Director Safety & Security

Ardent Health is a leading provider of healthcare in growing mid-sized urban communities across the U.S. With a focus on people and investments in innovative services and technologies, Ardent is passionate about making healthcare better and easier to access. Through its subsidiaries, Ardent delivers care through a system of 30 acute care hospitals, 24,000 team members and more than 280 sites of care with over 1,800 affiliated providers across six states.

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Director of Safety & Security is the enterprise owner for a unified strategy spanning Occupational & Patient Safety, Physical Security & Workplace Violence Prevention, and Emergency Preparedness/Business Continuity. This role sets the vision, governance, and technology roadmap that reduces risk, safeguards patients, workforce, visitors, and assets, and strengthens organizational resilience across a multi‑hospital, multi‑state health system with a matrixed reporting structure across the enterprise. The Director defines what success looks like, establishes system standards and KPIs, drives measurable performance improvement, and ensures continuous regulatory and accreditation readiness (e.g., OSHA, NFPA, Joint Commission, CMS)

1. Owns the system safety policy framework; standardize safety rounding, event taxonomy, root cause analysis, and corrective action methods.
2. Drives patient and workforce safety improvements with Clinical Quality/Risk and Nursing leadership.
3. Leads enterprise hazard identification and enterprise‑level corrective actions for recurring risks.
4. Maintains continuous readiness for OSHA, NFPA, Joint Commission, and CMS relevant safety requirements by updating corporate policies, toolkits and survey readiness playbooks.
5. Sets enterprise standards for access control, video surveillance, visitor management, duress/alarms, incident response, and data retention.
6. Oversees security vendor strategy (guard force, system integrators), post orders, and service‑level
7. Leads the Workplace Violence Prevention program (policy, de‑escalation training, behavioral threat/risk assessments, post‑incident recovery).
8. Standardizes Hazard Vulnerability Analysis (HVA), ICS/NIMS alignment, and facility Incident Command roles.
9. Establishes a multi‑year exercise program (tabletop, functional, full‑scale) with enterprise AARs and Improvement Plans.
10. Coordinates with external agencies (local/state/federal) and mutual‑aid partners; ensures continuity planning for critical services.
11. Leads mock surveys, track corrective actions, and verify sustainment through internal audits and coaching
12. Owns the security technology roadmap and reliability standards (coverage, uptime %, mean time to repair, monitoring effectiveness).
13. Defines data taxonomy and dashboards for incidents, response times, training compliance, audit results, and technology health.
14. Implements real‑time incident transparency and monthly performance reviews with facility leaders.
15. Builds and reinforces a safety‑first culture with leadership rounding, recognition, and clear behavior expectations.
16. Communicates risk posture, progress, and escalations to executives and boards; act decisively on emerging threats.
17. Develops talent pipelines; ensures depth and succession within the corporate and facility programs.

This job description represents an overview of the responsibilities for the above-referenced job.  It is not intended to represent a comprehensive list of responsibilities.  An employee should perform all duties assigned by the supervisor.

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in safety management, Security Administration, Emergency Management, or related field.
• 7 years of progressive experience in healthcare safety, security, and emergency preparedness.
• Strong knowledge of regulatory standards (OSHA, NFPA, Joint Commission, CMS).
• Proven ability to lead multi-site operations and manage complex projects.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and crisis management skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree.
• Certifications such as Certified Healthcare Safety Professional (CHSP), Certified Healthcare Emergency Professional (CHEP), or CPP (ASIS).

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