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 reports to the Director of Risk Management and Compliance and, in a matrix capacity, to the Chief Nursing Officer and Chief Medical Officer. The Manager collaborates with nursing, medical staff, clinical departments, and organizational leaders to improve patient outcomes, clinical quality, and patient safety through measurable initiatives and evidence-based methods. The Manager coordinates quality measurement and performance improvement activities, facilitates reviews of patient safety events, and guides corrective and preventive actions. The role uses data to identify opportunities, evaluate interventions, sustain improvements, and strengthen a culture of safety and continuous learning. It also provides consultation, coaching, and education to leaders and staff on improvement methods, measurement, data interpretation, and sustainment strategies. La Rabida Children’s Hospital is a not-for-profit, 49-bed hospital providing specialized, family-centered care to children with medically complex conditions, disabilities, and chronic illnesses. Its services include medical, rehabilitative, developmental, primary, and specialty care, as well as family training, forensic and treatment services related to abuse and neglect, early intervention, and care coordination.

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 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 Root Cause Analysis, Apparent Cause Analysis, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis, 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 strategies.
Strong project management, organizational, group facilitation, and interdisciplinary team leadership skills.
Strong written, verbal, presentation, critical-thinking, and problem-solving skills.
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 handle sensitive quality, patient safety, and peer review information appropriately.
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 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 departments in developing, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining initiatives.
Use performance improvement methodologies and tools to systematically 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.
Support rapid-cycle improvement and evaluate whether interventions achieve intended outcomes.
Lead patient safety initiatives and promote safety, transparency, learning, and continuous improvement.
Review quality and safety concerns and guide appropriate investigation, analysis, and improvement activities.
Lead or facilitate structured reviews of significant patient safety events using methods such as Apparent Cause Analysis, Root Cause Analysis, and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis.
Facilitate 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 safety practices, lessons learned, and improvement priorities.
Develop, monitor, analyze, and communicate clinical quality, patient safety, core measure, and performance improvement metrics.
Work with clinical, operational, and information technology partners to support accurate and meaningful quality measurement and reporting.
Develop reports, dashboards, presentations, and other communications that make quality and safety data actionable for stakeholders.
Monitor the effectiveness and sustainability of improvement interventions and communicate findings.
Support accurate collection, validation, analysis, and presentation of quality and patient safety data.
Partner with executive, physician, nursing, clinical, and operational leaders to advance quality and patient safety priorities.
Provide quality and safety information, analysis, and reports to leadership and hospital committees.
Support preparation of 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 departments on intersecting quality and safety activities.
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 improvement principles, patient safety science, measurement, and improvement methodologies.
Perform other assigned duties and maintain confidentiality of protected patient, employee, peer review, quality, and other information.