Drug Diversion Program Manager

Renown Health; Reno (NV); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Renown Health seeks an experienced Drug Diversion Program Manager to lead its system-wide program. You will coordinate prevention, detection, investigation, and reporting activities while ensuring adherence to DEA, state, and local regulations.

The role integrates clinical judgment, data analytics, and program management across departments to protect patient safety and reduce organizational risk. The position requires nursing leadership, strong investigative skills, and collaboration with

Qualifications

• RN license in good standing
• Five years of registered nursing experience, preferably in acute care or medication-intensive settings
• Experience leading or coordinating programs, investigations, and quality reviews
• Certification in Healthcare Compliance, Healthcare Quality, Patient Safety, or related discipline preferred
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and EHR systems

Responsibilities

• Lead system-wide Drug Diversion Program and coordinate prevention, detection, investigation, and reporting activities
• Ensure compliance with DEA, state, and local regulations; support leadership with decisions
• Maintain workplans, dashboards, and action-item logs; track corrective actions
• Prepare concise investigative summaries, dashboards, and executive reports on diversion risk and program performance
• Provide education and awareness to stakeholders and support policy maintenance
• Support multidisciplinary review and escalation processes as needed

Skills

Nursing leadership

Program management

Data analytics

Regulatory compliance

Communication

Investigation skills

Education

Bachelor's in Nursing

Master's in Nursing/Healthcare Admin (preferred)

Tools

Epic

Omnicell

Pyxis

Diversion surveillance software

Job description

The posted pay range represents the long-term earning opportunity for the position, while starting pay is based on the experience, skills, and qualifications each candidate brings to the role.

Purpose

The Drug Diversion Program Manager leads Renown Health’s system-wide Drug Diversion Program. The role coordinates prevention, detection, investigation, response, and reporting activities for suspected medication and controlled-substance diversion. The position will assist in ensuring compliance with DEA, state, and local controlled substance regulations. The position applies nursing knowledge, clinical judgment, investigative discipline, data analytics, program management, stakeholder coordination, and regulatory awareness to protect patient safety, preserve medication integrity, support workforce accountability, and reduce organizational risk.

Nature and Scope

This role serves as a program manager for the Drug Diversion Program. The position manages program processes, coordinates multidisciplinary response activities, and ensures diversion-related concerns are reviewed, documented, escalated, tracked, and closed consistently. The role oversees objective reviews and investigations using approved information sources, including electronic health records, medication administration records, automated dispensing cabinets, pharmacy systems, diversion surveillance software, access records, incident reports, laboratory information, and scheduling records. This role will be familiar with the full medication use lifecycle: procurement, storage, dispensing, administration, waste, and documentation. This role partners with clinical, operational, compliance, legal, privacy, patient safety, risk management, human resources, security, revenue cycle, medical staff, pharmacy, nursing, and information technology stakeholders. The role supports the Drug Diversion Steering Committee and Diversion Activation Team; prepares program materials and reports; tracks decisions, action items, and corrective actions; identifies trends; and escalates matters according to policy, law, accreditation expectations, and licensing-board requirements. Program responsibilities include maintaining the workplan; coordinating intake, triage, escalation, investigation support, and closure; facilitating multidisciplinary review; maintaining dashboards, metrics, committee materials, and action-item logs; monitoring corrective actions; coordinating education and awareness; supporting policy maintenance; identifying improvement opportunities; and providing updates and recommendations to leadership. This role does not independently determine criminal liability, make employment decisions, issue legal conclusions, make final regulatory reporting decisions when Compliance or Legal review is required, or replace clinical peer review. The role supports those processes by organizing evidence, facilitating review, supporting escalation, and helping leaders make informed decisions. The incumbent may provide patient care only when assigned and authorized within applicable licensure, competency, and role expectations.

• Knowledge of nursing practice, medication administration standards, acute-care workflows, patient safety principles, and clinical documentation requirements.
• Knowledge of controlled-substance handling, automated dispensing cabinet processes, wasting and witnessing requirements, medication reconciliation, pharmacy workflows, and common diversion methods.
• Ability to conduct objective, fair, thorough, well-documented, and defensible investigations while maintaining confidentiality and avoiding unsupported conclusions.
• Ability to analyze clinical, pharmacy, medication administration, audit-trail, scheduling, access, laboratory, incident-reporting, and other approved data sources to identify trends, outliers, discrepancies, and potential patient-safety concerns.
• Ability to use or rapidly learn diversion surveillance software and interpret automated alerts, risk indicators, exception reports, and risk-scoring information in context.
• Working knowledge of federal and Nevada requirements and expectations related to controlled substances, medication safety, drug diversion prevention and response, patient privacy, documentation, reporting, and escalation.
• Ability to communicate clearly and professionally with clinical, operational, compliance, legal, privacy, patient safety, risk management, human resources, security, revenue cycle, medical staff, pharmacy, nursing, and information technology stakeholders.
• Ability to manage multidisciplinary program operations, including workplans, intake, triage, escalation tracking, committee support, meeting facilitation, metrics, dashboards, action items, corrective actions, policy coordination, education support, process improvement, and stakeholder communication.
• Ability to prepare concise investigative summaries, dashboards, committee materials, presentations, and executive reports that communicate diversion risk, program performance, trends, recommendations, and follow-up actions.

Demonstrated integrity, objectivity, professional skepticism, discretion, emotional maturity, attention to detail, sound clinical judgment, fairness, persistence, and commitment to patient safety and regulatory compliance.

Minimum Qualifications

Requirements – Required and/or Preferred

Education: Ability to read, write, speak, and understand English sufficiently to perform job duties safely and effectively. Bachelor’s degree in Nursing required. Master’s degree in nursing, Healthcare Administration, Patient Safety, Quality, Compliance, or related field preferred.

Experience: Minimum of five years of registered nursing experience required, preferably in acute care, emergency, perioperative, procedural, critical care, infusion, behavioral health, or another medication-intensive setting. Experience leading or coordinating programs, projects, investigations, quality reviews, compliance activities, patient-safety initiatives, medication safety work, controlled-substance monitoring, diversion surveillance, documentation review, internal audit, or pharmacy operations strongly preferred.

License(s): Ability to obtain and maintain a current and valid State of Nevada Registered Nurse license.

Certification(s): Certification in Healthcare Compliance, Healthcare Quality, Patient Safety, Professional Healthcare Risk Management, or a related discipline preferred.

Computer / Typing: Must be proficient with Microsoft Office Suite, including Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams, and Word and have the ability to use the computer to complete online learning requirements for job-specific competencies, access online forms and policies, complete online benefits enrollment, etc. Advanced ability to work with electronic health records, medication administration records, automated dispensing cabinet reports, pharmacy systems, diversion surveillance platforms, databases, dashboards, and data visualization tools preferred. Experience with Epic, Omnicell, Pyxis, DetectRx, or comparable systems preferred.

Disclaimer

The foregoing description is not intended to be, and should not be construed as, an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, skills, efforts, or working conditions associated with the job. It is intended to be an accurate reflection of the general nature and level of the job.