, resolution-focused approach.
- Strong skills in service recovery, conflict resolution, facilitation, and negotiation.
- Commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion in practice; training in Indigenous Cultural Safety, unconscious bias, or allyship an asset.
- Familiarity with relevant Ontario legislation, including the Excellent Care for All Act, 2010, the Quality of Care Information Protection Act, and the Apology Act.
- Strong data analysis skills with experience producing clear, actionable reports for non-technical audiences.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to engage effectively across all levels of the organization — from patients and families to governance bodies.
- Strong organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple active files and priorities simultaneously.
- Experience with patient and family engagement or advisory programs an asset.
- Proficiency with EMR or patient experience survey platforms; familiarity with Ontario primary care systems an asset.
Why join the HFHT?
Competitive Employee Value Proposition including, but not limited to:
- Healthcare of Ontario Pension (HOOPP)
- Meaningful, purpose-based work
- 12 paid Stat holidays and one (1) extra float day
- Flexible work schedule
- Ongoing green initiatives
Summary
Classification: Non-Union
Primary Location: Hamilton
Employee Class: Full Time 1.0 FTE
Schedule: Monday-Friday
Date Available: ASAP
Salary: $74,600 – $85,226.50
Application Instructions
Interested applicants please submit résumé and cover letter as one document using naming convention Last name, First name_Position via email: [email protected].
We thank all applicants, however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.
Note:
If successful in receiving a job offer with the Hamilton Family Health Team, new hires will be required to provide proof of full COVID-19 vaccination prior to start date as a condition of their employment. If successful candidates are unable to get their COVID-19 vaccination as a result of a medical exemption, they will be required to submit supporting documentation to determine if they are exempt from this requirement.
The HFHT is committed to building a respectful, caring, equitable, and inclusive workplace where staff reflect the diversity of the communities that we serve. As such, we welcome applications from all qualified individuals including all equity-deserving groups. In addition, we are committed to accessibility and creating a barrier free hiring process in accordance with the Ontario Human Rights Code, and the AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005). Accommodation is available upon request at any point in the selection process by notifying the recruitment staff.
