Vice President, Patient Care

Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN); Kitchener; On-site; CAD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN) seeks a visionary Vice President, Patient Care to oversee high-quality, patient-centered care across WRHN. The role operationalizes patient care strategy, guiding clinical environments and care delivery improvements to enhance connected services.

Reporting to the Executive Vice President, Chief Nursing Executive and COO, this position leads strategic initiatives that align with WRHN’s vision of exceptional patient care and outcomes.

Qualifications

• Minimum 7 years of progressively responsible healthcare leadership experience.
• Experience navigating multi-site operations in dynamic healthcare settings.
• Deep knowledge of nursing, practice issues, and trends in the profession.
• Proven ability to lead change and deliver high-quality patient-centered services.
• Strong communication and influencing skills to drive organizational vision.
• Ability to build consensus across multi-disciplinary teams and stakeholders.
• Commitment to collaborative leadership and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

• Advance and operationalize WRHN's patient care vision and strategy across professional clinical environments.
• Lead health human resources planning and partnerships with academic institutions to develop a clinical pipeline.
• Architect patient care structures, teams, processes and programs for effective care delivery models.
• Oversee program planning, innovation, and system redesign with focus on on-time delivery and quality.
• Develop short- and long-term strategies to improve access to high-quality patient programs.
• Design care programs around six domains: Equitable, Effective, Patient-Centered, Efficient, Timely, Safe.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic planning

Change management

Communication

Collaboration

Education

Undergraduate degree in a registered health profession

Postgraduate degree in Health Care Administration or Business Administration

Job description

Home to seven regional programs and comprehensive healthcare services, Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN, pronounced wren) is committed to meeting the current and emerging needs in Waterloo-Wellington and beyond. WRHN is redefining the healthcare experience through collaboration and innovation, addressing barriers to access, advancing care delivery, and setting new standards in compassionate, empowered community-driven health care.

At WRHN, every patient is at the centre of everything we do as we strive to improve lives, inspire healing, and build healthier, stronger communities. By listening to patients and partners, we strive to connect communities to the right care, at the right place, and at the right time.

THE OPPORTUNITY

The Vice President, Patient Care is a strategic, visionary leader responsible for overseeing the delivery of high-quality, patient-centered care across the organization. This newly-created role is accountable for operationalizing our Patient Care strategy within a portfolio of professional clinical environments, which includes providing leadership and oversight in support of the ongoing advancement and implementation of patient care strategies, programs, and services to enhance connected services and support the overall strategic direction of WRHN. The Vice President, Patient Care champions innovation, quality, and service excellence, fostering a culture that puts patients at the center of all we do.

Reporting directly to the Executive Vice President, Chief Nursing Executive and Chief Operating Officer, this role will lead the strategic and operational initiatives in clinical service delivery that align with WRHN’s vision of exceptional patient care.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Advances, leads, and operationalizes the vision and strategy by developing the organization's long-term capabilities to lead an inter-professional and patient care service culture.
• Builds organizational capacity by being actively involved in health human resource planning and working with academic institutions to create a pipeline of skilled clinical professionals.
• Architects patient care structures, teams, processes, and programs, creating robust strategies that will effectively assist the organization in implementing, sustaining, supporting, and evaluating a care delivery model that enables a full scope of practice within an inter-professional, patient-centred environment.
• Leads strategy implementation for program planning, innovation, and system redesign, maintaining oversight to ensure on-time delivery, quality, and commitment to professional practice goals.
• Develops and implements a broad scale of short-term and long-term strategies to proactively transform service delivery models that align access to high-quality patient programs, with the aptitude to think forward and monitor market conditions, re-evaluate business practices, and realign strategic approaches when required.
• Engineers patient care programs intentionally around our six domains (Equitable, Effective, Patient-Centered, Efficient, Timely, Safe), with a critical lens on creativity and innovation, to continually foster a best-in-class care model.
• Proactively designs, reviews, and implements strategic and operational solutions to opportunities identified through patient feedback.
• Engages and collaborates with internal and external stakeholders, including executive leadership, clinical teams, and community partners to drive alignment, performance, and excellence in patient care.
• Champions a culture of continuous improvement, accountability, and professional development for all staff.

IDEAL REQUIREMENTS

• An experienced healthcare executive with a minimum of 7 years of experience in progressive leadership roles within the healthcare sector, capable of navigating complex, multi-site operations within a dynamic healthcare environment.
• Undergraduate degree in a registered health profession combined with a postgraduate degree in a health profession, Health Care Administration or Business Administration.
• Must have extensive theoretical and practical knowledge of nursing, practice issues, and trends in the profession.
• Demonstrates strong clinical and administrative leadership abilities with extensive experience leading successful change in patient-centered care delivery, delivering demonstrably high-quality services, and delivering against challenging performance targets through leadership of others to meet organizational goals.
• Proven experience in leading in a multi-disciplinary environment with various constituents to build consensus, create programs, and support change to achieve corporate, program, and community goals.
• Thorough knowledge of the administration and management of clinical programs and services, with emphasis on quality patient care processes, risk management, workload measurement, resource allocation, and comprehensive health planning and evaluation.
• Exceptional communication and influencing skills to promote a vision with a sense of urgency, enthusiasm, and a drive for results; able to persuade and influence others and to take a lead role in contributing to the development of the organization’s culture.
• Strong commitment to a collaborative leadership model and the ability to work effectively with internal and external stakeholders.
• Results oriented; fosters continuous improvement and works towards continually achieving excellence.

WRHN is committed to fair and equitable employment and in our recruitment and selection practices. We strongly believe in inclusion and diversity within our organization, and welcome all applicants including, but not limited to: racialized communities, all religions and ethnicities, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ2S+ persons, Indigenous people, and all others who may contribute to the further diversification of our health network community. We are committed to providing and fostering a respectful workplace for all employees, free from violence and harassment. We are proud to be a member of the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI).

Upon request, WRHN will endeavour to remove any barrier to the hiring process to accommodate candidates, including those with disabilities. Should any applicant require accommodation through the application, interview or selection processes, please communicate your needs to the LHH Knightsbridge project team.

This is a job posting for an existing role/vacancy. LHH Knightsbridge does not use artificial intelligence (AI) to screen, assess, or select applicants for a position.