VP Chief Quality Officer

Summary:

The VP Chief Quality Officer (VP CQO) reports to the Chief of Hospital Operations/President of Rhode Island Hospital for quality and patient safety strategy. The incumbent serves as a member of the executive management team and is responsible for leading the development implementation and evaluation of a quality and patient safety strategy for Lifespan. The CQO will have accountability and a deep knowledge of internal and external quality and safety requirements and will provide leadership in strengthening coordinating and measuring performance as well as strengthening a culture of quality and safety where everyone is engaged and respected.

The VP CQO is responsible for executive oversight of the following system functions: Care Transformation Quality and Safety Accreditation & Regulatory Readiness; Quality Improvement; Clinical Abstraction and Data Analytics and Insights; Patient Experience; Epidemiology and Infection Prevention.

The VP CQO will serve in a highly visible role working across the system as well as within the state region and nation as a leader in quality and safety.

Responsibilities:

Consistently applies the corporate values of respect honesty and fairness and the constant pursuit of excellence in improving the health status of the people of the region through the provision of customer-friendly geographically accessible and high-value services within the environment of a comprehensive integrated academic health system. Is responsible for knowing and acting in accordance with the principles of the Lifespan Corporate Compliance Program and Code of Conduct.

Provides senior executive vision direction leadership and administration for all programs related to quality and patient safety initiatives.

Develops and implements a strategic and change management plan that aligns with overall Lifespan strategy; that delineates clear goals and metrics for enhancing and sustaining the highest level of quality; and is designed with input from members of multidisciplinary team executive leadership Board members patients and community members.

Implements evidence-based programs and activities that incorporate continuous and robust process improvement.

Identifies and acts upon resource needs and opportunities to support objectives of strategic plan for clinical quality and patient safety. Reviews approves and manages financial human and material resources to meet anticipated needs. Secures resources through development of annual operating and capital budget. Ensures adherence to approved budget.

Collaborate support and advise senior leaders in development and modification of focused scorecards with established goals that reflect excellence against national benchmarks for clinical departments and divisions.

Serves as a change agent to strengthen and reinforce a culture of safety quality and value across Lifespan. Create an environment that fosters innovation and high performance and actively implement ideas to improve care delivery.

Develops programs that rapidly advance Lifespan as a leader in quality and safety among national and regional health systems as evidenced by exceptional patient outcomes and upper decile performance rankings. Coordinate outcomes management initiatives that incorporate national best practices reduce variation decrease costs and create efficiencies in care delivery.

Ensure that Lifespan is a learning organization by incorporating methodologies such as LEAN and Six Sigma to empower decision making at the patient care level. Develops leads and evaluates the training of belts and other facilitators.

Works in partnership with and serves as advisor to CMOs CNOs and other clinical leaders on quality and patient safety issues and clinical outcomes management and performance improvement.

Leads various system-wide committees councils task forces focus groups as appropriate. Directs the conduct of systematic and periodic reviews of clinical outcomes and facilitates discussion of those reviews at appropriate Board-level committees on quality or other forums such as meetings of service lines medical board committees operations committees and/or departmental committees.

Establishes mechanisms to promote broad-based communication reporting and understanding of the current state of quality and safety within Lifespan. Provides leadership and direction in

collection analysis and dissemination of data. Ensures data are translated into useful information to help identify areas for improvement.

Works with CMOs to establish performance-monitoring systems with accountability mechanisms for all medical departments. Establishes forums with division chiefs/department directors.

Develops and refines accountability structure that incorporates mechanisms to hold staff at all levels accountable to specific meaningful measures that tie to organizational priorities in accordance with provisions of policies.

Provides leadership and oversight to Lifespan Quality and Safety department including establishing ongoing mechanism for continual assessment of staff skills. Reviews and revises departmental processes to maximize time spent on facilitating improvement projects with medical and nursing directors with existing departmental staff resources.

Maintains and enhances personal and professional credibility by demonstrating strong and effective leadership operational and employee relation skills.

Actively promotes Lifespan as leaders in clinical quality and patient safety through high level of professional visibility and involvement at local and national levels.

Accountable for the operational management and performance on all commercial state and federally funded pay for reporting and pay for performance programs as well as the performance improvement efforts associated with publicly reported metrics in external quality reporting organizations.

Other information:

QUALIFICATIONS-EDUCATION:

Doctoral degree in medicine or healthcare field required. Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality required.

QUALIFICATIONS-EXPERIENCE:

At least 5-7 years of executive leadership experience preferably in a complex health system with an academic medical center in an executive quality position. Experience must demonstrate success in managing multidisciplinary cross-functional issues leadership and team-building skills as well as demonstrated achievements in customer satisfaction organizational performance improvement and fiscal accountability. Proven experience in establishing priorities and building infrastructure and team to implement large scale initiatives and cultural changes across systems.

SUPERVISION:

Responsible for direct and indirect supervision of management professional and administrative staff including selection direction and evaluation.