Patient Safety Specialist (NP, RN, PT, OT)

Johns Hopkins Medicine; Baltimore (MD); Hybrid; USD 58,000 - 96,000; Full time

Job summary

Johns Hopkins Hospital is seeking a Patient Safety Specialist for our Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine teams. You will lead safety initiatives across disciplines, partner with nurses, physicians, pharmacists and operations leaders to reduce harm and improve outcomes.

You will rapidly assess events, conduct root cause analyses, and translate findings into practical interventions using CUSP, Lean, and high reliability methods, fostering a culture of safety across the departments.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in a related field or active matriculation with degree completed within 18 months of hire.
• Minimum of 5 years clinical experience with at least 2 years in leadership participation in CUSP or similar methodologies.
• Experience in performance improvement and/or team facilitation preferred.
• Experience in healthcare operations preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead cross-disciplinary safety initiatives.
• Rapidly assess safety events, perform root cause and systems analyses, and translate findings into interventions.
• Build relationships with frontline teams to understand workflows and support staff during safety events.
• Use data, human factors principles, and quality methods (CUSP, Lean) to prioritize risks and drive measurable change.
• Promote high reliability practices and a just culture across departments.

Skills

Patient safety

High reliability

Just culture

CUSP

Education

Master's degree

Job description

Join Johns Hopkins Hospital as our Patient Safety Specialist for our Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine teams — a pivotal, high-impact role where your leadership and clinical insight will directly shape safer care for those patients.

Why this role matters

• Serve as the multidisciplinary safety lead for our Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine teams, working at the intersection of frontline care and system-wide improvement.
• Partner closely with nurses, physicians, pharmacists, operations leaders and other key stakeholders to identify, analyze and mitigate patient safety risks.
• Drive both proactive and reactive improvement efforts: uncover latent system vulnerabilities, support frontline staff through critical events, and implement sustainable solutions that reduce harm and improve outcomes.
• Act as the trusted, visible safety champion across these departments — coordinating service-wide involvement, aligning unit-based expertise with system-focused strategies, and advancing a culture of high reliability and just culture.

What you’ll do

• Lead cross-disciplinary safety initiatives.
• Rapidly assess safety events, facilitate root cause and systems analyses, and translate findings into actionable, measurable interventions.
• Build strong relationships with frontline teams to understand workflows, coach improvement efforts, and support staff during and after safety events.
• Use data, human factors principles, and quality methods (CUSP, Lean) to prioritize risks and drive measurable change.
• Promote and operationalize high reliability practices and a just culture that empowers staff to speak up and continuously improve.

Who we’re looking for

• A collaborative communicator and natural convener who can build trust across disciplines and lead change from concept through implementation.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and mature — able to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced clinical environment.
• Comfortable blending clinical insight with systems thinking to design practical, enduring safety solutions.
• Clinician with previous procedural and or critical care experience highly preferred.

Qualifications

• Knowledge and experience with patient safety science, high reliability principles, just culture, and CUSP

Requirements:

• Minimum of a Master's degree or active matriculation in a Master’s degree program; degree must be completed within 18 months of hire
• Minimum of 5 years clinical experience; with at least 2 years of leadership participation in Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) or similar methodologies, and/or program/project management.
• Experience in performance improvement and/or team facilitation preferred.
• Experience in dealing with health care operations preferred.

Shift: This is a hybrid position working in-person, on-campus 3-4 days/week, and working remotely 1-2 days/week, Monday-Friday, 8 hour days

Salary Range: Minimum 42.33/hour - Maximum 69.88/hour. Compensation will be commensurate with equity and experience for roles of similar scope and responsibility. In cases where the range is displayed as a $0 amount, salary discussions will occur during candidate screening calls, before any subsequent compensation discussion is held between the candidate and any hiring authority.

The Hospital reserves the right to modify employee schedules as needed.

We are committed to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment, where we embrace and celebrate our differences, where all employees feel valued, contribute to our mission of serving the community, and engage in equitable healthcare delivery and workforce practices.

Johns Hopkins Health System and its affiliates are drug-free workplace employers.