Senior Specialist, Environment and Sustainability
Lehigh Valley Health Network
Summary
Oversees all compliance and safety-driven, quality control and improvement, and administrative functions under the purview of the Environment and Sustainability Department (ESD) dealing with the everyday management of hazardous materials, waste management, sustainability, environmental services, landscaping, snow removal and pest management services at all acute, sub-acute, and physician practice sites in the LVHN Region.
Job description
Serves as a liaison between LVHN Jefferson-approved vendors and all LVHN stakeholders including but not limited to Infection Prevention, Occupational Safety Management, Emergency Management, Fire Safety, Accounts Payable, Real Estate, campus operations and facilities management, Start Up Services, Strategic Sourcing, Value Analysis, Patient Safety, LVHN Quality, Public Safety/Security, IS&T, DOE, JC Accreditation, Risk Management, and LVHN Legal.
Job Duties
- Manages the tactical and strategic aspects of the everyday compliance duties of the Environmental and Sustainability Department (ESD), including those pertaining to compliance with EPA/PADEP, Joint Commission, DOT, DOH, OSHA, and Pennsylvania state regulations, based on regular timely periodic assessments, comprehensive reporting, and corrective actions
- Develops and administers the use of effective, timely, and reproducible mechanisms and tools for environmental rounding, system tracers, audits, QA/QC surveys, to effectively track less than adequate (LTA) vendor, LVHN colleague, and system performance, providing recommendations aimed at improving everyday compliance and psychological safety-driven safety critical waste management systems
- Reviews and revises those hazardous materials and waste management (HMWM), sustainability, and vendor management policies, processes, contracts/MSAs, and procedures based on a synthesis of reliable, verifiable information, and systems thinking techniques
- Manages and corrects vendor activity that results in new, updated, or terminated LVHN vendor accounts, to effectively best portray an accurate correspondence between viable account service activity and invoicing
- Synthesizes information and uses a systems approach to assess the financial and safety management impact of the daily handling of all relevant waste streams and provides recommendations to management and senior leadership when requested
- Acts as a subject matter expert (SME) between LVHN-approved vendors, regulatory agencies, Legacy Jefferson, and Jefferson Lehigh stakeholders to understand, comply with, and maximize the effectiveness of everyday waste management processes
- Supports Legacy Jefferson in efforts pertaining to HMWM, vendor performance assessment, maintenance of the Joint Commission Sustainability Certification, and relevant knowledge management, learning, and training intiatives
- Develops and monitors KPIs, dashboards, and other performance metrics to best ensure effective program performance, credentialing, and enrollment processes, as well as recommend timely effective corrective actions as needed
- Develops and administers relevant education, training, and information management mechanisms including website maintenance used by the ESD to best ensure a consistent and verifiable system of knowledge transfer
- Creates the documents and updated mission critical processes and procedures used by ESD to meet the requirements outlined in the HMWM to satisfy Joint Commission regulations and elements of performance, and the mandate of LVHN's senior leadership and the LVHN Board
Requirements
- Master’s Degree in a healthcare, business, public health, or science discipline or 5 years in an acute, sub-acute, or physician practice setting or as a consultant, surveyor or compliance auditor
- 2 years in a supervisory position or subject matter expert role for assessing and mitigating compliance risk and hazard exposure
- Must possess strong computer skills in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel statistics, spread sheet development, and Pivot Tables; and MS PowerPoint for the preparation of reports and presentation materials; MS Teams
- Must possess strong critical thinking, interpersonal, team building, and liaison skills essential for working with all Jefferson LVHN colleagues, vendors and regulatory agents
- Deadline driven Individual with high organizational skills, able to monitor and assess one's own performance and that of stakeholders, to complete timely assessments and take corrective action
- Ability to effectively communicate with all levels of the Jefferson LVHN network in both written and verbal formats exemplifying strong editorial skills
- Ability to incorporate continuous quality improvement principles in all activities and operations
- Willing to be mentored in human factors engineering (HFE), systems safety, and or instructional design techniques
- DL - Driver's License_PA - State of Pennsylvania Upon Hire
Company overview
Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) is a major healthcare provider and hospital network based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, serving the Lehigh Valley and Northeastern Pennsylvania regions. Founded in 1899, LVHN operates as a comprehensive healthcare system with 13 hospital campuses, 28 health centers, numerous primary and specialty care physician practices, and multiple urgent care locations. The network's flagship facility, Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest, is Pennsylvania's third-largest hospital and features the state's first Level One Trauma Center. LVHN provides a wide range of medical services including specialized institutes for cancer care, heart and vascular treatment, surgical excellence, orthopedics, and neuroscience. The network operates the third-largest heart surgery program in Pennsylvania, performing over 1,200 open-heart procedures annually, and maintains one of the state's largest cancer centers treating over 2,400 new patients each year. In August 2024, LVHN completed a merger with Jefferson Health, becoming part of a larger healthcare system with 32 hospitals and over 700 locations across Pennsylvania. Prior to the merger, LVHN was the largest employer in the Lehigh Valley metropolitan region, with approximately 20,000 employees dedicated to providing comprehensive healthcare services to the community.