Operational Excellence is a department within the Quality and Performance portfolio. Our team is the support that drives a culture of improvement including cascading improvement capabilities and quality management systems across the organization. The department includes the Improvement Team, Accreditation Education, Quality and Patient Experience portfolio. Operational Excellence works seamlessly with Patient Safety and Patient Experience teams to support the overall Unity Health quality program.

The Improvement Team provides an integrated approach to project management including tools, processes and cross functional expertise. The team is a corporate resource designed to support and consult with clinical programs and support services; allowing for integration and involves other departments such as Finance, Decision Support, Human Resources, Communications, Patient Experience, Safety and Risk to ensure that initiatives are executed so Unity Health delivers the best care experiences.

Reporting to the Manager, Operational Excellence, the Improvement Project Manager will engage in a leadership role to design, plan, coordinate, implement and evaluate improvement initiatives while ensuring both the efficient utilization of resources and processes and a safe environment for patients, providers and staff across Unity Health. The Improvement Project Manager will expertly apply, and support application of their quality, improvement, change management, and project management skills and tools; will manage complex, improvement projects; and will lead and support diverse and dynamic teams to deliver integrated solutions.

On a practical level, you will:

Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement:

• Provide leadership for complex improvement initiatives across the network, including opportunity identification, initiative design, planning, facilitation, management, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
• Facilitate and manage improvement projects, including Value Stream Mapping, Kaizen, 6S events, FMEA, PDSA, metrics development, process mapping and other Lean/Six Sigma tools and methods.
• Monitor improvement activities, identify and evaluate root causes for performance shortfalls and gaps, and recommend innovative strategies for improved outcomes.
• Work in conjunction with other team members to ensure linkages between different initiatives are appropriately identified and managed.
• Develop and implement an improvement reporting strategy for all initiatives and on-going key performance indicators.
• Collaborate with teams in the development of evidence-based measurement and metrics to compare performance against industry standards and peer organizations.
• Analyze key performance indicators with a focus on data quality to make recommendations on practice to ensure that the program is meeting targeted outcomes.
• Incorporate patient partnered care philosophy into all improvement work.

Capacity Building & Organizational Effectiveness:

• Provide expert level improvement knowledge and lead capacity building in improvement methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma, IHI) across the network to build a culture of continuous, sustainable improvement.
• Continuously advances operational effectiveness through the coaching and training of staff in the use of continuous improvement tools and methodologies.
• Develop and facilitate training and education sessions.

C ollaboration and Quality Improvement within broader health care system:

• Profile and represent improvement successes via abstract, poster and manuscript development and submission; attend conferences as required.
• Support partners at the local, regional and system level and work on projects to improve quality beyond the hospital.
• In collaboration with stakeholders, collect and use data to measure quality of care improvement outcomes related to patient/resident/staff satisfaction and clinical and initiatives.

Accreditation:

• Review accreditation standards and support the leadership, clinical and non-clinical teams in ensuring necessary processes are in place to meet all standards.

General & Relationship Management:

• Prepare report, briefing notes and presentations for all levels of the organization, including Board, Executive, Senior Leadership, Management and Staff.
• Support the execution of strategic plan and cascading departmental goals and operational plan.
• Build trust with staff, providers, patients and peers through excellence, respect, integrity, compassion, honesty, transparency, professionalism and accountability .

QUALIFICATIONS

• Master's degree in related field (Healthcare Administration, Business Administration, Quality).
• Expertise in quality improvement including the IHI Model for Improvement, change management and process redesign concepts; minimum green belt Lean/Six Sigma certification required.
• Current registration with a health professional regulatory body an asset.
• A minimum 3 years¿ related experience leading and implementing large scale, complex improvement initiatives in a health care environment with a variety of stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple and complex initiatives and to implement proposals and initiatives within established timeframes and targets.
• Demonstrated success in providing leadership in a way that facilitates effective teamwork, highly developed problem solving, communication and negotiation skills.
• Knowledge and ability to facilitate meetings, conduct effective briefings and presentations, and to develop consensus, both internally and externally, with people who reflect the full range of diversity in objectives.
• Demonstrated skills in developing evaluation frameworks/measurement plans and data analysis including the ability to develop, monitor and utilize performance indicators to support ongoing improvement efforts.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills with the ability to analyze complex problems, interpret data in support of process redesign and to deal with situations where information is difficult to obtain, complex, or ambiguous.
• Demonstrated ability to drive data related changes ¿ i.e. gather and integrate data from disparate sources to unearth trends and patterns; generate insights; present and explain information; and suggest improvements.
• Demonstrated ability to interact with people from all disciplines; at all levels of experience and at all levels of the organization.
• Demonstrated high level of initiative, self-direction, flexibility and ability to adapt to change. Proficient in MS Office: Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Visio, Word and the ability to process map.

Unity Health Toronto is committed to creating an accessible and inclusive organization. We strive to provide a recruitment process that is barrier-free and in compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and the Ontario Human Rights Code. We understand that you may require an accommodation at any stage of the recruitment process. When you are contacted, please inform the Talent Acquisition Specialist and we will work with you to meet your accommodation needs. We want to emphasize that all accommodation requests are handled with the utmost confidentiality, respecting your privacy and dignity.