Director, Risk Management & Patient Safety

Location: Downey, CA
Work Arrangement: Onsite
Employment Type: Permanent, Full-Time
Position Type: Backfill
Salary: $175,600 – $258,100 annually
Additional Variable Compensation: None
Relocation: Not eligible

About the Organization

Our organization is a leading integrated healthcare system committed to delivering high-quality, safe, and patient-centered care. With a strong focus on clinical excellence, patient safety, quality improvement, and regulatory compliance, the organization operates within a complex healthcare environment serving diverse patient populations.

The organization promotes a culture of continuous learning, collaboration, accountability, and evidence-based improvement. This role will work closely with clinical leaders, physicians, administration, and other key stakeholders to identify and mitigate clinical risks, strengthen patient safety programs, and ensure compliance with applicable healthcare standards and regulations.

Position Summary

The Director, Risk Management & Patient Safety will provide strategic and operational leadership for clinical risk management, patient safety, infection prevention, and quality improvement initiatives within an acute-care hospital environment.

The successful candidate will be responsible for identifying clinical and operational risks, analyzing trends, leading investigations, developing mitigation strategies, and promoting a culture of safety across the organization.

This role will also oversee critical risk management initiatives involving healthcare cybersecurity, changes in reimbursement structures, medical-science developments, employee and patient safety, and other emerging healthcare risks.

Key Responsibilities

Clinical Risk Management & Patient Safety

• Direct and manage clinical risk management and patient safety programs within an acute-care hospital setting.
  

• Identify, evaluate, and mitigate clinical risks that may impact patient safety, quality of care, and organizational performance.
  

• Lead investigations involving significant events, safety hazards, accidents, incidents, threats, near misses, and other high-risk events.
  

• Establish standards for corrective action plans based on utilization reviews, clinical record audits, claim denials, patient satisfaction surveys, and audit findings.
  

• Identify emerging risk trends and escalate high-risk issues to appropriate leadership for resolution.
  

• Develop and implement strategies that strengthen the organization's culture of patient safety.
  

• Partner with executive leadership and clinical stakeholders to develop programs that improve patient care, patient flow, clinical support, and transitions of care.
  

Root Cause Analysis & FMEA

• Lead and/or oversee detailed Root Cause Analyses (RCA) following significant clinical events and patient safety incidents.
  

• Conduct and facilitate Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and other proactive risk assessments.
  

• Perform detailed clinical chart and medical record reviews to identify contributing factors and opportunities for improvement.
  

• Analyze trends and patterns to identify systemic risks and develop appropriate mitigation strategies.
  

• Establish standards for event investigation, documentation, corrective actions, and follow-up.
  

Infection Prevention & Control

• Oversee infection prevention and control programs designed to protect patients and employees.
  

• Direct epidemiological investigations involving significant infection clusters and communicable disease concerns.
  

• Support outbreak prevention, surveillance, investigation, and containment activities.
  

• Develop and maintain outbreak-management protocols.
  

• Consult with hospital administration regarding infection-control considerations associated with architectural design, renovation, construction, and facility changes.
  

• Partner with clinical and operational stakeholders to maintain effective infection-prevention practices.
  

Regulatory & Accreditation Compliance

• Ensure compliance with applicable California healthcare regulations, accreditation requirements, patient safety standards, and organizational policies.
  

• Serve as a subject matter expert regarding clinical quality, healthcare regulations, risk management, and patient safety.
  

• Monitor regulatory and legislative developments and advise leadership regarding potential operational impacts.
  

• Oversee regulatory audits, surveys, documentation, and continuous survey-readiness activities.
  

• Partner with internal and external stakeholders during regulatory evaluations and onsite assessments.
  

• Develop educational programs and processes to promote awareness of changing regulatory requirements.
  

Healthcare Cybersecurity & Emerging Risks

• Oversee and participate in critical risk-management projects involving healthcare cybersecurity and technology-related risks.
  

• Evaluate emerging risks associated with changes in healthcare technology, reimbursement structures, medical science, and hospital operations.
  

• Partner with technology, clinical, administrative, and executive stakeholders to identify and mitigate emerging risks.
  

