Job Description

Department: Health and Wellness Location: HALIFAX Type of Employment: Permanent Union Status: NSGEU - NSPG Closing Date: 8/31/2022 (Applications are accepted until 11:59 PM Atlantic Time)

About Us

The Department of Health and Wellness offers opportunities to grow and advance in a dynamic sector that touches the lives of all Nova Scotians. Along with our partners, including Nova Scotia Health and the IWK Health Centre, we’re committed to continually improving our health care system. With a focus on collaborative primary health care, continuing care, improved supports for mental health and addictions, digital health, capital infrastructure, and more, the department is thinking differently about how to plan, fund, legislate and monitor to improve access and service delivery. To do this, we need leaders at all levels of the organization who embrace a challenge and believe in their ability to make a difference.

About Our Opportunity

As the Senior Business Analyst for the Public Health Information Systems (PHIS) program, you will report to the PHIS Program Manager and will work with Public Heath stakeholders and Information Technology stakeholders to develop, deliver, and continuously improve digital services supporting Public Health in Nova Scotia. The Senior Business Analyst is focused on the ideation and assessment of new initiatives and provides expert support for effective delivery of ongoing improvements and approved projects to meet business objectives.
The positive impact of the Public Health Information Systems program on Nova Scotia’s health system has been demonstrated through the recent COVID-19 response, and you can build upon that foundation for the future.

Primary Accountabilities

Key accountabilities of the Senior Business Analyst for the PHIS program include:

• Leading efforts to understand public health system needs and to promote continuous improvement in our Digital Health services.
• Collaborating within the Department, and with the Nova Scotia Health Authority, IWK Health Centre, and across Government to strengthen relationships and to encourage creative approaches.
• Working with key vendors and technology partners to contribute to innovative solutions to maximize recent public health system investments, consistent with departmental priorities.
• Leading the analysis of process gaps, information flow obstacles and data challenges to design and develop business requirements for PHIS functionality changes and business transformation activities.
• Documenting existing and future-state business processes; defining and documenting functional requirements, conducting information flow analysis and process modelling.
• Developing and delivering customer and stakeholder workshops, meetings and surveys to produce detailed business process flows and business requirements, business alignment opportunities as well as to define business benefit.
• Evaluating all information gathered to produce business cases, feasibility studies, cost benefit analysis, decision requests, briefing notes/Information notes, and/or post implementation benefit evaluations.
• Preparing and presenting related materials to executive and senior management teams within and across Health sectors to build buy-in for process transformation and system functionality.

Qualifications and Experience

The role requires you to work within the disciplines of both Public Health and Information Technology (IT). You have a bachelor’s degree in a related field (a Health-related discipline, Administration, Computer Science or Information Technology) and 6 or more years of progressive experience working with IT systems. An equivalent combination of education and experience will be considered.

You have substantial technical and business knowledge related to Health information technology (ideally Public Health information systems). Current Public Health Information Systems include IBM Panorama, and CANImmunize ClinicFlow. Familiarity with these and other digital health systems, such as Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) or Drug Information System (DIS) is an asset for the development of new product functionality and/or updates to existing capabilities.

To be successful in this role, you must demonstrate high competency in the following:

• Business Analysis - Your analysis skills, supplemented by strong organizational and project management skills will be used to analyse, develop and document business requirements and end user workflows. Training and certification in Business Analysis is an asset.
• Initiative and focus - You thrive in an environment where you can take initiative and drive key outcomes.
• Flexible, Organized - Must be capable of working within an often stressful, deadline driven environment with the ability to prioritize and execute tasks in a complex and changeable business context.
• Communication and team skills – You bring positive energy to motivate diverse teams of internal / external business and IT resources. You engage others in the development of solutions, and skillfully influence others while building support for innovation and change.
• Problem-solving – You enjoy finding creative solutions to complex problems through the use of technology. Strong problem solving, analytical, facilitation and decision-making skills are essential.
• You are recognized for your outstanding personal and professional credibility and bring a track record of strong relationship building with internal and external stakeholders, including technology partners. You enjoy collaborating across functions and organizations, and you can create a path forward, despite differences of opinion.

