Vice President – Risk Management

At Memorial Hermann, we pursue a common goal of delivering high quality, efficient care while creating exceptional experiences for every member of our community. When we say every member of our community, that includes our employees. We know that when our employees feel cared for, heard and valued, they are inspired to create moments that exceed expectations, while prioritizing safety, compassion, personalization and efficiency. If you want to advance your career and contribute to our vision of creating healthier communities, now and for generations to come, we want you to be a part of our team.

Job Summary

Responsible for the collaborative leadership and administration of the enterprise-wide clinical risk management function, including the development and monitoring of risk management strategic objectives, initiatives, key performance metrics, and overall program coordination. This includes managing a team of risk management professionals at the system level, including clinical Risk Management Specialists (registered nurses), Risk Manager-Outpatient and Post Acute Care Services, and administrative support staff, as well as providing direction and support to facility-based clinical risk management personnel to ensure appropriate loss control and risk mitigation activities for all adverse clinical events across the system. Provides strategic clinical risk management advice and tactical direction to the organization to proactively address enterprise clinical risk issues and protect the organization from foreseen and unforeseen risks. Collaborates with legal counsel, loss prevention, regulatory compliance, patient safety, quality, medical staff, nursing, infection prevention, and clinical operations to identify and reduce risks and improve quality of care. Works under the direction of the Chief Legal Officer in support of the Enterprise Risk Management Program.

Job Description

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

Education: Bachelor’s degree required. Master’s degree (MSN, MHA, MBA, MPH) or Juris Doctor (JD) preferred.

Licenses/Certifications: Current State of Texas license to practice professional nursing. Certified Professional Healthcare Risk Management (CPHRM) designation or obtain within two (2) years of placement in role.

Experience / Knowledge / Skills:

• Minimum ten (10) years of progressive experience in a clinical risk management or clinical quality role
• Must have strong program management experience and specific subject matter expertise in healthcare, including risk management and current healthcare regulatory issues
• Requires excellent written/verbal skills and the ability to present complex and/or controversial information to individuals at all levels of the organization in understandable terms, including Executive leadership
• Extensive progressive experience in clinical risk management in a hospital-based environment
• Ability to work collaboratively with health professionals at all levels to achieve established goals
• Demonstrated ability to lead and influence others positively to achieve desired results while building support for change
• Computer proficiency
• Demonstrated interpersonal, organizational, and communication skills

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES:

• Establish and oversee a proactive approach to identifying, assessing, and mitigating clinical risks across all hospitals and ambulatory settings.

• Develop enterprise standards for clinical risk management practices, including establishing enterprise policies, procedures, and tools to aid entities with implementation.

• Provide executive oversight of the organization’s event reporting system and ensure timely investigation of significant adverse events.

• Advise executive leadership regarding significant clinical risks.

• Lead initiatives to reduce high-risk clinical practices and improve patient outcomes.

• Serve as the senior clinical risk advisor during significant patient safety events.
• Responsible for development and monitoring of risk management strategic objectives, initiatives and key performance metrics.

• Oversee processes related to disclosure of adverse events and support communication with patients and families following serious events; resolve concerns within authority when appropriate.
• Provide oversight of and direction for facility-based Risk Managers, including their orientation, collaborative policy and procedure development, implementation of loss prevention initiatives, and professional development.
• Direct supervisor for all ambulatory-based Risk Managers.
• Control costs and ensures controllable expenses align with budget; participates in preparation of operational budget.

• Oversee development of metrics to measure efficacy and efficiency of programs.
• Identify trends in serious safety events, near misses, and adverse events and present trends and recommendations to executive committees and Board Quality Committees.

• Develop executive dashboards tracking key metrics (e.g., serious safety events, malpractice claims, near misses, event reporting, etc.) and share information and tools with leadership regarding clinical risk trends.

• Develop clinical risk education for internal risk managers as well as targeted training and education for physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses.

• Collaborate with the Vice President of Litigation and/or external legal counsel on high-exposure claims and litigation and uses claims analytics to identify opportunities for clinical improvement; partners with legal department colleagues to prepare reports.
• Implement formal learning feedback loops to assure that key learnings from claims are communicated to facility leaders and facility-based risk managers and results in continued improvements in quality and patient safety.
• Proactively monitor claims trend data to provide appropriate loss prevention or mitigation recommendations and develop strategies to reduce risks and improve safety.
• Initiate proactive enterprise clinical risk assessments in collaboration with other functional areas to improve the identification of risks and to use as a basis for prioritization of risk management initiatives.
• Responsible for developing clinical risk management education initiatives as needed and in furtherance of loss prevention initiatives, in collaboration with Quality and Patient Safety functions.
• Utilize risk data analytics and risk mapping tools to proactively assess future risk areas as well as potential impact in order to identify and plan for the appropriate risk management response to such risks.
• Interface with insurance function as needed to ensure timely notification of claims as necessary and with the loss prevention and mitigation function for continued quality improvement and risk mitigation.
• Provide timely updates to Chief Legal Officer on all matters of interest to the Executive Leadership team.
• Works under the direction of the Chief Legal Officer in support of the Enterprise Risk Management Program.
• Staff support for the Enterprise Risk Council.
• Available for duties after regular business hours and weekend as required.
• Ensures safe care to patients, staff and visitors; adheres to all Memorial Hermann policies, procedures, and standards within budgetary specifications including time management, supply management, productivity and quality of service.
• Promotes individual professional growth and development by meeting requirements for mandatory/continuing education and skills competency; supports department-based goals which contribute to the success of the organization; serves as preceptor, mentor and resource to less experienced staff.
• Demonstrate commitment to caring for every member of our community by creating compassionate and personalized experiences. Models Memorial Hermann’s service standards by providing safe, caring, personalized and efficient experiences to patients and colleagues.
• Other duties as assigned.