Sr Director - Patient Safety & High Reliability Organization

Responsible for

• Enterprise Patient Safety Strategy
• Establishes system priorities to reduce Serious Safety Events (SSEs) and preventable harm across the continuum
• Ensures consistent safety practices across the care continuum.
• High Reliability Organization (HRO) Leadership
• Designs, implements, and sustains MLH’s High Reliability framework
• Oversees system-wide deployment of safety behaviors and tools (e.g., speak up, stop-the-line) and simulation-based safety training programs
• Ensures integration of HRO principles into daily operations, tiered huddles, and leadership practices
• Safety Event Reporting, Review & Learning System
• Oversees the MLH Patient Safety Event (PSE) reporting system
• Leads standardized system-wide processes for Root Cause Analysis (RCA), Apparent Cause Analysis (ACA) and Event classification and prioritization
• Ensures timely, high-quality investigation and system-level learning dissemination
• Establishes feedback loops to frontline staff to improve transparency and reporting culture
• Proactive Risk Identification & Harm Prevention
• Implements proactive safety programs, including risk assessments and hazard identification and thematic analysis of safety events and near misses
• Identifies and mitigates high-risk failure points before harm occurs
• Develops leading indicators and early warning signals for safety risks
• Serious Safety Event (SSE) Reduction
• Leads system-wide initiatives to reduce serious safety events and never events
• Ensures consistent response to serious events, including event review process, patient and family communication (in collaboration with Corporate Risk Management) and care for the caregiver programs
• Safety Culture, Just Culture & Psychological Safety
• Drives advancement of a Just Culture across MLH
• Leads system-wide safety culture measurement and improvement initiatives
• Promotes psychological safety and a culture of open reporting and continuous learning
• Ensures alignment between safety culture and leadership behaviors
• Data, Analytics & Reporting
• Oversees integrity, analysis, and reporting of system safety data
• Develops standardized dashboards for care sites, system and board reporting
• Led interpretation and communication of safety performance trends
• Clinical Governance & System Integration
• Serves as a key leader within the System Safety & High Reliability governance structure
• Partners with both clinical and operational leaders to ensure accountability for safety performance across all levels of the organization
• Collaboration with Risk Management & Health Equity
• Partners closely with Risk Management to align event management and claims and risk mitigation strategies
• Integrates health equity, inclusion, and disparity reduction into patient safety programs
• Collaborates with equity leadership to identify and eliminate disparities in safety outcomes
• Education, Training & Talent Development
• Leads development of system-wide patient safety and HRO curriculum
• Ensures integration of safety training into new employee onboarding, ongoing associate education and leadership development programs
• Mentors and develops patient safety leaders across the system
• External Engagement & Thought Leadership
• Represents MLH in regional and national patient safety forums
• Establishes partnerships with external organizations and benchmarking collaboratives
• Bridges innovative practices and emerging trends into MLH’s safety strategy

Qualifications

• Required: Master's Degree Nursing
• Preferred: Master's Degree Business Administration, Master's Degree Healthcare Administration, Master's Degree Public Health, Clinical degree (MD, RN, PharmD, or equivalent)
• Experience: Minimum 5-7 years of progressive leadership experience in patient safety, quality, or clinical operations; Demonstrated experience leading system-level safety or HRO initiatives
• Skills: Deep expertise in patient safety science, human factors, and high reliability principles; Demonstrated ability to lead enterprise-wide change and culture transformation; Strong analytical capability in safety data interpretation and performance improvement; Excellent communication and presentation skills (Board, ELT, and frontline engagement); Strong program management, facilitation, and team leadership capabilities; Knowledge of regulatory and accreditation requirements (DNV, CMS, or equivalents)
• Licenses and Certifications: Required - Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS) Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) or ability to obtain within one (1) year of employment; Preferred - Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality-CPHQ - National Association for Healthcare Quality; Preferred - Six Sigma Black Belt - Authorized Six Sigma Certification Issuer

Supervision Provided

• Directly manages system-level patient safety and HRO team members
• Provides matrix leadership to facility-based safety leaders
• Oversees coordination across multiple departments and care settings