Associate Vice President Safety & Experience

Major Responsibilities  

Strategic Leadership & High Reliability 

• Lead the deployment and sustainment of high reliability principles (HRO) across hospitals and care settings within the area, fostering a culture of safety, transparency, and continuous learning. 
• Serve as a visible executive champion for patient safety culture, psychological safety, and just culture, partnering with area executives, medical staff leaders, and frontline teams. Translate enterprise patient safety and experience strategies into actionable, area‑level priorities with clear goals, metrics, and accountability.  

Patient Safety & Outcomes Improvement 

• Provide executive oversight for patient safety programs, including harm reduction initiatives, serious safety event prevention, learning systems, and organization‑wide improvement efforts. 
• Partner with area and enterprise quality and performance improvement teams to identify trends, prioritize initiatives, and drive sustained improvement in clinical outcomes and reliability. Utilize data, safety event insights, and patient feedback to guide decision‑making and improvement strategies across the area. 

Patient Experience & Engagement 

• Lead comprehensive patient experience strategies that ensure compassionate, equitable, and patient‑ and family‑centered care across the continuum. 
• Oversee and align volunteer services to support patient experience, community engagement, and organizational mission. 
• Provide executive sponsorship and strategic direction for Patient & Family Advisory Councils (PFACs), ensuring meaningful partnership with patients and families in care design, improvement, and governance.  

Executive & Clinical Partnership 

• Collaborate closely with Area Presidents, CMOs, CNOs, and other executive leaders to integrate patient safety and experience priorities into operational and clinical strategies. Influence through partnership while building alignment across disciplines and levels of leadership. Lead change management efforts to embed safety and experience improvements into standard work and daily operations. 
• Serve as a key liaison between area operations and enterprise quality, safety, and experience leadership. 

Governance, Accountability & Communication 

• Establish clear performance expectations and dashboards for safety culture, patient experience, and outcomes, with routine review and executive‑level accountability. Effectively communicate progress, risks, and opportunities across the quality management system.  
• Designs and directs the work of the assigned area(s) of responsibility. Selects, coaches, and develops teams, setting objectives that align with organizational strategy to inspire and motivate the teams. Manages organizational talent through performance management, succession planning, and development. Designs and directs processes by which team and individual performance are recognized, feedback is consistently delivered, and performance is systematically improved. 
• Develops and/or recommends operating and capital budgets and controls expenditures within approved budget objectives. 
• Responsible for understanding and adhering to the organization's Code of Ethical Conduct and for ensuring that people actions, and the actions of employees supervised, comply with the policies, regulations, and laws applicable to the organization's business. 

Minimum Job Requirements 

Education

• Master’s degree required in healthcare administration, nursing, public health, business, or a related field.

Certification / Registration / License 

• N/A

Experience

• Minimum of 10 years of progressive leadership experience in healthcare, with significant responsibility in patient safety, quality, patient experience, or operational leadership within a complex health system.  
• Demonstrated success leading high reliability, safety culture, and/or large‑scale improvement initiatives across multiple sites or levels of care.  

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities 

• Deep understanding of patient safety science, high reliability principles, and performance improvement methodologies.  
• Strong executive presence with the ability to influence, align, and lead through complexity.  
• Exceptional communication skills, including experience engaging physicians, nurses, executives, patients, families, and community stakeholders.  
• Proven ability to use data and insights to drive strategy, improvement, and accountability.  
• Demonstrated commitment to patient‑ and family‑centered care and health equity. 
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret complex data and develop data-driven insights and recommendations. 
• Strategic thinking and results oriented skills while working across all levels of leadership.  
• A strong understanding of federal and state regulatory requirements and accreditation standards in the healthcare industry

Physical Requirements and Working Conditions 

• This position requires travel, therefore, will be exposed to weather and road conditions.  
• Operates all equipment necessary to perform the job. 

Preferred Job Requirements 

Preferred Education  

• Masters Degree in clinical background strongly preferred.

Preferred Certification / Registration / License 

• Clinical licensure strongly preferred.

This job description indicates the general nature and level of work expected of the incumbent. It is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities required of the incumbent. Incumbent may be required to perform other related duties.