Company Description

La Rabida Children’s Hospital provides specialized, family-centered health care to children with medically complex conditions, disabilities, and chronic illness. Through expertise, compassion, and advocacy we help children and their families reach their fullest potential, regardless of their ability to pay.

Our not-for-profit hospital, licensed for 49 beds, helps transition children from neonatal or pediatric intensive care to home, by providing medical, rehabilitative and developmental care, and by training families to continue treatments and manage the necessary equipment in the home. La Rabida also provides extensive rehabilitation for those recovering from wounds or burns and treatment for exacerbations of chronic conditions.

The hospital’s enhanced pediatric patient-centered medical home provides primary care to children with complex medical conditions and their siblings. Children with medical homes elsewhere come to La Rabida for specialty services. La Rabida offers a wide range of specialty services provided to children with sickle cell disease, diabetes, and many others. Children are supported in their emotional and developmental growth, particularly in cases where such growth has been interrupted by accident or disease.

Finally, La Rabida provides forensic and treatment services for children exposed to abuse and neglect, comprehensive assessments for youth in care, early intervention for children between 0 and 3 years of age. Care coordination services for medically complex children are also provided for those who are covered by a health plan and receive care from providers in Cook County

Job Description

The Director of Quality and Safety reports to the Chief Nursing Officer and matrixed to the Chief Medical Officer. Under general supervision and within La Rabida’s Children’s Hospital established policies and procedures, develops, directs, coordinates, and evaluates the comprehensive care transformation activities leading to core measure performance, physician peer review, and professional practice evaluation processes as well as addressing and investigating patient safety events and working to implement corrective actions as necessary to enhance the culture of safety. This leader will lead the implementation and optimization of the quality and safety program. This leader serves as the safety champion for the organization and will define/lead the safety initiatives for the organization.

• Lead a highly skilled team of quality and patient experience specialists focused on meeting customer needs and exceeding their expectations.
• Oversee and review selected quality issues and provide guidance for staff to lead investigations of critical events. 
• Lead clinical reviews with evidenced based systems such as, Apparent Cause Analysis (ACA)Root Cause Analysis (RCA)/FMEA team projects using methodologies and tools utilized at La Rabida Children's Hospital and facilitates development of corrective action plans when indicated; and oversight and monitoring as appropriate. 
• Assist and supports the development of reports submitted to regulatory and accrediting agencies including the Department of Health, the Joint Commission, and others as directed by the Director of Regulatory, Risk and Compliance.
• Oversee and review selected quality and service issues and provide guidance for staff to initiate improvement efforts for optimized performance              
• Participate in Medical Staff department meetings and serves as resource for the dissemination of information related to internal and external peer review requirements.
• Coordinate and align all core quality functions for quality and operational excellence and support the quality committee structure for the hospital
• Works with hospital leaders to develop, measure, analyze and implement process improvement initiatives utilizing quality strategies scaled for efficiency and purpose
• Manage clinical and patient safety data needs and leads team(s) toward implementing successful improvement strategies
• Develop customer service training for onboarding and ongoing training as well as just-in-time curriculum content for new initiatives.
• Coordinates and supports the implementation of improvement tactics in alignment with organizational priorities. Identifies and presents best practices and other tactics needed to improve performance. Educates frontline staff and other key stakeholders on tactics and execution. Monitors and makes suggestions to improve best practices and their integration into existing systems.
• Serve as a liaison to the Board Quality committee and to the Medical staff departments for coordination of quality improvement actions involving patient care processes and physician processes. Promotes meaningful communication and performance improvement information among and between La Rabida and the Medical Staff

Qualifications

• A Bachelor’s degree in any science discipline, including Nursing is Required.  
• Master’s degree in related healthcare field Preferred
• Licensed Registered Nurse Preferred
• Six Sigma Black Belt certification or equivalent experience leading performance improvement projects Preferred.
• CPHQ and CPPS Preferred
• A minimum of five (5) years of related experience is a must particularly in quality measurement and reporting systems, oversight over physician peer review programs, and process evaluation and improvement. Extensive knowledge of performance improvement systems and/or process improvement methods and standards. Effective project management skills are required. Must have experience with electronic health record applications and modules Microsoft Office Suite (e.g. Word Excel Access PowerPoint) other computer applications database development and outcomes management. Proficiency Windows-based PC environments and statistical software packages used for analysis and graphing.
•  Certification by the National Association for Healthcare Quality desirable
•  CPR Required (Only certifications issued by the American Heart Association or the American Red Cross will be accepted)
• Strong group facilitation and project management skills required. Ability to collaborate and lead various project teams. Solid written/verbal presentation critical thinking and analytical skills required
• Must have experience in safety programs – developing and implementing patient safety programs, promoting a culture of safety, utilizing patient safety tools and techniques as this role will launch and lead our patient safety strategy.

Additional Information

La Rabida Children’s Hospital is very proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer

La Rabida is a place unlike any other. We understand the needs of families with children dealing with the most serious or complicated of conditions. With teams of the best healthcare providers in Chicago, we give continuous, comprehensive care, education, and support, helping families face their unique obstacles head-on.   

La Rabida Children’s Hospital is very proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer.