Vice President of Clinical Excellence

Vice President of Clinical Excellence

Position Summary

The Vice President of Clinical Excellence provides statewide clinical leadership for the Nebraska Hospital Association’s mission to advance safe, high-quality, accessible, and patient-centered health care across Nebraska.

This executive leader serves as a trusted clinical resource, advisor, and thought partner to Nebraska hospitals, working collaboratively with Chief Nursing Officers, Chief Medical Officers, quality and safety leaders, clinical executives, and other health care stakeholders to identify shared challenges, develop practical solutions, and accelerate measurable improvement.

The Vice President leads NHA’s statewide clinical excellence strategy, with a particular focus on patient safety, quality outcomes, high-reliability practices, clinical innovation, workforce well-being, care transitions, and emerging issues affecting the delivery of care. The position translates clinical evidence, data, member experience, regulatory developments, and national best practices into strategies and resources that can be implemented across Nebraska’s diverse health care organizations.

As a senior clinical leader for the state, the Vice President will also mentor and develop the next generation of Nebraska’s clinical leaders. This includes creating opportunities for emerging CNOs, CMOs, quality leaders, and other clinical professionals to develop leadership skills, expand their statewide perspective, build professional networks, and prepare for increasingly complex health care leadership roles.

The Vice President also serves as a clinical voice for NHA in policy, regulatory, payer, public health, and community discussions. This includes collaborating with Medicaid, Medicare, commercial insurers, government agencies, and other partners to address systemic barriers to safe and timely care—including discharge and care-transition delays associated with workforce shortages, authorization requirements, and gaps across the continuum.

The role embraces the principles of high reliability: evidence, transparency, learning, accountability, teamwork, and a relentless focus on preventing harm.

1. Statewide Clinical Excellence & Quality Strategy

• Lead NHA's statewide clinical excellence strategy and priorities.

• Establish a statewide quality baseline and benchmark Nebraska hospital performance against national averages and recognized standards.

• Identify and lead a focused portfolio of high-impact statewide clinical priorities with clear measures, targets, and timelines.

• Develop a transparent measurement framework that demonstrates the relationship between collaboration, pilot programs, clinical interventions, and patient outcomes.

• Produce periodic statewide clinical excellence and impact reports demonstrating progress and opportunities for improvement.

• Identify emerging clinical risks and opportunities and recommend strategic responses for NHA and its members.

• Promote evidence-based practices that can be adapted across large health systems, community hospitals, critical access hospitals, and rural facilities.

• Serve as a clinical resource to NHA’s advocacy team by helping assess and translate the clinical implications of proposed legislation, regulations, payer policies, and other policy developments.

2. Patient Safety & High Reliability

• Champion a statewide culture of patient safety and high reliability.

• Apply principles from other high-reliability industries to healthcare, emphasizing prevention, standardization, learning systems, and reduction of preventable harm.

• Advance initiatives addressing medical errors, healthcare-associated infections, patient falls, maternal harm, workplace violence, and other preventable adverse events.

• Help members strengthen safety culture, event reporting, learning systems, and reliable clinical processes.

• Develop practical, scalable patient-safety resources that can be implemented without requiring significant additional financial or operational resources.

• Expand access to meaningful safety and quality support for smaller and rural hospitals that may not have the resources to participate in expensive national programs or patient safety organizations.

3. Clinical Leadership, Member Engagement & Mentorship

• Serve as a trusted clinical resource and strategic thought partner for Nebraska hospitals, providing guidance and practical support on issues affecting clinical care, quality, safety, workforce, and health care delivery.

• Build and maintain trusted relationships with member CNOs, CMOs, quality leaders, and other senior leaders.

• Regularly engage critical access hospitals, community hospitals, academic medical centers, and large urban systems to understand their distinct needs.

• Provide a statewide perspective that helps individual hospitals understand emerging trends, shared challenges, and opportunities for collaboration.

