Director, Infection Prevention, Regional Program (KFH/HP)

In addition to the responsibilities listed above, this position is also responsible for serving as a liaison between KP and public health departments and regulatory agencies; evaluating progress and providing recommendations on standardization of care across the continuum of care; developing programs of surveillance and regulatory reporting for the medical centers and facilities within the region; providing guidance and information to regional facilities regarding protocols and workflows to be implemented; ensuring reporting (e.g., regional scoreboard, scorecard, dashboard) across the region; advising medical centers, facilities, and physician groups on region-specific infection prevention and control protocols and policies; communicating and driving region-wide infection prevention educational programs and partnering with local and regional leaders during implementation; leading multidisciplinary teams during situation management related to exposures, recalls, and other events that put patients and the organization at exposure risk; collaborating with regional and local leaders to promote continuous regulatory preparedness; and partnering with medical centers and facilities during regulatory and contracted site visits and directing implementation of corrective action(s).

• Prepares individuals for growth opportunities and advancement; builds internal collaborative networks for self and others. Solicits and acts on performance feedback; drives collaboration to set goals and provide open feedback and coaching to foster performance improvement. Demonstrates continuous learning; oversees the recruitment, selection, and development of talent; ensures performance management guidelines and expectations to achieve business needs. Stays up to date with organizational best practices, processes, benchmarks, and industry trends; shares best practices within and across teams. Motivates and empowers teams; maintains a highly skilled and engaged workforce by aligning resource plans with business objectives. Provides guidance when difficult decisions need to be made; creates opportunities for expanded scope of decision making and impact.
• Oversees the operation of multiple units within a department by identifying member and operational needs; ensures the management of work assignment completion; translates business strategy into actionable business requirements; ensures products and/or services meet member requirements and expectations while aligning with organizational strategies. Gains cross-functional support for business plans and priorities; assumes responsibility for decision making; sets standards, measures progress, and fosters resolution of escalated issues. Communicates goals and objectives; analyzes resources, costs, and forecasts and incorporates them into business plans; prioritizes and distributes resources. Removes obstacles that impact performance; guides performance and develops contingency plans accordingly; ensures teams accomplish business objectives.
• Educates others on infection prevention and control by: developing and presenting educational sessions on new initiatives and regulatory affairs; ensuring all client and organizational needs are being consistently met and proactively monitoring alignment with KP and national (e.g., Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], National Healthcare Safety Network [NHSN]) standards; and providing leadership in the development and dissemination of best practices in infection prevention and control.
• Provides expertise in epidemiology by: participating in preparations and responses to emerging infection disease threats and/or exposures and leading response to emerging infection disease threats and/or exposures; and evaluating initiatives to protect and prevent injuries from occupational exposure to infectious disease(s).
• Utilizes epidemiological principles to conduct surveillance by: integrating findings from investigations and interviews and developing action plans to address infection control problems, disease outbreaks, exposure, epidemics, and pandemics; facilitating deployment of surveillance programs to monitor infection control problems, disease outbreaks, exposure, epidemics, and pandemics; and advising key agencies (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], Department of Health, Occupational Safety and Health Administration [OSHA]) on resolution progress targeting infection control problems, disease outbreaks, exposure, epidemics, and pandemics.
• Participating in performance improvement initiatives by: providing clinical consultation to identify and define strategies for infection prevention and control program improvement; coordinating and managing projects and ensuring work groups are composed of individuals with appropriate skills and expertise; leading needs assessments to determine customer needs and ensuring needs are met; collaborating with leaders to address issues or blockers to performance improvement initiatives and managing implementation of recommendations; and providing consultative expertise and oversight for internal performance improvement committees and teams and external agencies.
• Engages in ongoing surveillance by: driving and guiding implementation of annual infection prevention and control program plan; identifying and defining infection prevention and control program goals and objectives with emphasis on proactive programming; defining and developing infection prevention and control policies and protocols and guiding adherence to KP and national (e.g., Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], National Healthcare Safety Network [NHSN]) standards; providing recommendations to alleviate problems in clinical space and practices related to infection prevention/control (e.g., patient waiting areas, respiratory etiquette station, cleaning procedures, sterilization); ensuring compliance with local, state, and federal regulatory and accreditation standards and mandatory reporting requirements.