Quality Improvement & Safety Registered Nurse - Quality Assurance and Safety

Dartmouth Health•New London, NH

About The Position

The Quality Improvement & Safety Registered Nurse leads and promotes clinical quality improvement and patient safety efforts across the organization. The role supports safe, high-quality patient care through a systematic, coordinated, and continuous approach to improvement, collaborating with providers, organizational leaders, staff, the Quality Department, and primary care teams. The RN helps identify patient-safety practices and quality-improvement opportunities, supports improvement work, and helps ensure payer contractual obligations and project timelines are met. The role oversees and coordinates payer activities and projects, participates in clinic-based projects, manages gap-closure efforts for assigned payers, represents program interests at meetings, helps update documents, and reports project outcomes. The RN also reviews patient charts, conducts outreach to address care gaps when needed, and identifies workflow improvements. The position supports event-reporting and follow-up processes, conducts investigative chart reviews, evaluates clinical and operational data, identifies trends and safety issues, and communicates findings to appropriate leaders. It helps maintain processes for collecting and analyzing improvement and safety data and for meeting external regulatory requirements. The RN provides consultation, education, and support to staff, providers, clinicians, managers, and leadership; promotes a culture of patient safety; and designs, implements, and leads evidence-based improvement initiatives using methodologies such as PDSA or Lean Six Sigma. The role also participates in or facilitates adverse-event evaluations and root cause analyses, monitors risks, supports sustainable process changes, and prepares reports and materials as requested.

Requirements

Five years of relevant work experience in clinical healthcare and quality.
Registered Nurse with an NH RN license.
Ability to maintain confidentiality.
Strong interpersonal and interdepartmental relationship skills.
Ability to successfully manage unpredictable and rapidly changing work environments.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree preferred.
Certification in a modern improvement methodology, such as Lean or Six Sigma, preferred.
Professional Project Management (PMP) certification preferred.
Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) certification preferred.
Patient Safety (CPPS) certification preferred.
Understanding of CAH and other healthcare regulatory standards preferred.

Responsibilities

Collaborate with staff and leadership to identify and implement clinical quality and patient-safety initiatives.
Provide backup oversight of event-reporting systems and ensure events are reviewed and followed up.
Conduct investigative chart reviews and report findings to appropriate leaders.
Evaluate clinical and operational data to identify performance gaps, measure metrics, and benchmark against industry standards.
Help maintain processes for collecting, storing, and analyzing improvement and safety data and supporting regulatory compliance.
Identify trends and significant safety issues and communicate them to the Director of Quality & Patient Safety.
Assist with coordinating Weekly Occurrence Review meetings and regulatory activities; provide education and establish and measure outcomes for effectiveness.
Consult with staff, providers, clinicians, and managers on clinical quality and safety concerns.
Develop educational materials and programs with the Director of Quality and Patient Safety.
Promote a culture of patient safety throughout the organization.
Design, implement, and lead evidence-based quality-improvement initiatives using methodologies such as PDSA or Lean Six Sigma.
Provide education about patient safety, system and process engineering, and regulatory topics to clinical and non-clinical staff.
Participate in or facilitate clinical adverse-event evaluations and root cause analyses in collaboration with the Director of Quality & Patient Safety and other department members.
Monitor and interpret patient-safety risks and recommend actions.
Oversee sustainable process changes and recommend replication when appropriate.
Communicate patient-safety concerns, intervention progress, and results to the Director and other appropriate personnel.
Prepare materials and reports requested by Senior Leadership or the Director of Quality & Patient Safety.
Coordinate with the Quality Department and primary care teams to meet payer contractual obligations and complete projects on time.
Oversee and coordinate payer activities and projects, participate in clinic-based projects, manage assigned payer gap-closure efforts, represent program interests at meetings, assist with document updates, and report project outcomes.
Review patient charts, conduct patient outreach to address care gaps as needed, and identify workflow improvements.
Perform other duties as required or assigned.