The following skills are considered assets:

• Experience working with technology vendors in a managed service environment.
• Experience applying change management principles in an IMIT project environment.
• Knowledge of health and/or IT sector business processes and methodologies; ability to develop and implement processes that align with business needs.
• Technical knowledge of IT systems to assist with development of new product features or functionality and knowledge of ICD-10, SNOMED and LOINC coding.
• Conceptual knowledge of HL7/FHIR standard for health care data exchange.

We will assess the above qualifications using one or more of the following tools: written examination, standardized tests, oral presentations, interview(s), and reference checks.

Equivalency

An equivalent combination of training, education and experience will be considered. Equivalencies include but not limited to:

• Related Master’s degree and 4 years of Health related IMIT work experience, OR
• Related Diploma and 8 years of Health related IMIT work experience, OR
• 10 years of Health related work experience, including IMIT

Applicants relying on education and experience equivalencies must demonstrate such equivalencies in their application.

Benefits

Based on the employment status and union agreement, the Government of Nova Scotia offers its employees a wide range of benefits such as Health, Dental, Life Insurance, Pension, General Illness (Short and Long Term), Vacation and Employee and Family Assistance Programs. Click here to learn more about our various benefits offerings and eligibility criteria.

Working Conditions

• Normal work week is 35 hours/week, 7 hours/day (typically the hours are 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM, this may vary depending on operational needs)
• Typically located in office environment, moderate travel required within and outside the province for meetings, speaking engagements, and to conduct presentations
• Most of time spent sitting with frequent opportunity to move, occasional lifting/carrying of office supplies, equipment or files
• Involves a significant degree of sensory attention in assessing information, and/or presenting documents, submissions, both orally and in written form
• Requires active listening and reading to focus on competing and varied interests and viewpoints of varied stakeholders and providing responses and explaining decisions as required
• Fast-paced environment where there are significant pressures from a variety of stakeholders and inputs which are often conflicting, pressure to meet deadlines while juggling operational issues
• Must deal with technical and support issues as well as issues raised by various stakeholders in the context of the established program frameworks, may be required to assess and interpret trends through complex and a large volume of information
• Stress is a factor - constantly balancing many different issues and considerations adds pressure, providing information to support sensitive, high profile issues that are often subject to extensive scrutiny and criticism by senior leaders, executive team and other stakeholders

Additional Information

Please note, this competition is being advertised for a Permanent status position as well as a Term status position with an end date of July 21, 2023; however, the position status (“term”, “temporary” or “casual”) is dependent on the start date of the successful candidate.

What We Offer

• Career Development where you have access to career guidance, tools, resources, and ongoing training for every stage of your career.
• Engaging workplace. Our Employees feel valued, respected, connected, and tuned in. We have forward-thinking policies and strategies.
• Countless Career Paths.
• Department Specific Flexible working schedules.

Pay Grade: PR 17 Salary Range: $3,001.65 - $3,525.41 Bi-Weekly
Employment Equity Statement: Our goal is to be a diverse workforce that is representative, at all job levels, of the citizens we serve. The Government of Nova Scotia has an Employment Equity Policy, and we welcome applications from Indigenous People, African Nova Scotians and Other Racially Visible Persons, Persons with Disabilities and Women in occupations or positions where they are under-represented. If you are a member of one of these equity groups, you are encouraged to self-identify on your electronic application.
This is a bargaining unit position initially restricted to current civil service employees represented by the Nova Scotia Government Employees Union (NSGEU). If applying from outside a government office, employees must apply correctly via this link:
Failure to apply correctly means that your application will not be given first consideration as a bargaining unit applicant, and will only be included if external applications are pursued.
External applicants and current casual employees will only be considered if there are no qualified civil service bargaining unit candidates. PLEASE NOTE: Candidates will not be considered for an interview if applications are incomplete or are missing information.
Offer of employment is conditional upon the completion of all applicable background checks and confirmation of credentials, the results of which must be satisfactory to the employer. We thank all applicants for the interest, however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted. All questions and concerns may be directed to Competitions@novascotia.ca.