Director of Quality and Patient Safety

Who We Are

UCI Health is one of California’s largest academic health systems and the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine. Established on July 1, 1976, UCI Health has grown into a 1,461-bed health system that includes UCI Health — Orange, UCI Health — Irvine, four Community Network hospitals and a growing network of ambulatory care centers across Orange and Los Angeles counties.

As Orange County’s only academic health systems, UCI Health is home to the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center based in the county, the region’s only American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center, American College of Emergency Physicians Gold Level 1 Geriatric Emergency Department and a nationally recognized regional burn center verified by the American Burn Association. Powered by UC Irvine, UCI Health serves 5.6 million people across Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County through excellence in patient care, research and medical education.

Your Role on the Team

Position Summary:

Incumbent provides leadership for patient safety and quality at UCI Health-Lakewood and UCI Health-Los Alamitos campuses. This leader serves as a key regional operator supporting UCI Health sites in advancing a high-reliability approach to quality, safety, and performance improvement. This role partners with hospital leadership, physicians, and system teams to implement and sustain quality improvement (QI) programs aligned with organizational priorities, regulatory requirements, and national best practices. This position serves as a critical link between strategy and execution, advancing systemwide priorities through rigorous performance management, stakeholder alignment, and continuous improvement. Plays a key role in maintaining system standards to minimize patient harm through the implementation of systems that: create a culture of safety; proactively identify risk; encourage adverse event reporting and thoughtful, learning-oriented analysis of safety events and near misses.

What It Takes to be Successful

Required Qualifications:

• Successful track record of effective, team-oriented working relationships with physicians, nurses and other health professionals
• Outstanding negotiation, written, and verbal communication skills
• Outstanding listening, interpersonal relationship building, and problem-solving skills
• Knowledge of current trends and best practices in healthcare quality improvement and patient safety
• Exceptional level of professionalism, discretion and the ability to work on highly sensitive and confidential projects
• Bachelor's Degree in related field
• Able to prioritize and manage multiple projects simultaneously with demonstrated ability to complete projects successfully on time and within budget
• 7+ 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 administrative leadership 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

Preferred Qualifications:

• Record of presentations at regional and/or national meetings focused on quality and patient safety
• MSN or Masters in related field
• Experience in Lean Six Sigma as an improvement methodology
• Current Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality, CPHQ or within 6 months of hire

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.

Conditions of Employment:

The University of California, Irvine (UCI) seeks to provide a safe and healthy environment for the entire UCI community. As part of this commitment, all applicants who accept an offer of employment must comply with the following conditions of employment:

• Background Check and Live Scan
• Employment Misconduct*
• Legal Right to Work in the United States
• Vaccination Policies
• Smoking and Tobacco Policy
• Drug Free Environment

Exercise the utmost discretion in managing sensitive information learned in the course of performing their duties. Sensitive information includes but is not limited to employee and student records, health and patient records, financial data, strategic plans, proprietary information, and any other sensitive or non-public information learned during the course and scope of employment. Understands that sensitive information should be shared on a limited basis and actively takes steps to limit access to sensitive information to individuals who have legitimate business need to know. Ensure that sensitive information is properly safeguarded. Follow all organizational policies and laws on data protection and privacy. This includes secure handling of physical and digital records and proper usage of IT systems to prevent data leaks. The unauthorized or improper disclosure of confidential work-related information obtained from any source on any work-related matter is a violation of these expectations.

*Misconduct Disclosure Requirement: As a condition of employment, the final candidate who accepts a conditional offer of employment will be required to disclose if they have been subject to any final administrative or judicial decisions within the last seven years determining that they committed any misconduct; received notice of any allegations or are currently the subject of any administrative or disciplinary proceedings involving misconduct; have left a position after receiving notice of allegations or while under investigation in an administrative or disciplinary proceeding involving misconduct; or have filed an appeal of a finding of misconduct with a previous employer.

The following additional conditions may apply, some of which are dependent upon business unit or job specific requirements.

• California Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act
• E-Verify
• Pre-Placement Health Evaluation

Details of each policy may be reviewed by visiting the following page: https://hr.uci.edu/new-hire/conditions-of-employment.php

Closing Statement:

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected categories covered by the UC Anti-Discrimination Policy.

We are committed to attracting and retaining a diverse workforce along with honoring unique experiences, perspectives, and identities. Together, our community strives to create and maintain working and learning environments that are inclusive, equitable, and welcoming.

UCI provides reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities upon request. For more information, please contact UCI's Employee Experience Center (EEC) at [email protected] or at (949) 824-0500, Monday - Friday from 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Consideration for Work Authorization Sponsorship

Must be able to provide proof of work authorization