Patient Safety Program Manager

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 Patient Safety Program Manager 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.

The Patient Safety Program Manager is responsible for planning and coordinating the overall operations of the Patient Safety program in coordination with and at the direction of the Director of Risk and Patient Safety, NMHC. This position coordinates and leads patient safety endeavors and is primarily responsible for proactive patient safety surveillance, leading patient safety initiatives, overseeing adverse event follow-up improvements, and complying with patient safety related standards monitored by The Joint Commission (TJC) and other relevant agencies. This position will advance the use of patient safety strategies to achieve key organizational goals in quality and patient safety. The Program Manager partners with administrative, physician, nursing, and ancillary leadership to advance the patient safety agenda through the development and implementation of patient safety plans and strategies that facilitate the achievement of strategic organizational goals.

Responsibilities:

• Develop strong working relationships and demonstrate a positive attitude in all workforce interactions
• Model, teach and improve patient safety, high reliability, a culture of safety and shared improvement in all venues. 
  • Assist Director to coach and develop staff to optimal professional effectiveness and engagement. 
  • Mentor, train, and orient staff involved in patient safety as directed. 
  • Coordinate components of graduate and medical school patient safety education programs, as relevant. 
• Collaborate with senior leadership and other departments in development of strategic and operational programs in support of the NMHC strategic plan.
• Lead, support and facilitate the use of tools and implementation of systems/processes that identify patient safety risks, promote a culture of safety, reduce patient harm, and improve high-reliability healthcare.
  • Lead, coordinate and facilitate proactive risk assessment (e.g. Failure Mode & Effects Analysis)
  • Facilitate and participate in causal analysis.  Develop RCA and ACA action plans in collaboration with risk management, clinical and operational leadership.  Specify actions, measures and interventions that address root and apparent causes.   Monitor and support timely and effective implementation.
  • Coordinate the activities of relevant patient safety committees, including coordinating meeting agendas and follow-up activities, overseeing and maintaining applicable dashboard(s), developing and tracking annual institutional patient safety goals, and disseminating to relevant stakeholders.
  • Consistently meet target timelines on projects and achieve measurable results
  • Conduct detailed, sophisticated, accurate and creative analyses of data at NMHC and outside NMHC (e.g. benchmarks, comparative data) to identify safety risks, best practices, and mitigation strategies.
  • Share patient safety lessons learned and safety alerts across NMHC and coordinate collaborative NMHC patient safety efforts. Coordinate communication with bedside staff and other relevant stakeholders regarding improvements related to adverse events
• Maintain collaborative relationships with other departments including, but not limited to, Accreditation and Compliance, Risk Management, Clinical Quality, Process Improvement, and Nursing.
• Continuously evaluate and improve the patient safety program based on internal needs and external requirements and standards. 
  • Collaborate with Accreditation and Compliance to coordinate organizational responses to regulatory standards related to patient safety, including but not limited to TJC’s National Patient Safety Goals & Sentinel Alerts.
  • Coordinate never/sentinel event communication and follow-up with appropriate external agencies.
  • Participate in the development, review, and revision of hospital policies and procedures that affect patient safety.