Patient Safety Officer

Mountain Area Health Education Center - MAHEC•Asheville, NC

23h•Onsite

About The Position

The Patient Safety Officer serves as the organization’s primary resource for patient safety program development, implementation, and sustainment across all MAHEC clinical departments. This role is responsible for building and maintaining a culture of safety through systematic event reporting, trend analysis, and improvement/cultural initiatives. Working collaboratively with clinical leadership, risk management, and front-line staff, the Patient Safety Officer facilitates root cause analyses, develops corrective action plans, and ensures lessons learned are disseminated across the organization. This position plays a critical role in establishing MAHEC as an organization committed to the pursuit of zero harm. The ideal candidate combines healthcare quality improvement expertise with strong analytical skills, systems thinking, and the ability to engage staff at all levels in safety improvement work. This role requires someone who can build trust, foster psychological safety for reporting, and translate complex safety science concepts into practical workflows.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Nursing (BSN), Healthcare Administration, Public Health, Health Sciences, or related field
Three (3) years of experience in healthcare setting
Two (2) years of experience in quality improvement, patient safety, risk management, or related function
Demonstrated experience conducting root cause analyses or similar structured safety reviews
Experience with data analysis and performance reporting
Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite including Excel (data analysis, pivot tables), PowerPoint (presentations), and Word
Systems Thinking: Understanding how processes, people, and technology interact to create safety vulnerabilities or strengths. Ability to identify root causes rather than surface symptoms, recognize unintended consequences of changes, and design system-level solutions that make it easy to do the right thing and hard to do the wrong thing.
Analytical Capability: Proficiency in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting safety data to identify trends and patterns. Ability to translate complex data into clear, actionable insights for diverse audiences. Uses statistical process control concepts to distinguish signal from noise.
Collaboration & Influence: Building trust and credibility with clinical staff, leaders, and physicians. Ability to influence without direct authority, facilitate difficult conversations, and bring diverse stakeholders together around shared safety goals. Creates psychological safety that encourages honest reporting and open discussion of errors.
Healthcare Knowledge: Understanding of clinical workflows, healthcare regulations, and patient safety science. Stays current on evidence-based practices, emerging safety risks, and regulatory requirements. Applies knowledge of human factors engineering, resilience engineering, and high reliability principles to practical safety improvement.
Integrity & Accountability: Demonstrates high ethical standards in handling sensitive safety information. Maintains confidentiality while promoting transparency and learning. Follows through on commitments and holds self and others accountable for safety performance without blame.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Public Health (MPH), Healthcare Administration (MHA), Nursing (MSN), or related field
Experience in ambulatory, outpatient, primary care, or FQHC/community health center settings
Clinical licensure (RN, LPN, or other healthcare license)
Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS), Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ), or Certified Professional in Human Factors in Health Care (CPHFH)
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or equivalent process improvement certification
Experience with Team STEPPS, IHI, Just Culture, or High Reliability Organization frameworks
Experience with electronic health record systems preferred
Experience with incident reporting and risk management software systems
Proficiency in Microsoft Visio or other flow mapping software
Spanish speaking skills preferred
Proficiency in root cause analysis (RCA) and failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) methodologies
Knowledge of quality improvement methods including PDSA cycles, Lean, and Six Sigma
Understanding of human factors engineering principles and their application to healthcare
Familiarity with patient safety culture frameworks

Responsibilities

Reviews and prioritizes patient-safety events each day, ensuring timely triage of all incidents assigned by Risk Management
Facilitates root cause analyses (RCAs) for serious harm events at the direction of the Medical Review Committee, near-misses with high severity potential, and recurrent event patterns
Provides consultation to assigned task owners on patient safety event follow-up for lower-severity safety events
Utilizes the patient safety platform tracking system to monitor completion and effectiveness of corrective actions
Reviews, develops and maintains patient safety policies, procedures, and standard work documents
Conducts proactive risk assessments using FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) methodology for high-risk processes
Coordinates recall management for medications, clinical supplies, and equipment in collaboration with Pharmacy, clinical operations, and Risk Management
Analyzes safety event data to identify trends, patterns, and systemic vulnerabilities
Prepares safety reports for the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Executive Safety Committee, and Quality & Safety Committee
Tracks and reports patient safety program performance metrics
Promotes a Just Culture approach that balances learning with appropriate accountability
Develops and delivers patient safety training for staff, including new employee orientation content as needed
Trains front-line leaders on patient safety event follow-up methodology and human factors principles
Develops and disseminates communication highlighting patient-safety learnings to promote organizational awareness
Supports implementation of safety communication tools including huddles & safety briefs
Serves as primary staff support for a Patient Safety Committee and the Executive Safety Committee
Reports RCA statuses and action items to Medical Review Committee (MRC); coordinates with MRC to support completion and hold process owners accountable
Serves as liaison between clinical departments and quality functions on safety matters
Actively embraces and supports organizational quality initiatives