Director, Regional, Ambulatory, & Oncology Quality

Tucson Medical Center; Tucson (AZ); On-site; USD 170,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

TMC HealthCare, anchored by Tucson Medical Center, seeks a Director of Regional, Ambulatory & Oncology Quality to provide strategic leadership for clinical quality and performance improvement across ambulatory clinics, cancer center services, infusion settings, and hospital outpatient departments. This role partners with executive and clinical leaders to translate priorities into actionable quality plans.

The incumbent will guide governance, measurement, and improvement initiatives, ensuring

Qualifications

• Master's degree in a relevant field required.
• Doctoral preparation preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead regional ambulatory and oncology quality strategy and improvement.
• Partner with clinical and operational leaders to strengthen reliable care processes.
• Develop governance and reporting processes for ambulatory and cancer care.
• Coordinate improvement initiatives spanning specialty, primary care, and outpatient settings.
• Chair regional quality governance forums and escalate material issues.

Skills

Leadership

Quality governance

Performance improvement

Executive communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Data-driven decision making

Education

Master's degree

Doctoral prep preferred

Job description

TMC HealthCare

TMC HealthCare is Southern Arizona's regional nonprofit hospital system with Tucson Medical Center at its core. Each day staff comes to work to use their skills and expertise to improve the health of the entire community, from birth to the end of life.

The Director, Regional, Ambulatory & Oncology Quality provides strategic and operational leadership for clinical quality and performance improvement across regional ambulatory clinics, cancer center services, infusion settings, hospital outpatient departments and TMCH One. The Director translates system quality priorities into entity-level measures, improvement plans, and governance processes while maintaining alignment with enterprise standards and the distinct needs of each care setting.

This leader serves as the primary quality partner to regional, ambulatory, and oncology executives, medical leaders, nursing leaders, and operational teams. The Director identifies performance variation, builds local improvement capability, coordinates specialized quality support, and ensures that material quality gaps, progress, and recommendations are communicated through system governance.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

PORTFOLIO QUALITY STRATEGY

• Translate system quality goals into portfolio priorities, entity-level measures, and focused improvement work.
• Develop and execute an annual regional, ambulatory, and oncology quality plan aligned with enterprise strategy.
• Advise entity leaders on performance risks, improvement opportunities, resource needs, and escalation requirements.
• Balance standardized system expectations with the operational and clinical needs of diverse care settings.
• Provide quality leadership and consultation to regional and rural hospital leaders.
• Establish consistent quality review, reporting, escalation, and improvement practices across regional entities.
• Identify variation in outcomes or processes and coordinate focused response plans with accountable local leaders.
• Support the spread of effective practices while recognizing local staffing, access, and infrastructure considerations.

AMBULATORY QUALITY

• Lead clinical quality strategy and performance improvement across clinics and other ambulatory care settings.
• Partner with physician and operational leaders to strengthen reliable care processes, measure performance, and follow up.
• Develop governance and reporting processes appropriate for ambulatory services.
• Coordinate improvement initiatives that span specialty, primary care, procedural, and other outpatient settings.

ONCOLOGY AND INFUSION QUALITY

• Provide quality leadership for cancer clinics, oncology programs, and infusion services.
• Partner with oncology medical, nursing, pharmacy, and operational leaders to identify priorities and monitor quality outcomes.
• Support reliable, evidence-based care processes and focused improvement across the oncology continuum.
• Coordinate oncology quality reporting, improvement work, and escalation through appropriate entity and system governance.

QUALITY GOVERNANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY

• Chair or lead designated regional, ambulatory, and oncology quality governance forums.
• Review quality dashboards by exception and require response plans for material off-target performance.
• Assign accountable owners, due dates, measures, and sustainment checks within delegated authority.
• Escalate unresolved material quality issues and recommendations to system quality governance.
• Submit standardized quality and improvement reports to the System Quality Leadership Committee and other designated bodies.

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

• Maintain a focused portfolio of improvement initiatives aligned with system and entity goals.
• Ensure project charters include clear aims, outcome and process measures, accountable owners, interventions, and sustainment plans.
• Coach leaders and teams in problem definition, root-cause assessment, testing of change, implementation, and outcome validation.
• Remove local barriers when possible and recommend policy, technology, staffing, or system changes when broader action is required.

MEASUREMENT AND ANALYTICS PARTNERSHIP

• Partner with Enterprise Quality, Analytics & PI to confirm measure definitions, sources, targets, owners, and reporting cadence.
• Use validated data to identify variation, emerging trends, disparities, and improvement opportunities.
• Ensure local leaders understand performance reports and the operational actions required.
• Request focused analysis, validation, or management response when performance concerns warrant additional review.

PEOPLE, PROGRAM AND RESOURCE LEADERSHIP

• Recruit, develop, and retain a high-performing team with clear roles, competencies, performance expectations, and development plans.
• Set priorities, allocate work, monitor deliverables, and ensure responsive support across assigned entities.
• Promote standardized methods, cross-training, succession planning, and shared learning among quality partners.
• Manage assigned budgets, contracts, programs, and resources within organizational expectations.

COLLABORATION AND BOUNDARIES

• Coordinate closely with Patient Safety on event-level review, serious safety events, cause analyses, corrective-action oversight, and safety-culture matters.
• Coordinate with Patient Experience leaders on complaints, grievances, service recovery, and patient-family partnership work.
• Collaborate with Regulatory and Accreditation, Clinical Risk, Infection Prevention, and Compliance while maintaining clear portfolio accountabilities.
• Support operational leaders without replacing their accountability for day-to-day management and clinical performance.
• Adheres to TMCH organizational and department-specific safety, confidentiality, values, policies, and standards.
• Performs related duties as assigned.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

EDUCATION

• Master's degree in Nursing, Healthcare Administration, Public Health, Quality, Business Administration, or a related healthcare field required.
• Doctoral preparation in a relevant discipline preferred.

EXPERIENCE

• Seven (7) years of progressive healthcare quality, performance improvement, clinical operations, or related leadership experience required.
• Five (5) years of leadership experience managing people, programs, or departments required.
• Demonstrated experience supporting ambulatory, hospital, oncology, or multi-entity quality programs required.
• Experience leading cross-functional performance improvement and quality governance in an integrated health system preferred.
• Experience with rural or regional healthcare delivery and oncology quality programs preferred.

LICENSURE OR CERTIFICATION

• Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) required within twelve (12) months of hire.
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or higher, oncology nursing certification, or comparable quality or improvement credential preferred.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• Advanced knowledge of healthcare quality management, clinical outcomes, performance improvement, governance, and change leadership.
• Understanding of quality considerations across hospital, rural, ambulatory, oncology, and infusion care settings.
• Ability to translate system strategy into practical local measures, priorities, action plans, and accountability.
• Strong executive communication, facilitation, consultation, collaboration, and conflict-resolution skills.
• Ability to interpret performance data, identify meaningful variation, and guide leaders toward effective action.
• Ability to lead through influence, manage multiple priorities, and build trusted relationships across geographically and operationally diverse entities.