Quality Improvement & Safety Registered Nurse - Quality Assurance and Safety

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health•New London, NH

About The Position

The Quality Improvement and Safety RN leads and promotes clinical quality improvement and patient safety efforts throughout the organization. The role supports safe, high-quality patient care through a systematic, coordinated, and continuous approach to improvement, working collaboratively with providers, organizational leaders, and staff to identify and improve patient safety practices and quality improvement opportunities. Working with the Quality Department and primary care teams, the RN helps ensure payer contractual obligations are met and projects are completed within specified timelines. The role coordinates payer activities and projects, participates in clinic-based projects, manages gap-closure efforts for assigned payers, represents program interests at meetings, assists with document updates, and reports project outcomes. The RN also reviews patient charts, conducts outreach to address care gaps as needed, and identifies workflow improvements.

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, and/or Professional Project Management (PMP), Healthcare Quality (CPHQ), or Patient Safety (CPPS) certification preferred.
Understanding of CAH and other healthcare regulatory standards preferred.

Responsibilities

Collaborate with staff and leadership to identify and implement key clinical quality and patient safety improvement initiatives.
Provide back-up oversight of event-reporting systems to ensure review and follow-up that promote clinical quality and patient safety.
Complete investigative chart reviews and report findings to appropriate leaders.
Evaluate clinical and operational data to identify performance gaps, measure key metrics, and benchmark against industry standards.
Help maintain processes that support improvement and safety, enable collection, storage, and analysis of related data, and support compliance with external regulatory agency requirements.
Identify trends and significant safety issues and communicate them to the Director of Quality & Patient Safety.
Assist with coordination of the Weekly Occurrence Review meeting and regulatory activities, including providing education and establishing and measuring outcomes for effectiveness.
Use clinical and operational knowledge in formal and informal consultation with staff, providers, clinicians, and managers to address quality and safety concerns.
Provide education and serve as a resource to staff, providers, and leadership on patient safety.
Apply and communicate systems or process engineering principles.
Develop educational materials and programs in conjunction 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 Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) or Lean Six Sigma.
Provide education on patient safety, systems and process engineering, and regulatory matters to clinical and non-clinical staff during orientations, staff meetings, and in response to department requests or identified needs.
Participate in or facilitate clinical adverse-event evaluation and root cause analysis in conjunction with the Director of Quality & Patient Safety and other department members.
Monitor and interpret identified patient-safety risks and recommend actions.
Oversee sustainable process changes and recommend replication when appropriate.
Communicate patient-safety concerns, progress, and intervention results to the Director and other appropriate personnel.
Prepare materials and reports as requested by Senior Leadership or the Director of Quality & Patient Safety.
Coordinate with the Quality Department and primary care teams to ensure payer contractual obligations are met and projects are completed.
Perform other duties as required or assigned.
Coordinate payer activities and projects, participate in clinic-based projects, manage gap-closure efforts for assigned payers, represent program interests at meetings, assist with document updates, report project outcomes, review patient charts, conduct patient outreach to address care gaps, and identify workflow improvements.