Patient Safety Officer

JOB SUMMARY:

The Patient Safety Officer serves as the organization's primary resource for patient safety program development, implementation, and sustainment across all MAHEC clinical departments. This role is responsible for building and maintaining a culture of safety through systematic event reporting, trend analysis, and improvement/cultural initiatives.

Working collaboratively with clinical leadership, risk management, and front-line staff, the Patient Safety Officer facilitates root cause analyses, develops corrective action plans, and ensures lessons learned are disseminated across the organization. This position plays a critical role in establishing MAHEC as an organization committed to the pursuit of zero harm.

The ideal candidate combines healthcare quality improvement expertise with strong analytical skills, systems thinking, and the ability to engage staff at all levels in safety improvement work. This role requires someone who can build trust, foster psychological safety for reporting, and translate complex safety science concepts into practical workflows.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES:

Event Reporting & Analysis

• Reviews and prioritizes patient-safety events each day, ensuring timely triage of all incidents assigned by Risk Management

• Facilitates root cause analyses (RCAs) for serious harm events at the direction of the Medical Review Committee, near-misses with high severity potential, and recurrent event patterns

• Provides consultation to assigned task owners on patient safety event follow-up for lower-severity safety events

• Utilizes the patient safety platform tracking system to monitor completion and effectiveness of corrective actions

Safety Program Development

• Reviews, develops and maintains patient safety policies, procedures, and standard work documents

• Conducts proactive risk assessments using FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) methodology for high-risk processes

• Coordinates recall management for medications, clinical supplies, and equipment in collaboration with Pharmacy, clinical operations, and Risk Management

Data Analysis & Reporting

• Analyzes safety event data to identify trends, patterns, and systemic vulnerabilities

• Prepares safety reports for the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Executive Safety Committee, and Quality & Safety Committee

• Tracks and reports patient safety program performance metrics

Culture & Training

• Promotes a Just Culture approach that balances learning with appropriate accountability

• Develops and delivers patient safety training for staff, including new employee orientation content as needed

• Trains front-line leaders on patient safety event follow-up methodology and human factors principles

• Develops and disseminates communication highlighting patient-safety learnings to promote organizational awareness

• Supports implementation of safety communication tools including huddles & safety briefs

Committee Support

• Serves as primary staff support for a Patient Safety Committee and the Executive Safety Committee

• Reports RCA statuses and action items to Medical Review Committee (MRC); coordinates with MRC to support completion and hold process owners accountable

• Serves as liaison between clinical departments and quality functions on safety matters

• Actively embraces and supports organizational quality initiatives

This role description is a general description of the essential job functions. It is not intended to describe all the duties that may be performed in this role.

KEY COMPETENCIES:

• Systems Thinking

Understanding how processes, people, and technology interact to create safety vulnerabilities or strengths. Ability to identify root causes rather than surface symptoms, recognize unintended consequences of changes, and design system-level solutions that make it easy to do the right thing and hard to do the wrong thing.

• Analytical Capability

Proficiency in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting safety data to identify trends and patterns. Ability to translate complex data into clear, actionable insights for diverse audiences. Uses statistical process control concepts to distinguish signal from noise.

• Collaboration & Influence

Building trust and credibility with clinical staff, leaders, and physicians. Ability to influence without direct authority, facilitate difficult conversations, and bring diverse stakeholders together around shared safety goals. Creates psychological safety that encourages honest reporting and open discussion of errors.

• Healthcare Knowledge

Understanding of clinical workflows, healthcare regulations, and patient safety science. Stays current on evidence-based practices, emerging safety risks, and regulatory requirements. Applies knowledge of human factors engineering, resilience engineering, and high reliability principles to practical safety improvement.

• Integrity & Accountability

Demonstrates high ethical standards in handling sensitive safety information. Maintains confidentiality while promoting transparency and learning. Follows through on commitments and holds self and others accountable for safety performance without blame.

SPECIFIED SKILLS

COMPUTER

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite including Excel (data analysis, pivot tables), PowerPoint (presentations), and Word

• Experience with electronic health record systems preferred

• Experience with incident reporting and risk management software systems

• Proficiency in Microsoft Visio or other flow mapping software

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

• Spanish speaking skills preferred

TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Proficiency in root cause analysis (RCA) and failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) methodologies

• Knowledge of quality improvement methods including PDSA cycles, Lean, and Six Sigma

• Understanding of human factors engineering principles and their application to healthcare

• Familiarity with patient safety culture frameworks

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

• Light energy level. Primarily sedentary work with occasional walking to clinical sites for rounds, training, and patient safety event follow-up. Ability to travel between MAHEC locations as needed.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• No direct reports

• Provides functional guidance to front-line leaders and Practice Administrators conducting patient safety event follow-up

• May coordinate work of student interns or project-specific team members

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in Nursing (BSN), Healthcare Administration, Public Health, Health Sciences, or related field

• Three (3) years of experience in healthcare setting

• Two (2) years of experience in quality improvement, patient safety, risk management, or related function

• Demonstrated experience conducting root cause analyses or similar structured safety reviews

• Experience with data analysis and performance reporting

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Master's degree in Public Health (MPH), Healthcare Administration (MHA), Nursing (MSN), or related field

• Experience in ambulatory, outpatient, primary care, or FQHC/community health center settings

• Clinical licensure (RN, LPN, or other healthcare license)

• Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS), Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ), or Certified Professional in Human Factors in Health Care (CPHFH)

• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or equivalent process improvement certification

• Experience with Team STEPPS, IHI, Just Culture, or High Reliability Organization frameworks

REQUIRED LICENSES

• None required

• Clinical licensure, or patient safety certification (CPPS, CPHQ, CPHFH) strongly preferred

SCHEDULE:

Regular attendance on-site is an essential function of this position. Typical business hours are Monday - Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm (or flexed to best meet the needs of the clients and/or the Division); 40 hours per workweek; weekend, holiday, or evening coverage is occasionally required. Work hours will need to be flexible in order to respond to special work assignments, or evening activities, as requested by the team leader.

• On-call availability may be required for serious safety events requiring immediate response

• Regional travel to MAHEC satellite locations required

POSITION COMPENSATION:

Full-time position, with full benefits available. Salary position, $78,000.

At MAHEC, we strive to equip all team members with Total Rewards (pay + benefits) to honor their service, support their health, manage their financial security, build their career, and thrive.

All MAHEC employees and learners will be required to receive the Flu vaccine or have an approved exemption.

MAHEC Talent Management is located at 121 Hendersonville Road, Asheville, NC 28803. Equal Opportunity Employer.

MAHEC is a qualifying employer for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program. Employees who meet federal requirements may be eligible to have remaining student loan balances forgiven after 10 years of qualifying payments while working full-time at MAHEC.

If you are interested in this role, and you have related experience and qualifications, we encourage you to apply or reach out to AskTalent@mahec.net for support in your job search process. You could be the talent we are seeking for this or other opportunities