Nemours, Delaware Valley, Chief Quality & Patient Safety Officer (CQPSO)

Nemours Children’s Health, DV is seeking a physician leader responsible for promoting a vision for quality and patient safety through the development and implementation of strategic initiatives with a focus to prevent harm while providing equitable, consistent and high-quality care.  The CQO is a key physician leader who collaborates with other physician groups, clinical teams, and hospital executive leadership to align clinical operational resources to best meet the needs of their patient populations.  In conjunction with enterprise and regional leaders, the CQSO supports the development of programs and initiatives designed to improve caregiver well-being including but not limited to psychological safety, physical safety, resilience, moral distress, conflict resolution, and peer-to-peer support. The CQPSO collaborates with the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for synergistic nursing practice safety and quality program alignment and works to support and advance service
excellence strategies. The CPQSO will promote physician engagement and support alignment of Department/Division initiatives in quality and patient safety with hospital-wide initiatives.

The CQPSO works with his/her counterpart in Florida to identify and address quality and safety opportunities across the enterprise and is actively engaged in the development of an organizational culture of safety, peer learning, and continuous improvement. The individual will coordinate with the CMIO to optimize the quality/safety infrastructure, including data collection and analysis and creation and utilization of appropriate dashboards, and develop and execute programs and initiatives to eliminate associate and/or patient harm associated with medical care. The individual will maintain situational awareness about safety risks and events throughout DV and co-lead the patient safety team in reviewing events and guiding root cause analysis. The CQPSO will oversee workflow, process improvement and standardization improvement opportunities identified during safety event analysis and proactively identify operational and programmatic opportunities to advance the institution’s
safety goals and develop and execute associated improvement work. The CQPSO will foster a culture of safety, transparency and a sense of urgency with harm events and act as a role model, ambassador and advocate for safety in internal and external settings. The CQPSO will play a key in facilitating both geographical and programmatic surgical growth.

The CQPSO will be an active member of the NCH, DV medical staff and will engage in clinical work in his/her area of clinical specialty.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

1.            Defines the overall strategic vision for the Quality and Patient Safety functions in support of enterprise and board priorities.  Partners with executive leadership team and leaders across the organization to improve clinical processes and patient care outcomes.

2.            Oversees the infrastructure creation that supports outcomes measurement, care standards assessment, clinical decision support effectiveness, and real-time and proactive surveillance.

3.            Embraces the tenets of high reliability organizations and implements the hardwire of those tools, behaviors, and techniques within the Nemours Children’s Health culture.

4.            Strengthen and reinforces a culture of quality, safety, and value, including a Just Culture.

5.            Builds and leads a multidisciplinary quality and safety organization that transcends existing units and creates a consistent approach to quality and safety.

6.            Creates an environment that fosters innovation and performance, supporting the implementation of programs that continuously advance clinical outcomes and patient experience. Actively implement innovative ideas to redefine, measure and improve quality

7.            Partners with the Physician-in-Chief, Chief Nursing Officer, Patient Operations Officer, and Chief Operating Officer to standardize clinical practices and define the process for developing, approving and evaluating care standardization tools.

8.            Serves as a member of the Nemours Children’s Health, DV executive management team responsible for supporting quality and safety reporting to the Delaware Valley Board of Managers, the Board of Directors Operational Performance Quality and Safety Committee, and Board of Directors.

9.            Supports and encourages professional growth and development by participating in educational programs and professional organizations and activities to maintain knowledge of national trends in the health care industry to promote leading-edge performance.

10.          Promotes Nemours Children’s Health reputation in the national pediatric healthcare arena by authoring and contributing to professional and academic publications as well as speaking at recognized pediatric healthcare quality forums and events.

11.          Supervises senior leaders within the quality/safety program to assure success in: Patient Safety, Quality Improvement, Clinical Regulatory Compliance, Clinical Pathways Program, and Analytics.

12.          Oversees processes related to adverse event reporting and response, external reporting to regulatory agencies, implementation of a root cause analysis process, development of appropriate action plans to reduce clinical and regulatory risk, and implementation of hospital-wide quality and safety initiatives.

13.          Collaborates with the chief compliance officer to oversee all aspects of clinical compliance, including organizational assessment and identification of vulnerabilities, survey management, and survey follow-up, as well as oversight of communication with regulatory agencies on behalf of the clinical enterprise.

15.          In conjunction with Senior Leaders and the Quality and Patient Safety Senior Leadership Committee, oversees administration of Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement activities for Nemours Children’s Health – DV, in accordance with the institutional QAPI and PCA plan.

16.          Serves as a member of the Medical Executive Committee and administers activities of the major Governance committees related to clinical safety and quality, including the Quality and Patient Safety Senior Leadership Committee, and others as assigned.

17.          Represents NCH, DV on internal, regional, and national committees and initiatives that align with the Nemour’s mission and strategic plan for patient safety and quality. This includes work with the Children’s Hospital Association, Solutions for Patient Safety and similar initiatives, as well as interface with Joint Commission, AHRQ, and condition-specific collaboratives as assigned and oversee data acquisition and input into national databases.

18.          Oversees development of institution-wide training, mentoring, and support for individuals engaged in quality improvement and patient safety initiatives, including contributing to development of NCH as a high reliability organization.

19.          The CQPSO will ensure readiness with applicable regulatory agencies, including the Joint Commission and the Agency for Health Care Administration, and will participate in and represent NCH, DV in regional and national patient safety and clinical quality advancement forums.

20.          Contributes to academic work related to measurement and improvement in patient safety and quality to grow Nemours Children’s Health role as a national leader among pediatric institutions.

Qualifications:

Highly effective and visible leader able to work within complex organizations and proven success bridging relationships with academic and community-based physicians

Demonstrated leadership in forging partnerships cross-institutionally

Experience translating strategic priorities into operational reality and ability to identify and drive organizational and cultural changes needed to adapt to changing market demands, technology, and internal initiatives

Can catalyze new approaches to improve results by transforming organizational culture, systems, or products/services

Requirements:
     * Doctor of Medicine (MD) or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) with a demonstrated track record of leadership and scholarly efforts in safety and quality improvements in a complex academic medical center
     * Active DE medical license, board certification in relevant pediatric (sub)
     * Greater than 3 years leadership experience with demonstrated results in enhancing quality, safety, service outcomes and performance.
     * Certification as a certified professional inpatient safety (CPPS). Candidate will be required to gain certification within 2 years of employment
     * Formal training in safety and/or quality improvement
     * Academic rank of Associate Professor or Professor
     * Knowledge of hospital practices and protocols as well as applicable regulations and guidelines
     * Track record of scholarly work in quality and safety desired
     * Familiar with policies and procedures, applicable laws and regulations and accreditation agency requirements.

For confidential consideration, interested candidates should forward their formal CVs to:

Brian Richardson – brian.richardson@nemours.org