Lead, Quality, Patient Safety and Transformation - F/T - Days

Who We Are

UCI Health is the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine, and the only academic health system based in Orange County. UCI Health is comprised of its main campus, UCI Medical Center, a 459-bed, acute care hospital in in Orange, Calif., four hospitals and affiliated physicians of the UCI Health Community Network in Orange and Los Angeles counties and ambulatory care centers across the region. Listed among America's Best Hospitals by U.S. News & World Report for 23 consecutive years, UCI Medical Center provides tertiary and quaternary care and is home to Orange County's only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, high-risk perinatal/neonatal program and American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center, gold level 1 geriatric emergency department and regional burn center. UCI Health serves a region of nearly 4 million people in Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County.

To learn more about UCI Health, visit www.ucihealth.org.

Your Role on the Team

Position Summary:

The Patient Safety and Quality Lead is responsible for serving as a key regional operational resource supporting UCI Health sites in advancing a high-reliability approach to quality, patient safety, and performance improvement across all assigned facilities and service areas. The incumbent is accountable for the implementation and sustainment of quality improvement programs aligned with organizational priorities, regulatory requirements, and national best practices, ensuring compliance with all applicable accreditation and reporting standards. This role serves as a critical link between strategy and execution, advancing systemwide quality and patient safety priorities through rigorous performance management, data-driven analysis, stakeholder alignment, and continuous improvement methodologies across all assigned inpatient and ambulatory settings. The Patient Safety and Quality Lead partners closely with hospital leadership, physicians, nursing, clinical operations, and system teams to support the identification and resolution of patient safety risks, promote a culture of safety and continuous learning, and drive measurable improvement in patient outcomes and organizational performance. The incumbent contributes to the development and execution of quality improvement initiatives, participates in safety event review and analysis, and supports the implementation of systemwide transformation priorities at the regional and facility level. This position works under the direction of quality and patient safety leadership and exercises independent judgment in managing site-level quality, safety, and performance improvement activities within the assigned regional area.

What It Takes to be Successful

Required Qualifications:

• Ability to maintain a work pace appropriate to the workload
• Must demonstrate customer service skills appropriate to the job
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English
• 5+ years of experience in healthcare quality and patient safety with demonstrated ability in design, implementation and sustainment of performance improvement activities in a health care setting including skillful application of continuous quality improvement and patient safety sciences
• 5+ years of progressive experience in quality improvement, performance improvement, operational excellence or patient safety in an academic medical center or large, integrated, tertiary health care setting providing expert level understanding of the art and the science of quality improvement and patient safety
• Exceptional level of professionalism, discretion and the ability to work on highly sensitive and confidential projects
• Knowledge of current trends and best practices in healthcare quality improvement and patient safety
• Successful track record of effective, team-oriented working relationships with physicians, nurses and other health professionals
• Able to prioritize and manage multiple projects simultaneously with demonstrated ability to complete projects successfully on time and within budget
• Bachelor's degree
• Must possess the skill, knowledge and ability essential to the successful performance of assigned duties

Preferred Qualifications:

Preferred Master's degree in Nursing, Public Health, Pharmacy, Business, Administration or related field

Current Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality, CPHQ

Experience in Lean-Sigma as an improvement methodology

Experience in HRO principles, Just Culture and safety science

Total Rewards

We offer a wealth of benefits to make working at UCI even more rewarding. These benefits may include medical insurance, sick and vacation time, retirement savings plans, and access to a number of discounts and perks. Please utilize the links listed here to learn more about our compensation practices and benefits.