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Posted: 03-Apr-26
Location: Englewood, Colorado
Type: Full Time
Organization Size:
Organization Type:
Salary Range:
Work Experience:
Required Education:
Internal Number: 462856
The System Senior Vice President (SSVP), Quality and Safety, is a transformational senior healthcare executive charged with advancing an unparalleled culture of clinical excellence, safety, and patient-centered care across CommonSpirit Health's vast and diverse enterprise. Reporting directly to the Chief Medical and Quality Officer, this leader will be the principal architect and executive champion for system-wide strategies and initiatives that elevate performance, reduce unwarranted variation, and eliminate preventable harm, ensuring seamless alignment with CommonSpirit Health's overarching clinical strategy. As CommonSpirit Health explores and integrates leading frameworks such as Vizient, this pivotal role demands a proven visionary who can inspire widespread adoption of leading-edge quality improvement methodologies, high-reliability principles, and advanced analytics to deliver measurable improvements in patient outcomes, clinical efficiency, and value-based care performance. The SSVP will ensure impeccable regulatory compliance, guide critical decision-making with expert counsel, and position CommonSpirit Health as a national leader in clinical quality and patient-safety innovation.
1. Serve Strategic Vision & Enterprise Transformation:
a. Develop and execute an enterprise-wide strategic roadmap for quality, patient safety, and clinical performance that aligns with CommonSpirit Health's mission, vision, and strategic imperatives, serving as a partner and advisor, directly supporting the Chief Medical and Quality Officer's broader clinical goals.
b. Lead profound organizational and cultural transformation toward a high-reliability culture, embedding safety as an immutable value in every facet of clinical operations.
c. Ensure the strategic direction anticipates and responds to evolving healthcare landscapes, technological advancements, and value-based care models.
2. System-Wide Clinical Performance & Outcomes Excellence:
a. Accountable for defining, measuring, and achieving top-quartile performance in all critical quality and safety metrics, including publicly reported outcomes, serious safety events (SSEs), healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), readmissions, and patient experience.
b. Develop and integrate robust clinical performance improvement programs utilizing advanced quality methodologies (e.g., Lean, Six Sigma, Virginia Mason Production System) to systematically identify, address, and sustain performance gains, leveraging appropriate benchmarking data and improvement tools from national collaboratives, potentially including Vizient.
c. Lead the integration of clinical informatics and advanced analytics to provide actionable insights, predictive modeling, and system-level transparency into quality and safety performance, utilizing data from external benchmarking partners such as Vizient to inform and contextualize performance.
3. High Reliability & Patient Safety Program Leadership:
a. Architect and champion a comprehensive patient safety program, integrating high-reliability principles, error prevention strategies, and a just culture that encourages reporting and learning.
b. Oversee the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of system-wide clinical event reporting, investigation, root cause analysis (RCA), and proactive risk assessment methodologies (e.g., FMEA).
c. Lead incident command structures and system-level responses to critical patient safety events, ensuring timely and effective resolution, learning, and prevention of recurrence.
d. Develop and implement innovative solutions to mitigate complex clinical risks across diverse care settings and patient populations.
4. Regulatory Compliance, Accreditation & Risk Management:
a. Ensure unwavering system-wide compliance with all federal, state, and local regulatory requirements, as well as accreditation standards (e.g., CMS, TJC, DNV, state public health agencies).
b. Serve as the executive liaison for regulatory bodies and accreditation organizations, representing CommonSpirit Health during surveys, audits, and compliance activities relating to quality and safety, in close collaboration with the Chief Medical and Quality Officer.
c. Partner closely with Enterprise Risk Management and Legal to proactively identify, assess, and mitigate clinical and patient safety-related liabilities and exposures.
