Program Director, Regional Clinical Excellence

Join a world-class academic healthcare system,
UChicago Medicine
, as the Program Director, Regional Clinical Excellence responsible for strategically driving clinical performance improvement by facilitating the rapid implementation of standardized, system-wide, evidence-based initiatives and best practices across the Chicagoland region. This role is based at the Ingalls campus in Hyde Park, IL with some travel to Northwest Indiana and Hyde Park as needed.

The Program Director, Regional Clinical Excellence is a highly visible, strategic liaison and embedded resource for the defined community sites, primarily focusing on Ingalls Memorial Hospital. This influential Program Director is a key member of the Clinical Performance Excellence team, responsible for fostering high-impact collaboration with site leadership. Ultimately, this role acts as a critical change agent to ensure a sustainable culture of patient safety and is jointly accountable with local leadership for achieving measurable Clinical Excellence and Quality outcomes.

Who you are:

A collaborative and innovative leader with a passion for improving clinical quality and patient safety and:

• Bachelor s degree in healthcare, engineering, or a related Performance Improvement (PI) field and Master s degree or equivalent experience required.
• Minimum of 8 years of experience in healthcare with successively increased responsibility, focusing on clinical quality improvement, patient safety, or performance improvement.
• Experience working in a multi-site health system and clinical experience preferred.
• Demonstrated leadership ability and organizational skills in guiding complex projects and coordinating functional teams.
• Excellent project and program management and organizational skills.
• Knowledge of quality improvement methodologies (e.g., Lean Six Sigma, PDSA), including the application of systems thinking principles.
• Broad understanding of performance improvement skills and techniques, with the ability to translate and teach this to diverse audiences.
• Comfortability working both independently and as part of a team.
• Ability to manage, interpret, analyze, and present complex data, with demonstrated proficiency in data analysis and interpretation.
• Strong understanding of clinical best practices and patient care standards, including application of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) principles and a focus on clinical excellence.
• Effective communication, interpersonal, and relationship-building skills and ability to identify and analyze problems and develop effective, sustainable solutions.
• Experience facilitating organizational change and promotes a culture of continuous improvement across diverse stakeholder groups.
• Proficient technology skills including, Microsoft Office Suite, Business Intelligence (BI) tools such as Tableau and Power BI, and Electronic Health Records (EHR) such as Epic preferred.

What you’ll do as the Program Director, Regional Clinical Excellence:

• Establish and maintain strong, collaborative, and influential relationships with site leadership, clinicians, and staff.
• Partner with site and system leadership to establish and optimize right-sized structures for driving clinical excellence at community sites, in alignment with organizational and local strategy and goals.
• Serve as the primary two-way conduit for system strategy and site needs/feedback, ensuring transparent, bi-directional communication between the sites and the Clinical Performance Excellence leadership.
• Serve as a primary point of contact for the community network and assigned sites regarding clinical excellence initiatives, quality improvement projects, and best practice implementation.
• Ensure alignment of local clinical excellence goals with the health system s annual strategic quality priorities.
• Maintain strong on-site presence to understand specific operational needs and challenges while contributing to the development of system-wide clinical excellence strategies.
• Facilitate the sharing of best practices and lessons learned across the health system and partner with site and system leadership to set long-term and annual clinical excellence goals, and design strategies and tactical roadmaps to achieve those goals.
• Lead the strategic implementation and adoption of system-wide standardized clinical excellence initiatives and quality improvement projects at assigned sites.
• Assist sites in developing and executing local action plans aligned with system goals and local priorities, coordinating with project and program managers and operational excellence partners, or fulfilling that role.
• Provide subject matter expertise in high-reliability organizing (HRO) and robust process improvement (RPI) methods to ensure effective, sustainable changes.
• Monitor project progress, identify and escalate roadblocks, and provide support and problem-solving expertise to overcome challenges.
• Collaborate with service line and department leaders to advance quality, safety, and accreditation standards, and achieve best-in-class…