Lead Quality and Patient Safety Specialist

The Lead Quality and Patient Safety Specialist serves as the department’s advanced technical resource, providing expert consultation, facilitation, and quality improvement leadership to advance organizational quality, patient safety, physician peer review, and organizational learning. Reporting to the Manager of Quality and Patient Safety, the Lead Specialist independently leads complex quality and patient safety initiatives while serving as a trusted advisor to physicians, nursing leaders, operational leaders, and interdisciplinary teams. The Lead Specialist applies advanced expertise in patient safety science, quality improvement methodologies, event analysis, systems thinking, and performance improvement to facilitate meaningful organizational change. Through strong facilitation skills, executive presence, and effective communication, the Lead Specialist partners with leaders at all levels of the organization to translate quality and patient safety priorities into practical, sustainable improvements that strengthen clinical outcomes and organizational performance. Serving as the department’s technical leader, the Lead Specialist builds technical capability through collaboration, consultation, coaching, and demonstrated excellence in practice. The Lead Specialist facilitates complex event analyses, guides multidisciplinary improvement efforts, presents recommendations to clinical and executive leadership, and serves as a trusted resource for quality improvement methodologies, patient safety science, physician peer review, and organizational learning. While exercising independent professional judgment within established departmental methodologies, the Lead Specialist recognizes situations requiring collaboration or escalation and partners effectively with department leadership to ensure consistent, high-quality outcomes.

Education:

Bachelor’s degree in nursing, Healthcare Administration, Public Health, Health Sciences, or a related healthcare field required, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant healthcare experience.
Master’s degree preferred.

Experience:

• 3- 5 years of progressive experience in healthcare quality, patient safety, performance improvement, accreditation, regulatory compliance, physician peer review, or related healthcare quality functions.
• Demonstrated experience independently leading complex quality improvement initiatives, patient safety event analyses, and multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience facilitating Root Cause Analyses (RCA), Apparent Cause Analyses (ACA), Failure Mode and Effects Analyses (FMEA), or other structured improvement methodologies.
• Demonstrated ability to provide consultation and coaching to clinical and operational leaders regarding quality improvement, patient safety, and performance improvement strategies.
• Experience presenting findings, recommendations, and improvement strategies to multidisciplinary audiences, physician leaders, and executive leadership.

Preferred

• Experience serving as a technical resource or mentor to other quality professionals.
• Experience supporting physician peer review and professional practice evaluation processes.
• Experience utilizing healthcare quality data, benchmarking, and performance measurement to guide improvement efforts.
• Experience within an acute care hospital or integrated health system.

Licensures and Certifications:

• RN or other licensed healthcare professional preferred

• Professional certification in healthcare quality, patient safety, healthcare risk management, Lean Six Sigma, or another relevant discipline (e.g. CPHQ, CPPS, CPHRM) required

• OR Certification must be obtained within two years of hire if not held at the time of appointment.

Skills:

• Knowledge of healthcare quality, patient safety, regulatory, and accreditation standards (e.g., CMS, The Joint Commission, Maryland quality programs).
• Experience applying quality improvement and patient safety methodologies, including Lean, PDSA, Root Cause Analysis (RCA), and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA).
• Proficiency using Epic, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word to analyze data, prepare reports, and communicate findings.
• Experience interpreting clinical quality and patient safety data from sources such as Epic, Premier, or other healthcare analytics platforms.
• Ability to facilitate multidisciplinary meetings, provide consultation on quality and patient safety initiatives, and educate clinical teams.