VP of Healthcare Quality & Safety

Have you spent your career building expertise and leadership in healthcare quality and safety, especially as it relates to workforce development, and are eager to play a pivotal role in new advances? 

The National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ) is the national leader in healthcare quality and safety, setting the standard for workforce competency. With innovative products and services designed for healthcare professionals and organizations, we support a mission-driven approach to improving outcomes and ensuring a higher quality of care at a sustainable cost. NAHQ is widely recognized and awarded, including an endorsement and strategic alliance with Joint Commission. 

NAHQ advances the field through standards, education, certification, advising, and thought leadership anchored in the Healthcare Quality Competency Framework across eight domains: Performance & Process Improvement, Population Health & Care Transitions, Health Data Analytics, Patient Safety, Regulatory & Accreditation, Quality Review & Accountability, Quality Leadership & Integration, and Professional Engagement. 

The Opportunity 

In this newly created role, the Vice President of Healthcare Quality and Safety will strengthen and continue to build NAHQ’s reputation as the leader in healthcare quality and safety. This role will steward and evolve the Healthcare Quality Competency Framework, expand the use of internal and external data insights, and serve as  NAHQ’s key subject matter expert on healthcare quality – advancing our internal knowledge and operational processes as well as advancing and evangelizing the adoption of quality and workforce strategies to drive actionable and measurable improvements in both the healthcare quality profession and discipline. 

This is a role for someone who thinks big picture and can effectively operationalize large scale initiatives.  Are you a leader deeply committed to advancing high-quality, safe, and cost-effective care bringing both expertise and the drive to champion the profession and discipline?  Someone who can identify the implications of policies and trends and translate them into clear, actionable insights for the field and for NAHQ’s internal teams. Then we would like to speak with you! 

Responsibilities 

Healthcare Quality Thought Leadership and NAHQ Credibility Building 

• Serve as a visible, public voice for the Healthcare Quality and Safety Profession and Discipline and enhance NAHQ’s credibility across industry audiences, including health systems, payers, regulators, academia, and professional associations. 

•Using your social capital and domain expertise in partnership with the public relations team, expand invitations to mainstage events, policy roundtables, and earned media around healthcare quality, workforce transformation, and innovation. Tailor the message to the medium, speaking to engage and educate while writing to demonstrate and document. 

• Mine NAHQ’s proprietary data assets and external sources to analyze trends and generate insights; synthesize quantitative and qualitative inputs into clear “call to action” for external audiences and infuse a data-informed culture for internal audiences.  

• Continuously scan the healthcare ecosystem including CMS, state boards, government policy, academic & clinical research, innovation, product & service offerings, leaders, and events and connect the dots for internal teams as well as external audiences. 

• Develop hypotheses from data, test them with SMEs, and translate findings into recommendations that inform NAHQ’s programs, products, and positions. 

Framework Stewardship 

• Become deeply fluent in NAHQ’s Healthcare Quality Competency Framework (“Framework”) and drive continuous improvement of the Quality framework, content strategy, and products, focusing on remaining current, relevant, data-infused, and vibrant to expand reach and enhance effectiveness. 

• Translate emerging trends, policies, and regulations (e.g., CMS, state value-based strategies, JC) through the lens of the NAHQ Framework into program, positions, and product ideas.  

• Lead content strategy and inform the path for future intelligence offerings. Help prioritize what NAHQ should publish next as position papers, issue briefs, playbooks, articles as well as where we should engage. As you settle into the role, this may expand into the development of data and intelligence products that have the potential to impact the healthcare quality industry nationally 

Quality Assurance and Content Governance 

• Build a repeatable, organization-wide quality control process for educational content, consulting deliverables, and external communications including ensuring the right experts are engaged for each initiative, program, and project. 

• Stand up speaker preparation and vetting practices and support flagship moments like Healthcare Quality Week and NAHQ next. 

• Act as a high-judgment editor to ensure accuracy, clarity, and consistency in word choice and claims especially as related to clinical data. 

• Train, coach and mentor the entire NAHQ staff, especially leadership, with a particular focus on building knowledge of the application of healthcare quality competencies in clinical settings.  

Reputation and Risk Management 

• Anticipate reputational risks; proactively frame positions to avoid misinterpretation or unnecessary controversy. 

• Maintain a non-partisan posture while identifying and addressing complex topics in healthcare quality and safety (e.g., AI in healthcare, rural health, patient experience, government policy). 

Collaboration 

• Report to the Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer on product and service offerings while working closely with the CEO on NAHQ’s vision and framework evolution. 

• Partner with the Chief Marketing Officer and the marketing and PR team on brand, media, content strategy, thought leadership, and intelligence opportunities. 

• Partner with Navigators (in-house clinical and quality SMEs), content creators (whether contractors or volunteers), and external SMEs to deliver high-quality outputs. 

• Lead the effort to develop and orchestrate a respectable advisory board of Quality & Safety SME’s to add depth, insights, and quality checks during content and product development. 

What You’ll Bring 

• A leader with healthcare quality and safety expertise, credibility across the continuum of care, and the vision to translate quality data into forward-thinking strategies and content that help shape the future of healthcare quality and safety. 

• Advanced degree preferred (e.g., MHA, PhD, MD, NPN or related). A clinical foundation helpful but not required. There are multiple paths to success in this role.  

• Breadth across all eight domains of NAHQ’s Healthcare Quality Competency Framework, with ability to connect methods and measures across domains and in-depth expertise in multiple domains. Be ready to show us your critical thinking and data/idea synthesis. 

• Strong grasp of how CMS, state value-based strategies, and Joint Commission (“JC”) standards influence healthcare quality and the ability to translate these to guidance and/or action rather than merely report. 

• Ability to draw connection between the aforementioned standards and NAHQ’s Healthcare Quality Competency Framework in ways that will inform content strategy and educational offerings for its constituents.  

• Dynamic, executive-level speaking presence; able to engage mainstage audiences and policy forums. 

• Demonstrated ability to analyze complex datasets and research (internal and external), identify salient signals, and synthesize into concise narratives and recommendations. 

• Exceptional writing and editing skills; comfortable producing position pieces, briefs, and executive-level summaries with precise, careful language. 

• Builder mindset, comfortable creating process from ambiguity and shifting quality control from individuals to a repeatable practice. 

• High-judgment risk awareness; instincts for framing, context, and word choice that protect reputation. 

• Experience collaborating with marketing/communications and media teams to support the effectiveness of earned media campaigns and expanded organic reach. 

• CPHQ required or obtained within six months of employment. 

• Ideally Chicago based and available for hybrid work schedule in office two days/week near O’Hare with 15-20% travel to conferences and industry events. Will consider a fully remote exceptional candidate willing to travel approximately 30%. 

Equal Opportunity 

NAHQ is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse perspectives and experiences and welcome candidates who will broaden our thinking and strengthen our work. 

To apply, please contact Michelle Mehlis, Lead Recruiter at Hirewell and fractional Talent Acquisition resource at michelle@hirewell.com