Vice President, Clinical Quality & Safety

DaVita Kidney Care•Denver, CO

11d•$275,000 - $382,000

About The Position

DaVita is seeking an experienced nephrologist to serve as Vice President, Clinical Quality & Safety within the Office of the Chief Medical Officer. This national physician leadership role spans clinical quality, patient safety and infection prevention; medication and clinical protocol development; and clinical evaluation of new therapies, devices and diagnostics. The successful candidate will serve as a clinical expert and partner to business and operational leaders, providing clinical judgment, evidence-based recommendations and credibility with practicing nephrologists while those partners manage program execution. The role leads DaVita’s approach to clinical initiatives affecting more than 200,000 patients, including medication and protocol deployment, dialysis safety programs, and national evaluation of new machines, innovations and medications. The position also represents DaVita in national forums and professional society meetings, develops relationships with academic medical centers and nephrology training programs, and identifies emerging clinical risks and opportunities that may inform the organization’s kidney-care strategy. This is a full-time position. The successful candidate may continue clinical practice for up to eight hours per week, provided it does not interfere with DaVita responsibilities. Travel is approximately 25–30%, including facility visits, national clinical meetings, academic partner engagements and professional society meetings.

Requirements

M.D., D.O. or MBBS degree and board certification in Nephrology.
Active, unrestricted medical license and qualification as a licensed or certified medical professional appropriately qualified in the relevant area of care, as required for patient safety organization physician designation.
At least 10 years of post-training experience as a practicing nephrologist, including experience as a dialysis medical director.
Demonstrated leadership in patient safety, quality improvement, event review or clinical risk management.
Working knowledge of anemia management, bone mineral disease and dialysis pharmacotherapy, with experience developing or governing clinical protocols.
Proven ability to partner effectively with non-physician business and operational leaders.
Ability to interpret complex clinical data, evaluate strength of evidence and translate findings into clinical recommendations.
Credible and confident communication across executive, clinical, regulatory and external audiences.
Ability to continue any outside clinical practice for no more than eight hours per week, without interfering with DaVita responsibilities.

Nice To Haves

Prior patient safety organization, patient safety officer or hospital quality leadership experience, or outcomes research training.
Publication record in patient safety, anemia, bone mineral disease or dialysis outcomes.
Experience evaluating devices or diagnostics.
Experience partnering with academic medical centers.

Responsibilities

Serve as physician executive for DaVita’s AHRQ-certified Patient Safety Organization and meet the clinical qualification requirements for its physician designation.
Provide physician leadership for dialysis quality improvement, including priorities, measures and interventions to improve outcomes across the organization.
Direct the national patient safety agenda, including adverse-event and safety-signal review and guidance on clinical risks requiring intervention or new tools.
Educate senior executives, operations leaders and quality leaders about patient safety findings and improvement priorities.
Lead clinically on infection prevention, including bloodstream infection reduction, tuberculosis and hepatitis B prevention and surveillance, and employee health matters.
Provide clinical leadership and strategy for immunization initiatives and research opportunities, and identify emerging population health opportunities in vaccines.
Lead medication management and clinical protocol development and revision, primarily focused on anemia management and bone mineral disease.
Co-chair the Pharmacology and Therapeutics Committee with pharmacist colleagues; maintain a robust formulary and provide high-level formulary exception review and utilization interpretation and review.
Provide clinical expertise and study interpretation concerning anemia therapies, including erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, HIF prolyl hydroxylase inhibitors and iron management.
Provide clinical expertise and study interpretation concerning bone mineral disease management, including calcimimetics and phosphate binders.
Evaluate novel therapeutics in anemia and mineral bone disease and other areas as needed.
Provide clinical guidance on additional pharmacotherapy topics, including anticoagulation, thrombolytics for catheter clearance and GLP-1 receptor agonists.
Partner with research and development colleagues on next-generation and technology-enabled protocol design, ensuring clinical soundness and physician adoption.
Partner with laboratory leadership on test utilization, result-interpretation standards, reference ranges and integration of laboratory data into clinical workflows.
Lead clinical evaluation of new dialysis machines and devices with biomedical engineering colleagues, addressing clinical readiness, human factors and safe deployment.
Apply evidence standards and clinical judgment to enterprise decisions about adopting equipment, assays and therapies at scale.
Develop and steward clinical relationships with academic medical centers and nephrology training programs, including collaborative research, fellow education and joint publication opportunities.
Represent DaVita as a clinical leader in national forums and professional society meetings.
Contribute clinical expertise to enterprise priorities such as fluid management, dialysis adequacy and physician communication about new modalities.
Lead or support additional clinical initiatives at the direction of the Chief Medical Officer; the scope will evolve with clinical priorities and the successful candidate’s strengths.
Identify emerging clinical risks, quality opportunities and innovations that may shape kidney care and inform DaVita’s clinical strategy.
Travel approximately 25–30% for facility visits, national clinical meetings, academic partner engagements and professional society meetings.

Benefits

Medical insurance
Dental insurance
Vision insurance
401(k) match
Paid time off
PTO cash out
Family resources
EAP counseling sessions
Access to Headspace
Backup child and elder care
Maternity and paternity leave
Professional development programs
On-demand virtual leadership and development courses through DaVita’s StarLearning platform
Competitive total rewards package