WHY UT SOUTHWESTERN?
With over 75 years of excellence in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, UT Southwestern is committed to excellence, innovation, teamwork, and compassion. As a world-renowned medical and research center, we strive to provide the best possible care, resources, and benefits for our valued employees. Ranked as the number 1 hospital in Dallas-Fort Worth according to U.S. News & World Report, we invest in you with opportunities for career growth and development to align with your future goals. Our highly competitive benefits package offers healthcare, PTO and paid holidays, on-site childcare, wage, merit increases and so much more. We invite you to be a part of the UT Southwestern team where you’ll discover a culture of teamwork, professionalism, and a rewarding career! 

JOB SUMMARY
The Director, Health System Patient Safety provides recommendations for the design, execution, and sustained advancement of patient safety across UT Southwestern Health System. This role reports to the Associate Vice President of Quality & Operational Excellence. It is accountable for translating the Performance Excellence System and High Reliability principles into consistent, measurable, and reliable practice across all sites of care. Serving as the system’s subject-matter expert in patient safety, the Director recommends a coordinated, system-wide approach to identifying risks, reducing harm, and strengthening a culture of safety and learning. This role ensures that strategy is operationalized through aligned systems, standard work, and disciplined execution, advancing UT Southwestern’s mission, academic distinction, and commitment to exceptional patient care. 
 

BENEFITS
UT Southwestern is proud to offer a competitive and comprehensive benefits package to eligible employees. Our benefits are designed to support your overall wellbeing, and include:

• PPO medical plan, available day one at no cost for full-time employee-only coverage
• 100% coverage for preventive healthcare-no copay
• Paid Time Off, available day one
• Retirement Programs through the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS)
• Paid Parental Leave Benefit
• Wellness programs
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Qualified Employer
• Learn more about these and other UTSW employee benefits!

EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION

Required

• Education
  Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing, Public Health, Health Administration, or related field 
   

• Experience
  10 years of progressive experience in quality improvement and patient safety with a Bachelor’s degree, or 7 years of progressive experience with a Master’s degree. 

5 years leading patient safety or quality improvement professionals 
Demonstrated success leading enterprise or system-level initiatives in complex, matrixed healthcare environments 

Preferred

• Education
  Master’s Degree in Nursing, Public Health, Health Administration, or related field.  

JOB DUTIES

• Enterprise Patient Safety Strategy & System Alignment
  • Recommend a comprehensive, system-wide patient safety strategy aligned with the Performance Excellence System, High Reliability principles, and organizational priorities.
  • Establish and standardize enterprise frameworks, policies, and expectations for patient safety across inpatient, ambulatory, and procedural settings.
  • Integrate patient safety into the broader Performance Excellence System, ensuring alignment with quality, patient experience, workforce, and operational priorities.
  • Translate strategic priorities into clear execution pathways, enabling consistency across a complex, matrixed academic health system.
  • Partner with Quality & Operational Excellence leaders, entity leadership, and Patient Safety Officers (PSOs) to ensure alignment and disciplined execution of patient safety priorities, driving consistency, reducing variation, and advancing system-wide performance.
• Execution of the Performance Excellence System for Patient Safety
  • Drive consistent application of the Performance Excellence System across all sites of care in partnership with entity leadership and PSOs.
  • Assess system and entity performance to identify variation, systemic risks, and improvement opportunities.
  • Recommend enterprise and entity-level initiatives that convert learning into standard work, measurable outcomes, and sustained results.
  • Enable the spread and adoption of effective practices and innovations across the health system.
• Patient Safety Operations, Learning & RCAA
  • Oversee the design and execution of comprehensive patient safety programs and initiatives to reduce harm and prevent adverse events.
  • Establish RCAA (Root Cause Analysis and Action) as the standard methodology for event investigation and learning across the health system, ensuring a consistent, systems-based approach to identifying contributing factors and implementing strong, sustainable actions.
  • Ensure RCAA outputs translate into standard work, measurable improvement, and system-level learning, not isolated corrective actions.
  • Ensure effective systems for event reporting, analysis, and proactive risk identification, including near misses and high-risk conditions.
  • Design and continuously improve processes to collect, manage, and report safety data in alignment with regulatory and accreditation requirements.
  • Align patient safety plans with organizational performance improvement priorities and timelines.
• Partnership with Patient Safety Officers (PSOs)
  • Collaborate with PSOs to align enterprise priorities with local execution, including event management, safety huddles, RCAA investigations, and improvement initiatives.
  • Provide standardized tools, analytics, education, and coaching to strengthen execution and build capability.
  • Convene system-wide forums to share learning, identify cross-entity risks, and coordinate improvement efforts.
  • Partner on complex, high-risk, or system-level safety challenges requiring coordinated action.
• Culture of Safety, Learning & Capability Building
  • Recommend an enterprise approach to culture of safety assessment, interpretation, and action planning, translating insights into targeted improvement.
  • Develop and deploy education, coaching, and leadership development that strengthens safety behaviors, teamwork, and psychological safety.
  • Foster a learning health system environment, where frontline insights and RCAA findings are translated into system-level improvement.
  • Reinforce that culture is the outcome of consistent systems, leadership behaviors, and disciplined execution.
• Measurement, Governance & Executive Engagement
  • Define and steward enterprise patient safety metrics, targets, and performance thresholds, aligned with the system Balanced Scorecard.
  • Provide the AVP, executive leadership, governance committees, and boards with integrated insights on safety performance, trends, risks, and improvement progress.
  • Ensure alignment with regulatory, accreditation, and public reporting expectations through standardized systems and proactive risk management.
  • Translate complex data into clear, actionable insights that drive decision-making and accountability at all levels.
• Leadership & Team Development
  • Lead and develop a high-performing patient safety team through clear expectations, coaching, and accountability.
  • Build system-wide capability to ensure teams can execute safety and improvement work reliably, including RCAA proficiency.
  • Foster strong partnerships across clinical, operational, and administrative leadership to advance a coordinated, enterprise approach to safety.

SECURITY AND EEO STATEMENT

Security
This position is security-sensitive and subject to Texas Education Code 51.215, which authorizes UT Southwestern to obtain criminal history record information.

EEO
UT Southwestern Medical Center is committed to an educational and working environment that provides equal opportunity to all members of the University community. As an equal opportunity employer, UT Southwestern prohibits unlawful discrimination, including discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, disability, genetic information, citizenship status, or veteran status.