Director, Quality and Clinical Excellence - F/T - Days

University of California, Irvine•Orange, CA

About The Position

The Director, Quality and Clinical Excellence is responsible for the operational leadership, strategic direction, and systemwide coordination of all quality and clinical excellence programs across UCI Health, encompassing quality analytics, clinical registries, and key clinical initiatives. The incumbent is accountable for the development and execution of integrated strategies that strengthen organizational performance in reputational and regulatory quality programs, ensure compliance with accreditation and reporting requirements, and drive measurable improvement in patient safety indicators, sepsis prevention, and other key clinical programs in alignment with regulatory, accreditation, and organizational standards. This role maintains accountability for the alignment of data-driven insights, evidence-based practice, and continuous improvement methodologies to foster a culture of safety, continuous learning, and clinical excellence across the health system. The Director leads the development and implementation of departmental goals, policies, and performance improvement initiatives, and is responsible for the selection, onboarding, competency validation, performance evaluation, and professional development of all assigned coworkers. This position collaborates with clinical operations, medical staff leadership, nursing leadership, compliance, and executive leadership to advance UCI Health's reputation for exceptional patient outcomes, safety, and overall organizational performance. The Director exercises wide latitude of authority in determining departmental goals and measures to achieve systemwide quality and clinical excellence objectives with limited oversight.

Requirements

7+ years of experience in healthcare quality and patient safety with demonstrated ability in design, implementation and sustainment of performance improvement activities in a health care setting including skillful application of continuous quality improvement and patient safety sciences
5+ years of progressive administrative leadership experience in quality improvement, performance improvement, operational excellence or patient safety in an academic medical center or large, integrated, tertiary health care setting providing expert level understanding of the art and the science of quality improvement and patient safety
Exceptional level of professionalism, discretion and the ability to work on highly sensitive and confidential projects
Knowledge of current trends and best practices in healthcare quality improvement and patient safety
Successful track record of effective, team-oriented working relationships with physicians, nurses and other health professionals
Outstanding negotiation, written, and verbal communication skills
Outstanding listening, interpersonal relationship building, and problem-solving skills
Able to prioritize and manage multiple projects simultaneously with demonstrated ability to complete projects successfully on time and within budget
Master’s degree in Nursing, Public Health, Pharmacy, Business, Administration or related field
Minimum 5 years of supervisory/management experience
Minimum 7 years’ experience working as a RN, other licensed clinical practitioner or similar experience in a related field
Must possess the skill, knowledge and ability essential to the successful performance of assigned duties
Must be able to provide proof of work authorization

Nice To Haves

Experience in Lean-Sigma as an improvement methodology
Experience in managing participation in required and voluntary registries
Current Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality, CPHQ and/or Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS)

Responsibilities

operational leadership
strategic direction
systemwide coordination of all quality and clinical excellence programs across UCI Health
development and execution of integrated strategies that strengthen organizational performance in reputational and regulatory quality programs
ensure compliance with accreditation and reporting requirements
drive measurable improvement in patient safety indicators, sepsis prevention, and other key clinical programs in alignment with regulatory, accreditation, and organizational standards
alignment of data-driven insights, evidence-based practice, and continuous improvement methodologies to foster a culture of safety, continuous learning, and clinical excellence across the health system
development and implementation of departmental goals, policies, and performance improvement initiatives
selection, onboarding, competency validation, performance evaluation, and professional development of all assigned coworkers
collaborates with clinical operations, medical staff leadership, nursing leadership, compliance, and executive leadership to advance UCI Health's reputation for exceptional patient outcomes, safety, and overall organizational performance