Manager of Quality and Safety

La Rabida Children's Hospital•Chicago, IL

About The Position

The Manager of Quality and Safety provides operational leadership for La Rabida Children’s Hospital’s quality improvement and patient safety programs. The role collaborates with nursing, medical staff, clinical departments, and organizational leaders to improve patient outcomes, clinical quality, and patient safety. It coordinates quality measurement and performance improvement activities, facilitates reviews of patient safety events, and guides corrective and preventive actions. The Manager promotes evidence-based methods and data to identify improvement opportunities, evaluate interventions, sustain progress, and strengthen a culture of safety and continuous learning. The Manager leads hospital-wide quality and performance improvement initiatives; supports interdisciplinary teams and staff through consultation, coaching, and education; and applies systematic improvement methods to clinical processes. The role also leads or facilitates structured analyses of significant safety events, including Apparent Cause Analysis, Root Cause Analysis, and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis, and helps develop, monitor, and evaluate corrective action plans. The position develops, analyzes, and communicates clinical quality, patient safety, core measure, and performance improvement metrics. It prepares reports, dashboards, presentations, and other communications for leaders, committees, clinicians, and staff, and monitors the effectiveness and sustainability of improvement interventions. The Manager partners with executive, physician, nursing, clinical, and operational leaders and collaborates with departments including Infection Prevention, Risk Management, Employee Health, Nursing, and Medical Staff leadership. The position reports to the Director of Risk Management and Compliance and, in a matrix capacity, to the Chief Nursing Officer and Chief Medical Officer.

Requirements

Master’s degree in nursing, healthcare administration, public health, quality, patient safety, or another healthcare-related field.
At least five years of progressively responsible healthcare experience, including experience in quality improvement, patient safety, clinical quality measurement, performance improvement, or a closely related area.
Experience leading or facilitating multidisciplinary performance improvement initiatives.
Experience with quality measurement, data analysis, outcome monitoring, and presentation of quality data.
Experience conducting or facilitating patient safety event analyses and developing corrective action plans.
Experience collaborating with physicians, nurses, clinical leaders, and interdisciplinary teams.
Strong knowledge of healthcare quality improvement and patient safety principles.
Knowledge of RCA, ACA, FMEA, and other structured approaches to patient safety and process improvement.
Strong analytical skills, including the ability to interpret clinical and operational data and translate findings into actionable improvement strategies.
Strong project management and organizational skills.
Effective group facilitation and interdisciplinary team leadership skills.
Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills.
Excellent critical-thinking and problem-solving abilities.
Ability to communicate effectively with frontline clinicians, physician leaders, department leaders, executives, and governance committees.
Ability to manage multiple priorities and improvement initiatives.
Ability to maintain confidentiality and appropriately handle sensitive quality, patient safety, and peer review information.
Proficiency with electronic health record applications, Microsoft Office applications, quality reporting systems, databases, and analytical tools used for quality measurement and reporting.

Nice To Haves

Formal education or advanced training in healthcare quality, patient safety, performance improvement, or a related discipline.
Lean, Six Sigma, or comparable performance improvement training.
Experience in a hospital or pediatric healthcare environment.
Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ).
Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS).
Lean Six Sigma or similar performance improvement certification.
Certification by the National Association for Healthcare Quality.

Responsibilities

Provide operational leadership for hospital-wide quality improvement and performance improvement activities aligned with organizational priorities.
Collaborate with clinical and operational leaders to identify improvement opportunities and develop measurable initiatives.
Facilitate interdisciplinary improvement teams and support the development, implementation, evaluation, and sustainment of initiatives.
Use established performance improvement methodologies and tools to evaluate and improve clinical processes.
Promote evidence-based practices, standardized processes, and data-driven decision-making.
Provide consultation, coaching, and education on improvement methods, measurement, data interpretation, and sustainment strategies.
Support rapid-cycle improvement activities and help teams evaluate intervention outcomes.
Provide operational leadership for patient safety initiatives and promote safety, transparency, learning, and continuous improvement.
Review quality and patient safety concerns and guide investigation, analysis, and improvement activities.
Lead or facilitate structured reviews of significant patient safety events using appropriate methods, including ACA, RCA, and FMEA.
Facilitate the development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of corrective action plans following patient safety reviews.
Identify trends and improvement opportunities from patient safety events and quality data.
Partner with clinical leaders and frontline staff to identify safety risks and reduce preventable harm.
Support education and communication about patient safety practices, lessons learned, and improvement priorities.
Develop, monitor, analyze, and communicate clinical quality, patient safety, core measure, and performance improvement metrics.
Collaborate with clinical, operational, and information technology partners to support accurate and meaningful quality measurement and reporting.
Evaluate quality and safety data trends and assist leaders in setting improvement priorities.
Develop reports, dashboards, presentations, and communications that turn quality and safety data into actionable information.
Monitor the effectiveness and sustainability of improvement interventions and communicate findings to stakeholders.
Support accurate collection, validation, analysis, and presentation of quality and patient safety data.
Partner with organizational leaders to advance quality and patient safety priorities and provide information, analyses, and reports to leaders and committees.
Support preparation of quality and patient safety reports for the Board Quality Committee and other governance structures as requested.
Collaborate with Infection Prevention, Risk Management, Employee Health, Nursing, Medical Staff leadership, and other relevant departments.
Participate in organizational committees, workgroups, and improvement teams as assigned.
Promote staff engagement and shared accountability for quality, safety, and continuous improvement; serve as a resource on related principles and methods.
Perform other assigned duties and participate in hospital and departmental committees as appropriate.
Maintain confidentiality of patient, employee, peer review, quality, and other protected information in accordance with applicable requirements and hospital policy.
Support organizational priorities related to quality, patient safety, and performance improvement.