Director, EHS

Discover Vanderbilt University Medical Center:  Located in Nashville, Tennessee, and operating at a global crossroads of teaching, discovery, and patient care, VUMC is a community of diverse individuals who come to work each day with the simple aim of changing the world. It is a place where your expertise will be valued, your knowledge expanded, and your abilities challenged. Vanderbilt Health recognizes that diversity is essential for excellence and innovation. We are committed to an inclusive environment where everyone has the chance to thrive and where your diversity of culture, thinking, learning, and leading is sought and celebrated. It is a place where employees know they are part of something that is bigger than themselves, take exceptional pride in their work and never settle for what was good enough yesterday. Vanderbilt’s mission is to advance health and wellness through preeminent programs in patient care, education, and research.

Organization:

OCRS - Sr. Staff

Job Summary:

JOB SUMMARY
The primary focus of this position is to implement, manage and improve the radiation safety and protection program for Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). This program is to ensure personnel safety using radioactive materials and radiation producing equipment as well as compliance with State and Federal regulations and VUMC’s various licenses and certified registrations.

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MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Act as primary contact for any inspections concerning radioactive material usage or radiation safety.  This includes the responsibility for determining and implementing any resulting corrective actions.
• Manage the Radiation Safety Program at VUMC which includes the specific aspects defined below.  Participate in all required management functions, such as annual reviews, budget meetings, and other required activities.  Prepare and deliver all required reports and presentations as manager of the Radiation Safety Program.
• Recruit, develop, retain, and manage support staff of the Radiation Safety Section of OCRS.
• Effectively perform as senior staff member of OCRS management.
• Innovate and manage the following programs:
  • VUMC Radiation Safety Committee and its subcommittees.  Enforce policies mandated by committees for all radioactive materials users.  Review research protocols.
  • Regional Hospital Radiation Safety Committees.  Manage Radiation Safety Committees for three Regional Hospitals.
  • Human Subjects Radiation Committee and the Radioactive Drug Research Committee – Serve as an ex-officio member of these committees.  Review human use protocols.
  • Research Protocol Management, Review and Support - Manage the submission, review, revision, and support of research protocols to use sources of ionizing radiation from ~60 principal researchers through the RSC Protocol Review Subcommittee.  This includes any health physics evaluations or development of new procedures that is needed to support new research proposals.
  • Radiation Safety Audit Program including OCRS, primary departments and ~140 research laboratory spaces authorized for radioactive materials. The Radiation Safety Program must be audited at least annually.
  • Broadscope License and Certified Registration program for radioactive material,  accelerators and X-ray equipment.  Submit amendments and renewals for the radioactive material licenses and certified registrations as necessary.   Currently responsible for two broad scope licenses, six specific medical radioactive licenses, and four certified registrations which includes ten nuclear medicine clinics, three radiation oncology clinics, two nuclear pharmacies, and numerous research laboratories.
  • Radiation Safety Training Program including the development and implementation of an annual radiation safety training program for radioactive material users as well as the development and implementation of online training modules for Radiation Safety Training, Radiation Safety Orientation, DOT training for radioactive material, and Radiation Safety Awareness Training.
  • Sealed Source Program - Manage the sealed source inventory and leak test program.
  • Personnel Monitoring, ALARA and Bioassay Program – develop and implement a comprehensive ALARA program for users of x-ray machines, irradiators, accelerators and radioactive materials.  Report ALARA program results quarterly to Radiation Safety Committee and to affected groups or individuals.  Ensure that calculations for radiation doses to workers resulting from intakes of radioactive material are performed.  Compile an annual summary of the employee radiation doses summing the external and internal radiation doses.  Investigate external radiation doses exceeding action levels and intakes of radioactive