Quality Improvement Specialist

Banner Health Corporate; Mesa (AZ); On-site; USD 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Banner Desert Medical Center, part of Banner Health, is seeking a Quality Improvement Specialist to proactively identify opportunities for improvement, collaborate with nursing and physician leadership to analyze data, and drive evidence-based changes that measurably improve patient outcomes.

The role emphasizes data-driven performance improvement, patient safety, and regulatory readiness across the facility, with a Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM–4:30 PM schedule.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Five years of clinical or quality improvement experience.
• CPHQ or CPPS certification within 3 years of start date.
• If in role prior to June 1, 2025, certification must be obtained within 3 years.

Responsibilities

• Lead quality initiatives to integrate quality into organizational objectives and collaborate with leaders to drive improvements.
• Facilitate performance and process improvement projects using qualitative and quantitative data.
• Evaluate population health and care transitions to improve outcomes and standardized care.
• Support data analytics, design data collection plans, monitor KPIs, and report findings to stakeholders.
• Promote patient safety culture and identify risks to mitigate harm.
• Assist with regulatory compliance and survey readiness activities across the facility.
• Coordinate data reporting, accountability, and continuous quality review.
• Engage in professional development and participate in professional organizations.
• Collaborate with department, facility, and system teams as well as external bodies.

Skills

Clinical experience

Quality improvement

CPHQ certification

CPPS certification

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

Primary City/State: Mesa, Arizona Department Name: Quality Improvement-Corp Work Shift: Day Job Category: Risk, Quality and Safety

You have a place in the health care industry. If you’re looking to leverage your abilities to make a real difference – and real change in the health care industry – you belong at Banner Health.

Banner Desert Medical Center offers state-of-the-art technology in all departments, from our da Vinci surgical robots to our 3D cancer technology.

As a Quality Improvement Specialist at Banner Desert Medical Center, you will proactively identify opportunities for improvement, along with demonstrating initiative and strategic thinking rather than relying solely on direction. You will collaborate with nursing and physician leadership to analyze and interpret data, driving the development of evidence-based processes that measurably improve patient outcomes.

Acute Care Clinical experience is preferred for this role.

The schedule for will be Monday - Friday, 8AM - 4:30PM.

Within Banner Health Corporate, you will have the opportunity to apply your unique experience and expertise in support of a nationally-recognized healthcare leader. We offer stimulating and rewarding careers in a wide array of disciplines. Whether your background is in Human Resources, Finance, Information Technology, Legal, Managed Care Programs or Public Relations, you'll find many options for contributing to our award-winning patient care.

POSITION SUMMARY

This position supports high reliability in clinical performance through ongoing assessment of performance, prioritizes clinical improvement activities, facilitates performance improvement, and promotes successful implementation to achieve entity/system targets. This role requires strong communication, collaboration, teamwork, and change management skills in order to achieve desired results across the continuum of care. This role serves as a quality SME to Leaders throughout the facility.

CORE FUNCTIONS

1. Quality Leadership and Integration

Facilitates the integration of quality into the fabric of the organization to achieve objectives, such as Annual Initiatives, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and The Joint Commission (tJC) standards of care. Support the quality infrastructure, protect the use of privileged or confidential information, facilitate processes for engagement and interprofessional teamwork, identify and promote continuous learning opportunities to advance the organization/facility/entity and communicate effectively. Facilitates performance improvement projects with physicians, clinical leaders, and staff to identify improvement opportunities utilizing qualitative and quantitative data analysis, knowledge of health care operations and systems thinking.

2. Performance and Process Improvement

Serves as a subject matter expert in performance and process improvement, project management and change management methods to support operational and clinical quality initiatives. Facilitates activities related to or resulting from patient safety, harm reduction, clinical performance, peer review and compliance with regulatory and accrediting agencies. This is accomplished by utilizing performance and process improvement tools and principles, applying project management methods, and using change management principles and tools.

3. Population Health and Care Transitions

Evaluate and improve healthcare processes and care transitions to advance the efficient, effective, and safe care of defined populations. Foster integrated team-based clinical delivery model to population-based care. Facilitate the implementation of standardized process, that are evidence-based Population Health management strategies, when appropriate. Encourage and contribute to a holistic approach to improvement and collaborate to improve care processes and transitions back to the community. Monitor and report facility Clinical Practice performance that have been handed-off to Quality Improvement.

4. Health Data Analytics

Supports the organizations' analytic environment to help guide data driven decision making while facilitating meetings with departments and teams to guide quality improvement initiatives and activities. Adheres to procedures for the confidentiality and integrity of data, designing, influencing, and monitoring data collection plans for Key Performance Indicators. Collaborates with process owner(s), acquiring, and integrating data from internal and external benchmarking sources. Uses statistical and visualization methods to analyze data for administrative and clinical decision making. Provides on-going assessment of performance, analyzes clinical outcome data, and identifies performance improvement opportunities or trends. Conducts and reports to stakeholders in-depth assessment of qualitative and quantitative data.

5. Patient Safety

Participates in and contributes to a safe healthcare environment by promoting safe practices, nurturing a just culture, and improving processes that detect, mitigate, or prevent harm. Seves as an advocate for the patient safety culture, applying safety science principles/methods, identify and report patient safety risks/events and collaborates to analyze patient safety risks and events. They facilitate teams to improve processes that impact the safety of patients.

6. Regulatory and Accreditation

Supports the evaluating, monitoring, and improving compliance with internal and external requirements. Participates in processes to prepare for, participate in, and follow up on Regulatory Agencies and certifications. Participates in processes to support compliance with PI standards, contributes toward continuous survey readiness activities and participates in the survey processes and findings.

7. Quality Review and Accountability

Facilitate and support compliance with voluntary, mandatory, and contractual reporting requirement for data acquisition, analysis, reporting and process improvement. May support practitioner and nursing performance review activities as directed.

8. Professional Engagement

Engages in the healthcare quality profession with a commitment to practicing ethically, enhancing one's competencies and advancing the field by integrating ethical standards into practice, engaging in lifelong learning and participating in activities that advance the profession, such as participation in professional organizations and achievement of certification in healthcare quality.

9. Responsibilities cross all levels of internal customers including the department, facility and system, and external customers including but not limited to the medical staff, the community, regulatory bodies and state agencies.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Requires a Bachelor’s degree.
• Requires a proficiency level typically attained with five years clinical experience OR quality improvement experience.
• Requires Certified Professional Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) or Certified Professional Patient Safety (CPPS) certification within 3 years of being in the job and obtaining Quality work experience.
• For individuals in this role prior to June 1, 2025, CPHQ or CPPS must be obtained within 3 years.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Registered Nurse (RN) license preferred.
• Master’s Degree is preferred.
• Experience with process improvement, regulatory/accreditation programs, data management, and analysis including graphic development and presentations is highly desirable.
• If in a profession that requires licensure, current licensure/certification/registration is required for state worked.
• Additional related education and/or experience preferred.

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