5. Leadership, Engagement & Culture Cultivation:
a. Inspire, mentor, and lead a diverse team of quality and safety professionals across the system, fostering a culture of accountability, innovation, and continuous learning.
b. Collaborate extensively with clinical, operational, and administrative leaders at all levels of the organization (national, division, facility) to embed quality and safety as shared responsibilities.
c. Act as a compelling advocate for patient safety and quality, influencing practitioners and staff through effective communication, education, and change management strategies to drive behavior change.
d. Cultivate effective partnerships with academic institutions, professional organizations, and national forums to benchmark performance, adopt best practices, and contribute to the advancement of healthcare quality and safety, including engagement with improvement collaboratives and networks such as Vizient.
6. Strategic Alignment, Governance & Executive Reporting:
a. Actively participate in and provide expert guidance to key system-level clinical governance committees, ensuring quality and safety initiatives are integrated into broader clinical decision-making processes.
b. Prepare and present comprehensive quality and safety performance reports, analyses, data-driven insights, and strategic recommendations to the Chief Medical and Quality Officer, Boards of Directors, and other senior leadership forums, facilitating informed decision-making at the highest levels.
c. Serve as the organizational expert resource on national patient safety priorities, trends, regulatory requirements, and emerging best practices, providing critical input to the CMQO.
7. Innovation & Advanced Methodologies:
a. Identify, pilot, and scale innovative technologies, methodologies (e.g., AI/ML in risk prediction, simulation training), and best practices in quality improvement and patient safety.
b. Champion research, publications, and presentations that disseminate CommonSpirit Health’s quality and safety achievements and learnings internally and externally.
c. Drive the development of cutting-edge educational programs and resources for clinicians and staff to enhance their competencies in quality improvement and patient safety science.
Required Education and Experience:
- Master's Degree in a related field (e.g., Public Health, Healthcare Administration, Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Health Services Research).
- Minimum of 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in quality, patient safety, clinical excellence, or performance improvement roles within large, complex acute care health systems.
- Minimum of 7 years of experience at a Vice President (VP) or equivalent senior leadership level, with direct responsibility for system-wide quality and safety initiatives across multiple facilities or an integrated delivery network.
Required Licensure and Certifications:
- Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) - highly desirable.
- Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS) - highly desirable.
Required Minimum Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Training:
- Demonstrated Expertise in Quality and Safety Science: Proven mastery and successful application of advanced quality improvement methodologies (e.g., Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt certification preferred), patient safety science, and performance measurement frameworks.
- Data Literacy and Analytical Acumen: Advanced proficiency in data analytics, clinical informatics, and statistical methods to identify trends, create actionable insights, and drive evidence-based decision-making. Proven ability to interpret and apply complex benchmarking data from external organizations (e.g., Vizient) for strategic planning and operational improvements.
- High Reliability and Culture Transformation: Extensive knowledge and proven experience in developing, implementing, and sustaining high-reliability organization (HRO) principles and fostering a robust safety culture across a large, complex enterprise.
- Regulatory & Accreditation Acumen: Comprehensive understanding of relevant federal, state, and local regulatory requirements, as well as accreditation standards (e.g., The Joint Commission, CMS, DNV) related to quality, patient safety, and clinical outcomes.
- Executive Presence & Influence: Exceptional communication, presentation, and negotiation skills, with the ability to build consensus, influence senior executives, clinicians, and diverse stakeholder groups across a matrixed organization.
- Change Leadership: Proven ability to effectively lead and manage complex organizational change initiatives, fostering innovation and resilience in the face of evolving healthcare demands.
- Team Leadership & Development: Demonstrated experience in the development, empowerment, and management of large, diverse teams, including direct and matrixed reporting relationships. Ability to foster a collaborative and high-performing environment.
- Judgment & Decision-Making: Superior ability to make sound, timely, and data-driven decisions in high-pressure situations, carefully evaluating the impact on clinical quality, patient safety, and organizational performance.
- Systemic Thinking: Ability to understand and integrate various components of a complex health system, framing problems and solutions from an enterprise-wide perspective and anticipating downstream impacts.
- Accountability & Drive for Excellence: Holds self and others accountable for the highest standards of quality, safety, and ethical conduct, consistently driving for exceptional results.