• Develop processes for monitoring employee and patient safety risks, including physiological and psychological safety concerns.
  

Quality Improvement & Data Analytics

• Oversee clinical quality-improvement initiatives and related performance metrics.
  

• Analyze healthcare data, databases, patient discharge information, claims, vital statistics, and other relevant sources to identify trends and risks.
  

• Utilize data to monitor the effectiveness of patient safety, infection control, quality, and risk-management programs.
  

• Present findings, trends, and recommendations to senior and executive leadership.
  

• Support population health needs analysis and use relevant findings to inform organizational strategies and healthcare initiatives.
  

• Establish standards and metrics for monitoring quality, safety, utilization, and health outcomes.
  

Leadership & Team Development

• Provide strategic leadership to risk management, patient safety, and related clinical quality functions.
  

• Build collaborative relationships across clinical, administrative, and executive teams.
  

• Develop, coach, and mentor team members while supporting professional growth and advancement.
  

• Oversee recruitment, selection, performance management, training, and development activities.
  

• Establish goals, performance standards, and priorities aligned with organizational objectives.
  

• Foster a highly collaborative, accountable, and safety-focused culture.
  

• Provide guidance on complex decisions and escalated clinical risk issues.
  

Required Qualifications

• Recent clinical risk management experience in an acute-care hospital setting.
  

• 3–5 years of recent clinical risk management experience, with demonstrated responsibility for clinical risk and patient safety programs.
  

• Demonstrated experience conducting detailed clinical chart/medical record reviews.
  

• Proven experience leading Root Cause Analysis (RCA) investigations.
  

• Proven experience with Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA).
  

• Experience overseeing or managing infection prevention and control programs.
  

• Experience providing architectural infection-control consulting related to hospital construction, renovation, or design.
  

• Experience addressing cybersecurity risk within a healthcare environment.
  

• Demonstrated experience managing patient safety initiatives and significant clinical events.
  

• Strong understanding of healthcare regulatory and accreditation requirements.
  

• Strong analytical, leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills.
  

• Experience using healthcare data to identify risk trends and develop mitigation strategies.
  

• Experience with population health needs analysis is required/preferred.
  

• Active Registered Nurse (RN) license preferred/required based on organizational requirements.
  

• CPHRM certification required.
  

Additional Experience

• Minimum 7 years of leadership experience, with or without direct reports.
  

• Minimum 7 years of experience in healthcare, a clinical setting, healthcare administration, or a directly related field.
  

• Experience managing operational or project budgets.
  

• Experience developing and delivering training programs.
  

• Strong experience with databases, spreadsheets, healthcare data analytics, and quality-improvement reporting.
  

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Healthcare Administration, Nursing, Public Health, or a related field, with applicable healthcare experience; equivalent healthcare experience may also be considered.
  

Preferred Background

Candidates coming from large, complex acute-care healthcare systems or hospitals are strongly preferred. Relevant backgrounds may include organizations comparable in scale and complexity to:

• Large academic and research hospitals
  

• Integrated healthcare systems
  

• Major regional medical centers
  

• Large acute-care hospital networks
  

• Comprehensive cancer and specialty healthcare organizations
  

Experience with organizations such as City of Hope, Long Beach Memorial/MemorialCare, Providence/St. Joseph, or Cedars-Sinai would be relevant due to the complexity of their healthcare environments.

Key Skills

Clinical Risk Management | Patient Safety | Acute Care | Root Cause Analysis | FMEA | Clinical Chart Review | Infection Prevention | Infection Control | Architectural Infection Control | Healthcare Cybersecurity | Regulatory Compliance | Accreditation | Quality Improvement | Risk Assessment | Healthcare Data Analytics | Population Health | Patient Safety Programs | Healthcare Leadership

Compensation & Other Details

• Salary: $175,600 – $258,100 annually
  

• Additional Variable Compensation: None
  

• Relocation Assistance: Not available
  

• Position Type: Backfill
  

• Compensation Flexibility: None
  

• Work Arrangement: Onsite
  

• Employment Type: Permanent, Full-Time