Senior Patient Safety Investigator

The Senior Patient Safety Investigator plays a critical role in establishing and operating a national patient safety function capable of managing a high volume of incoming and in‑flight safety complaints while driving systemic learning and long‑term improvement.

This role sits at the “middle” of the patient safety lifecycle—bridging intake and triage with investigation, escalation, closure, and post‑case learning. The individual will apply deep clinical judgment, standardized safety processes, and data‑driven insight to ensure that complaints are addressed consistently, escalated appropriately, and translated into actionable policy and operational improvements.

Intake, Triage & Case Management

• Receive and acknowledge patient safety complaints from multiple intake channels (member‑submitted, patient‑submitted, call center, web‑based)

• Conduct rapid clinical triage (often within 24 hours) to assess urgency and potential patient risk

• Apply standardized risk stratification (high / moderate / low) using defined clinical and operational criteria

• Identify duplicate or related complaints and ensure appropriate case linkage

• Serve as case owner, maintaining accountability from intake through closure

Investigation & Escalation

• Perform clinically grounded investigations, including:

• Review of clinical narratives and supporting documentation

• Identification of systemic versus isolated issues

• Execute defined escalation pathways, including:

• Internal leadership notification

• Formal inquiries

• Referral to MPSC or other oversight bodies as appropriate

• Clearly document findings, decisions, and rationale within the case management system

Process & Program Development

• Operationalize standardized patient safety workflows while recognizing the unique nature of individual cases

• Help define and refine: Triage criteria, escalation thresholds and case closure standards

• Support transition strategies for legacy cases, including close‑out approaches and intake of new complaints into modern systems

Learning, Feedback & Policy Improvement

• Contribute to formal post‑case feedback loops to identify trends, recurring risks, and systemic gaps

• Translate aggregated case insights into: Policy recommendations, Updated guidance and training or communication needs

• Support transparency and leadership reporting to strengthen public trust in the OPTN patient safety function

Technology & Data Enablement

• Actively use and help shape a case management platform

• Ensure accurate, timely documentation to support: Workflow tracking, dashboards and leadership reporting and prevention of cases falling through the cracks

• Partner with technology teams to ensure clinical workflows are reflected accurately in system design

• Maintain strict compliance with HIPAA, PHI/PII handling, and federal security requirements

• Registered Nurse (RN) required; advanced clinical leadership experience strongly preferred

• 10+ years of progressive clinical experience in acute care, perioperative, critical care, transplant, or related high‑acuity environments

• Demonstrated experience exercising independent clinical judgment in complex, high‑risk situations

• Proven experience in: Patient safety investigations, quality improvement and risk management or compliance.

• Ability to assess clinical risk rapidly and consistently across diverse scenarios

• Experience balancing standardized processes with case‑specific nuance

• Experience working with EHRs and/or case management systems

• Ability to adopt and help operationalize new technology platforms

• Comfort using dashboards, reports, and structured data to support leadership decision‑making.

What Would Be Nice To Have:

• Experience with organ donation, transplant services, or OPO operations

• Prior work in federally regulated or oversight environments

• Experience standing up new programs, workflows, or operating models

• Experience leading or managing multidisciplinary clinical teams

• Strong documentation, decision‑making, and escalation skills

• Comfort operating in environments with high case volume and competing priorities

• Ability to function effectively with limited external resourcing and tight timelines

• MBA, MHA, or similar advanced degree

• Prior involvement in large‑scale clinical operations (>200 FTEs or multi‑site systems)