Quality Improvement Specialist

About the Role

The Quality Improvement Specialist collaborates with Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH) leadership, including the Regional Chief Quality & Safety Officer, HMH Vice President Clinical & Nursing Quality, HMH Patient Safety Officer, and local Director of Patient Safety & Quality, to provide leadership for quality and safety improvement initiatives. This role works with HMH initiative-focused groups, clinical transformation services, and quality councils to achieve transformational and sustainable outcome improvements using project and program management, process and system mapping, reliability science, data-driven strategies, evidence-based best practices, and quality improvement methodologies. The specialist ensures the identification, planning, and execution of quality improvement and safety projects to deliver successful, sustainable results and build a strong culture of safety and quality for patients and team members.

Responsibilities

• Facilitate and lead highly functioning teams organized around quality and safety initiatives.
• Develop methods to engage and develop team members in quality and safety initiatives and improvement measures.
• Identify improvement priorities based on evidence-based practice, regulatory requirements, and accrediting agencies such as CMS, Pay for Performance, The State of New Jersey Department of Health, and The Joint Commission.
• Bring safety and quality events, concerns, and needs to local morning safety huddles.
• Encourage event reporting and transparency related to events, concerns, needs, and processes to identify precursor and safety events.
• Identify and implement data-driven strategies to ensure team success.
• Utilize the Quality Scorecard to drive improvements for HMH initiative-focused work, clinical transformation services, or quality councils.
• Provide expert knowledge, leadership, and mentoring in patient safety and quality initiatives using safety and high reliability science.
• Strategize with personnel at all levels to develop and coordinate patient safety programs.
• Provide coaching and hands-on support for quality and safety strategies.
• Create and maintain timely and thorough progress reports, including key driver diagrams, run charts, and PDSA testing documentation.
• Develop metrics and report key quality and safety metrics to demonstrate improvement across the medical center and network.
• Provide timely, actionable feedback and reports to clinical, administrative, and support staff on all safety and quality initiatives.
• Analyze and investigate event reports related to assigned clinical areas; ensure appropriate referral and follow-up, including escalation for regulatory reporting.
• Increase transparency, reinforce high reliability, and advance the safety culture by participating in and facilitating safety huddles, patient safety activities, just culture reinforcement, and shared learning.
• Facilitate the NPSF RCA-2 process as needed.
• Provide leadership, guidance, support, and direction resulting in shared learning within designated clinical areas and across the institution and network.
• Advance the science of safety and quality improvement through dissemination of methods, results, and lessons learned from improvement projects.
• Present improvement methods and results at local, national, and international forums.
• Monitor standards of practice to ensure compliance with internal and external regulatory and accrediting agencies, including:
  • The Joint Commission
  • NJS and Federal Codes (e.g., DOH, OSHA)
  • Professional review organizations
• Perform effective trend analysis of performance data with comparison over time to internal and external benchmarks to identify improvement opportunities and progress.
• Coordinate and mentor team members in quality projects.
• Coordinate and assist the performance improvement work of unit councils.
• Attend root cause analysis meetings specific to HMH initiative-focused groups, clinical transformation services, or quality council focus areas.
• Direct patient and team member safety by identifying actual or potential safety issues.
• Advance and enhance professional growth and development through seminars, workshops, and professional networking opportunities to maintain and extend expertise.
• Adhere to the standards identified in Hackensack Meridian Health's organizational competencies.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in healthcare or health science.
• 5 years of experience in healthcare.
• Proficiency in computer applications and software including Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills with the ability to present to various levels within the organization.
• NPSF CPPS certification within one year of hire.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree and/or professional degree and certification.
• Performance improvement experience.
• Experience in statistics or clinical research.
• Understanding of The Joint Commission and regulatory standards.
• Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS).

Pay

Minimum rate of $92,144.00 annually. The posted rate of pay is a reasonable good faith estimate of the minimum base pay for this role at the time of posting and does not reflect the full value of our market-competitive total rewards package. The base compensation determined at the time of the offer may differ based on non-discriminatory factors, including labor market data, experience, education, certifications, skills, geographic location, internal equity, budget, and grant funding.

Benefits

HMH offers a comprehensive benefits package for full-time and part-time (20+ hours/week) job positions, including:

• Health, dental, and vision benefits.
• Paid leave.
• Tuition reimbursement.
• Retirement benefits.
• Eligibility for performance-based incentives, bonuses, or commissions (not reflected in the starting rate).
• Shift differentials for work performed on evening, night, or weekend shifts (for eligible positions).