Vice President-Quality Northwestern Memorial Healthcare

Company Description

At Northwestern Medicine, every patient interaction makes a difference in cultivating a positive workplace. This patient-first approach is what sets us apart as a leader in the healthcare industry. As an integral part of our team, you'll have the opportunity to join our quest for better healthcare, no matter where you work within the Northwestern Medicine system. At Northwestern Medicine, we pride ourselves on providing competitive benefits: from tuition reimbursement and loan forgiveness to 401(k) matching and lifecycle benefits, we take care of our employees. Ready to join our quest for better?

Job Description

The Vice President, Quality reflects the mission, vision, and values of NM, adheres to the organization’s Code of Ethics and Corporate Compliance Program, and complies with all relevant policies, procedures, guidelines and all other regulatory and accreditation standards.

Overview

The Vice President, Quality is responsible for the overall planning and direction of the NM system-wide quality program. This includes managing internal efforts and external reporting to demonstrate national leadership in quality, equity and safety, while ensuring excellent Patients First performance for NM patients in a culture of safety, continuous improvement and collaboration. The VP facilitates meaningful clinical engagement and works collaboratively with all NM locations, resources and clinical units to measure, evaluate, improve and demonstrate exceptional quality, safety, equity, and value. This person inspires trust and collaboration through compelling influence, humility, respect for others, kindness, expertise, and passion.

The VP for Quality leads the process of identifying the highly credible and relevant national metrics which will inform and drive the performance aims of the health system, both inpatient and ambulatory.  The VP for Quality engages nationally to participate in learning and debate to inform future metrics through such groups as CMS and its technical expert panels, Battelle and the Measures Application Partnership, Vizient steering committees, AAMC, and others.  As aligned with personal experience and interest, the VP for Quality may choose to serve on national advisory or editorial panels related to the future direction of quality measurement and evaluation.  This role is highly visible and is expected to have a national profile.

The VP for Quality identifies needed improvements in care delivery, support processes and the continuum of care, and facilitates development of new models of care delivery to advance performance across NM. This position provides leadership in the alignment of these efforts across the health system through Collaborative Quality committees, delivering high quality wherever our patients live and work.  

This position is responsible to prepare and present routine and special reports for the Board of Directors and its committees, especially the Quality Committee of the Board.

The VP is responsible for design of a health systems approach to Quality within our complex integrated academic health system, attentive to the fulfillment of the potential of a learning health system and benefiting from close working relationships with leading academic experts at our partner, Northwestern University, in equity, implementation science, community engaged health care, health systems outcomes research, and other relevant work. 

The VP implements best practices for high reliability care, efficient and effective management of quality, and aligns to the local and federal legal framework (IMSA, PSO/PSQIA and case law as communicated).  This position has operational system-wide responsibility for Clinical Quality (hospital and ambulatory), Infection Prevention, External Performance Reporting, Accreditation and Clinical Compliance, Clinical Registries, and Medical Ethics.

Reporting Relationships

The VP of Quality reports to the Senior VP for Quality and is supportive and responsive to the hospital and medical group presidents, Chief Medical Officers and Chief Nurse Executives across the system.

Description

• The Vice President, Quality is responsible in collaboration with clinical operations to deliver a culture of high reliability, patient safety and continuous improvement, excellence in performance on national and local key metrics and measures, and dedication to Patients First, in the context of a close partnership with Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a learning health system.

• In collaboration with the executive leadership, set strategic and operational objectives to improve quality processes and outcomes, equity, safety and value that align with the NM 2035 strategy for exceptional care.  Develop comprehensive strategic and tactical plans to achiev