Program Director, Regional Clinical Excellence

Job Description Join a world-class academic healthcare system, UChicago Medicine, as the Program Director, Regional Clinical Excellence responsible for strategically driving clinical performance improvement by facilitating the rapid implementation of standardized, system-wide, evidence-based initiatives and best practices across the Chicagoland region. This role is based at the Ingalls campus in Hyde Park, IL with some travel to Northwest Indiana and Hyde Park as needed.

The Program Director, Regional Clinical Excellence is a highly visible, strategic liaison and embedded resource for the defined community sites, primarily focusing on Ingalls Memorial Hospital. This influential Program Director is a key member of the Clinical Performance Excellence team, responsible for fostering high-impact collaboration with site leadership. Ultimately, this role acts as a critical change agent to ensure a sustainable culture of patient safety and is jointly accountable with local leadership for achieving measurable Clinical Excellence and Quality outcomes.

Who you are:

A collaborative and innovative leader with a passion for improving clinical quality and patient safety and:

Bachelor's degree in healthcare, engineering, or a related Performance Improvement (PI) field and Master's degree or equivalent experience required. Minimum of 8 years of experience in healthcare with successively increased responsibility, focusing on clinical quality improvement, patient safety, or performance improvement.

Experience working in a multi-site health system and clinical experience preferred.:

• Demonstrated leadership ability and organizational skills in guiding complex projects and coordinating functional teams.

Excellent project and program management and organizational skills. Knowledge of quality improvement methodologies (e.g., Lean Six Sigma, PDSA), including the application of systems thinking principles. Broad understanding of performance improvement skills and techniques, with the ability to translate and teach this to diverse audiences.

Comfortability working both independently and as part of a team. Ability to manage, interpret, analyze, and present complex data, with demonstrated proficiency in data analysis and interpretation. Strong understanding of clinical best practices and patient care standards, including application of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) principles and a focus on clinical excellence.

Effective communication, interpersonal, and relationship-building skills and ability to identify and analyze problems and develop effective, sustainable solutions.

Experience facilitating organizational change and promotes a culture of continuous improvement across diverse stakeholder groups.:

Proficient technology skills including, Microsoft Office Suite, Business Intelligence (BI) tools such as Tableau and Power BI, and Electronic Health Records (EHR) such as Epic preferred.

What you’ll do as the Program Director, Regional Clinical Excellence:

• Establish and maintain strong, collaborative, and influential relationships with site leadership, clinicians, and staff.

Partner with site and system leadership to establish and optimize right-sized structures for driving clinical excellence at community sites, in alignment with organizational and local strategy and goals. Serve as the primary two-way conduit for system strategy and site needs/feedback, ensuring transparent, bi-directional communication between the sites and the Clinical Performance Excellence leadership.

Serve as a primary point of contact for the community network and assigned sites regarding clinical excellence initiatives, quality improvement projects, and best practice implementation.

• Ensure alignment of local clinical excellence goals with the health system's annual strategic quality priorities.
• Maintain strong on-site presence to understand specific operational needs and challenges while contributing to the development of system-wide clinical excellence strategies.
• Facilitate the sharing of best practices and lessons learned across the health system and partner with site and system leadership to set long-term and annual clinical excellence goals, and design strategies and tactical roadmaps to achieve those goals.
• Lead the strategic implementation and adoption of system-wide standardized clinical excellence initiatives and quality improvement projects at assigned sites.
• Assist sites in developing and executing local action plans aligned with system goals and local priorities, coordinating with project and program managers and operational excellence partners, or fulfilling that role.
• Provide subject matter expertise in high-reliability organizing (HRO) and robust process improvement (RPI) methods to ensure effective, sustainable changes.
• Monitor project progress, identify and escalate roadblocks, and provide support and problem-solving expertise to overcome challenges.
• Collaborate with service line and department leaders to advance quality, safety, and accreditation standards, and achieve best-in-class performance.
• Collaborate with system leadership, external assessment, and site teams to analyze clinical performance data, and identify and prioritize areas for improvement.

Translate complex clinical data and performance metrics into actionable insights and strategic priorities for site leadership and governance. Partner with analytics and clinical teams to monitor trends, develop dashboards, and transparently report quality outcomes to senior leadership, medical staff, and governing bodies.

Co-develop and drive a roadmap to achieve and sustain top-decile clinical performance aligned with internal goals and in prioritized external programs (e.g., CMS Star Ratings, Leapfrog Safety Grade, etc.).

• Provide guidance on data collection, analysis, and reporting to drive measurable improvement and support the use of quality improvement methodologies (e.g., PDSA, Lean, Six Sigma).
• Collaborate closely with the Director of Regulatory Compliance during accreditation and on ongoing regulatory readiness activities, and site leadership to ensure compliance with relevant requirements and standards.
• Collaborate with Risk Management & Patient Safety, Infection Prevention, and Quality Performance Improvement leaders and teams to proactively embed High Reliability and safety culture principles, minimizing organizational risk.

Customize, adapt, and lead education and training to site staff on clinical excellence concepts, quality improvement methodologies, and best practices to build capability across leaders and staff at community sites.

• Maintain deep expertise and disseminate knowledge in Quality Improvement, Change Management, Implementation Science, and relevant clinical guidelines/regulations.

E4 Leadership (Equity, Engage, Evolve, Excel) is a patient centered management system that empowers teams to improve on a daily basis. This is done through daily readiness huddles, real time process monitoring, performance review huddles and structured problem solving. E4 Leadership is an evolving system where leaders work together to cultivate a culture of equity and continuous improvement that enables:

Each person to realize their full potential for contribution The organization to achieve high performance outcomes System-wide integration, coordination, and seamless execution Clear focus on exceptional, equitable patient care and experiences. As part of the leadership team, this position will be instrumental in reinforcing and sustaining UCM’s E4 Leadership Culture.

Why Join Us We’ve been at the forefront of medicine since 1899. We provide superior healthcare with compassion, always mindful that each patient is a person, an individual. To accomplish this, we need employees with passion, talent and commitment… with patients and with each other. We’re in this together: working to advance medical innovation, serve the health needs of the community, and move our collective knowledge forward. If you’d like to add enriching human life to your profile, UChicago Medicine is for you. Here at the forefront, we’re doing work that really matters. Join us. Bring your passion.

UChicago Medicine is growing; discover how you can be a part of this pursuit of excellence at: UChicago Medicine Career Opportunities UChicago Medicine is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, civil union status, parental status, religion, national origin, age, disability, veteran status and other legally protected characteristics.

As a condition of employment, all employees are required to complete a pre-employment physical, background check, drug screening, and comply with the flu vaccination requirements prior to hire. Medical and religious exemptions will be considered for flu vaccination consistent with applicable law.

Compensation & Benefits Overview:

UChicago Medicine is committed to transparency in compensation and benefits. The pay range provided reflects the anticipated wage or salary reasonably expected to be offered for the position. The pay range is based on a full-time equivalent (1.0 FTE) and is reflective of current market data, reviewed on an annual basis. Compensation offered at the time of hire will vary based on candidate qualifications and experience and organizational considerations, such as internal equity. Pay ranges for employees subject to Collective Bargaining Agreements are negotiated by the medical center and their respective union.

• Review the full complement of benefit options for eligible roles at Benefits - UChicago Medicine.