• Convene clinical leaders around shared challenges and opportunities that are difficult for individual organizations to solve independently.

• Identify successful practices within Nebraska and create mechanisms to spread them across the state.

• Serve as a mentor and leadership resource for emerging and future clinical leaders, helping develop the next generation of CNOs, CMOs, quality leaders, nursing executives, physicians, and other clinical professionals.

• Support succession and leadership development by helping member organizations cultivate a strong pipeline of future clinical leaders.

• Ensure NHA’s clinical programs are responsive to member needs and produce tangible value for members.

4. Clinical Transformation, Innovation & Emerging Issues

• Serve as NHA’s clinical thought leader on the future of health care delivery in Nebraska.

• Identify emerging trends that will affect clinical care delivery, quality, safety, and workforce needs in Nebraska.

• Help members evaluate and implement innovative models of care.

• Evaluate emerging technologies, including AI, digital health, virtual care, and data analytics, for their potential to improve clinical quality, patient safety, workforce effectiveness, access, and operational performance.

• Help members understand the opportunities, risks, governance considerations, and responsible implementation of emerging clinical technologies through education, peer learning, and shared resources.

• Support members in navigating changes in value-based care, alternative payment models, population health, and care delivery models.

• Engage on key public health and population health issues on behalf of the NHA, representing the organization’s perspectives in statewide discussions and initiatives.

Qualifications and Experience

• Education: Bachelor’s degree or higher in a clinical, healthcare administration, or related field.

• Experience: Minimum of eight (8) years of clinical and management experience required.

• Clinical Background: Strong operational background working as a physician, advanced practice provider, registered nurse, or within another equivalent clinical role.

Core Competencies

• Credible Clinical Leadership: Establishes trust and influence with clinicians, executives, policymakers, and community partners.

• Clinical Advising & Mentorship: Serves as a trusted advisor to hospital clinical leaders and actively develops the next generation of clinical leadership.

• Strategic Thinking: Sees beyond individual programs to identify statewide opportunities for meaningful system change.

• Collaborative Leadership: Brings competing organizations and stakeholders together around shared objectives.

• Data-Driven Decision-Making: Uses evidence, benchmarking, and measurable outcomes to establish priorities and evaluate impact.

• High-Reliability Mindset: Relentlessly focuses on prevention, learning, standardization, transparency, and reduction of preventable harm.

• Member-Centered Orientation: Understands and responds to the needs of hospitals of different sizes, geographies, and resources.

• Systems Thinking: Understands how clinical care, workforce, reimbursement, regulation, public policy, technology, and community resources interact.

• Innovation & Technology Acumen: Understands emerging clinical technologies and can thoughtfully assess the opportunities, limitations, risks, and appropriate applications of A.I. in health care.

• Communication & Influence: Communicates complex clinical issues clearly to clinical, executive, policy, media, and public audiences.

• Execution: Converts strategy into measurable initiatives, partnerships, programs, and outcomes.

• External Partnership Development: Builds productive relationships with payers, government agencies, academic organizations, and public health.

About Us

The NHA serves as the influential voice of its members in the health care legislative and public arenas, promoting delivery of quality health care and influencing public opinion of hospitals and health networks. Members depend on the Association for information, advice, education, and changes in health care policy.

Hospitals are the stewards of good health.

Benefits

The NHA offers an outstanding salary and benefits package that includes health, dental, and vision insurance; life insurance, long-term and short-term disability; vacation, sick/personal leave and paid holidays; health savings account; and a 401(k) Salary Deferral plan with employer match and contributions as well as a profit-sharing plan. In addition, the position receives a fitness center reimbursement, educational assistance for continuing education and membership dues as budgeted in professional organizations or societies.

Salary

Commensurate with experience.

Working Conditions

This is a hybrid position based in Lincoln, NE (not remote); in-state and occasional overnight travel to member hospitals, meetings, and association events is required. Position Classification: FLSA: Exempt