Associate Director - Patient Safety

Join the nationally recognized team at the MD Anderson Cancer Center as an Associate Director - Patient Safety within our Patient Safety department. This leadership opportunity is ideal for an experienced patient safety professional who is passionate about improving patient outcomes, driving operational excellence, and leading high-performing patient safety teams within a complex healthcare environment. In this role, you will partner closely with clinical and operational leaders to strengthen safety culture and support enterprise-wide patient safety initiatives at one of the world's leading cancer centers.

The Associate Director - Patient Safety serves as the operational leader for the Patient Safety team, overseeing daily workflows, frontline engagement, event review processes, escalation protocols, and patient safety operations. This role is responsible for leading and developing patient safety specialists, ensuring timely identification, investigation, mitigation, and resolution of patient safety concerns, while maintaining compliance with institutional policies and regulatory standards. Responsibilities include overseeing safety event triage and investigations, supporting root cause analyses, optimizing event reporting systems, implementing patient safety initiatives, and driving process improvement efforts focused on enhancing patient care and operational effectiveness.

This position also provides leadership in developing workflows, maintaining operational standards, monitoring quality and performance metrics, conducting audits, supporting regulatory reporting, and collaborating with clinical and operational teams to address system-level safety risks. The Associate Director will foster a culture of accountability, teamwork, continuous improvement, and psychological safety while helping align departmental operations with institutional patient safety goals.

The ideal candidate will have significant experience leading patient safety teams within a hospital or healthcare setting, along with strong operational leadership, critical thinking, communication, and relationship-building skills. Candidates should have experience overseeing patient safety event reviews, process improvement initiatives, regulatory compliance activities, and multidisciplinary collaboration in a fast-paced clinical environment.

MD Anderson offers a collaborative and mission-driven environment focused on Making Cancer History, along with competitive compensation, comprehensive benefits, professional development opportunities, and the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on patient safety and quality outcomes at one of the nation's top healthcare institutions.

**This position is hybrid requiring 3 days onsite per week, with more required based on the business need. The ideal candidate will have an active RN, APRN, or PA license and have prior experience leading a patient safety team**

JOB SPECIFIC COMPETENCIES

Operational Leadership, Patient Safety & AFVU Management

• Directs the development and growth of the Pathology Actionable Findings Vigilance Unit (AFVU) beyond Phase 1, as well as the continued growth of the Radiology AFVU.
• Provides assessment and review of clinical findings utilizing advanced practice provider training, knowledge, and skillset.
• Provides operational oversight of the AFVU and Patient Safety teams, ensuring timely identification, review, escalation, mitigation, and clinical follow-up of patient safety issues and actionable findings.
• Oversees triage and review of safety events, ensuring appropriate categorization, timely investigation, and compliance with escalation protocols.
• Ensures care coordination workflows are effective, including provider communication, diagnostic follow-up, and closed-loop communication processes.
• Evaluates workflow performance and leads redesign efforts to improve turnaround time, prioritization logic, and operational efficiency.
• Coordinates with Diagnostic Imaging, laboratory services, and clinical departments to resolve actionable finding delays and system-level barriers.
• Responsible for implementation of key departmental patient safety initiatives and workstreams, including event review/reporting, incident identification and mitigation, and cause analysis activities such as Root Cause Analysis (RCA). Provides oversight to evaluate and monitor the success of related outcomes.
• Oversees optimization of the event reporting system.
• Maintains documentation templates, standard operating procedures, and escalation criteria for AFVU and Patient Safety operations.
• Advises and assists leadership and stakeholders in developing safety policies, procedures, and programs that address patient safety concerns.
• Serves as the operational point person for safety issues within high-risk clinical areas.
• Works directly with nursing staff, providers, and clinical operations teams to address real-time patient safety concerns.

People & Program Leadership

• Provides leadership and supervision to Clinical Patient Safety Specialists and AFVU Clinical Specialists, including rounding support, case consultation, coaching, and workload distribution.
• Serves as the operational leader ensuring program alignment with institutional patient safety goals.
• Creates and maintains cross-departmental relationships to support program and operational success.
• Develops competency training programs, continuing education plans, and skills assessments for team staff.
• Implements Just Culture principles and fosters a psychologically safe team environment for high-risk communication and reporting.
• Partners with Human Resources and departmental leadership to forecast staffing needs, recruitment strategies, and succession planning initiatives.

Performance, Reporting & Operational Assurance

• Monitors performance indicators and develops improvement plans related to accuracy, timeliness, quality of communication, and documentation completeness.
• Conducts audits of workflow compliance and documentation standards and implements corrective action plans, as needed.
• Supports institutional reporting requirements related to Patient Safety and AFVU operations, including QAPI, ECMS, regulatory reporting triggers, and risk trend analysis.
• Assesses AFVU workflows to ensure efficiency and alignment with established clinical processes.
• Ensures alignment between event documentation and broader patient safety reporting and organizational learning systems.
• Supports SEC/SSER activities, monitors Safety Alerts, and manages QAPI escalations, as needed.
• Identifies "Lessons Learned" opportunities for institutional sharing and process improvement.
• Highlights operational risks and collaborates with clinical leadership to develop targeted improvement plans.
• Ensures RCA corrective action plans are meaningful, appropriately assigned, and monitored through completion.

Education

Required:
• Bachelor's Degree in Public Health, Patient Safety, Nursing, Pharmacy, Medicine, Healthcare Administration, or related field

Work Experience

Required:
• 7 years of experience in nursing, patient safety, clinical operations, or quality leadership to include two years of management experience in a patient safety, clinical operations, or quality role

Licenses and Certifications

Required (upon hire):
• RN - Registered Nurse - State Licensure OR
• APN - Advanced Practice Nurse OR
• PA - Physician Assistant AND
• BLS - Basic Life Support OR
• CPR - Cardiac Pulmonary Resuscitation

Preferred (upon hire):
• CPHQ - Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality
• CPPS - Certified Professional in Patient Safety
• CMQ - Certificate in Medical Quality

OTHER REQUIREMENTS: Must pass pre-employment skills test as required and administered by Human Resources.

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center offers excellent benefits , including medical, dental, paid time off , retirement , tuition benefits, educational opportunities, and individual and team recognition.

This position may be responsible for maintaining the security and integrity of critical infrastructure, as defined in Section 113.001(2) of the Texas Business and Commerce Code and therefore may require routine reviews and screening. The ability to satisfy and maintain all requirements necessary to ensure the continued security and integrity of such infrastructure is a condition of hire and continued employment.

It is the policy of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to provide equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, age, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or any other basis protected by institutional policy or by federal, state, or local laws unless such distinction is required by law.

Additional Information

• Requisition ID: 180714
• Employment Status: Full-Time
• Employee Status: Regular
• Work Week: Days
• Minimum Salary: US Dollar (USD) 129,000
• Midpoint Salary: US Dollar (USD) 161,500
• Maximum Salary : US Dollar (USD) 194,000
• FLSA: exempt and not eligible for overtime pay
• Fund Type: Hard
• Work Location: Hybrid Onsite/Remote
• Pivotal Position: Yes
• Referral Bonus Available?: Yes
• Relocation Assistance Available?: Yes

#LI-Hybrid