Position: Chief, Children's Center for Diversity
ORGANIZATION:Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center (www.seattlechildrens.org)
LOCATION: Seattle, WA
COMPANY BACKGROUND
Seattle Children's is ranked as one of the nation's best children's hospitals by U.S. News & World Report and Child magazines. Seattle Children's provides family-centered care, conducts leading-edge pediatric research, and serves as an advocate for child health.
Children's is the premier pediatric referral center for Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. Through the work of caregivers in nearly 60 pediatric subspecialties, Seattle Children's provides inpatient, outpatient, diagnostic, emergency, outreach and telemedicine services that meet the needs of children in their region and beyond. Seattle Children's has developed a network of clinics and programs, many in partnership with other providers, to better meet the health care needs of patients closer to where they live. In 2005, pediatric specialists spent 350 clinic days at clinics and hospitals throughout Alaska and rural Washington.
Seattle Children's continues to grow to meet the needs of children in the region. In 2005, the hospital provided 11,608 inpatient admissions, 29,497 emergency room visits and more than 165,000 outpatient visits. The hospital works in close partnership with community physicians and places a high priority on these relationships. Many community physicians are graduates of the University of Washington's pediatric residency program at Seattle Children's. These strong ties reinforce the trust and communication needed to care for children.
In July 2006, Seattle Children's adopted a five-year strategic plan to be the nationally recognized leader in pediatric health and research. Key initiatives of the plan include: improving access and service for families; improving communication with families; and, recruiting and retaining the best people, with a focus on cultural competence and developing a diverse workforce.
Children's Center for Diversity, a newly developed academic and operational center of excellence, will set the national standard for cultural competency in pediatrics by integrating research, education, advocacy, and service to support Seattle Children's quest to eliminate pediatric health disparities. The purpose of the Center will be to improve the hospital's care for diverse children and families, eliminate child health disparities, increase diversity within hospital staff, as well as to increase diversity in the healthcare pipeline, cultivating future professionals amongst diverse youth.
There is widespread commitment among Seattle Children's faculty and senior management to improve the health and care for diverse patients and families. Faculty provides teaching opportunities for residents to meet the needs of underserved families, in addition to community outreach to prevent illness and injury among diverse children.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Chief, Children's Center for Diversity is the strategic leader who articulates, develops and implements Seattle Children's vision of eliminating pediatric health disparities. Through quality care, research, education and community partnerships, the Chief is instrumental in setting annual goals of the organization. In partnership with appropriate medical, university, and hospital leadership, he/she will establish structure, staffing, and resources to effectively position the Center as a national leader and academic center of excellence in the area of culturally effective care.
This position reports to: Patrick Hagan, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Seattle Children's; and F. Bruder Stapleton, M.D., Chief of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine. Direct reports will include a manager who oversees Health Education, Community Relations, Diversity Training and Development, and development of multicultural resources.
The scope of this position is broad. We encourage candidates who may have strong experience in some but not all domains of the role, and a commitment to execute the multiple responsibilities of the Center for Diversity.
INITIAL PRIORITIES
- Create strategy and tactics for the implementation of the Center and its programs, including needs assessment of hospital.
- Cultivate relationships with community partners, UW faculty, and Seattle Children's leaders.
- Provide recommendation for expanding role of interpreters to be cultural mediators.
- Create and implement cross-cultural awareness and training for Seattle Children's workforce.
- Establish and monitor key access and clinical indicators for racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse served at Children's.
SCOPE OF RESPONSIBILITIES
Leadership
- Participate in key leadership functions to develop and uphold the medical center's missions, strategic plans, goals, resource allocation and operational policies and procedures.
- Lead and participate in national efforts to establish standards for culturally effective care.
- Inform entire workforce of changes in health policy related to culturally effective health care, health disparities and healthcare workforce.
Patient Care
- Facilitate cultural change within the organization to promote and assure provision of culturally effective care.
- Work to improve the efficacy of patient and family interactions to assure provision of culturally effective care.
- In partnership with the Medical Director, provides leadership and participates in the planning of system solutions designed to improve the safety and quality of patient care.
- Develop communication campaign to inform faculty and staff about the Center's goals and services.
- Champion and lead efforts to establish quality standards in delivery of culturally competent care.
- Conduct an annual organizational assessment of cultural competence.
Education
- Influence and assist the University of Washington's School of Medicine in establishing an education plan in culturally effective care for medical students, pediatric faculty and residents.
- Assist the University Washington School of Medicine in recruiting diverse faculty, fellows, and residents
- Disseminate culturally competent care training with community physicians.
- Enhance continual education offerings for staff and faculty.
Advocacy
- Establish and foster collaborative relationships and partnerships with diverse community groups, and patient and family populations.
- Identify community interests in child health, wellness, prevention and outreach. Establish child health promotion and prevention programs in partnership with community organizations.
- Establishes budget for community prevention, outreach, and wellness programs.
Research
- Provide vision and agenda for Seattle Children's role in eliminating regional child health disparities.
- Partner with diverse communities, public health, and academic partners.
- Prioritize, establish and assure measurement of clinical outcomes for racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse patients.
- Seek and obtain grant funding for participatory research projects.
- Administer seed funding to promote research on health disparities amongst Seattle Children's multidisciplinary staff and faculty.
- Drive research into practice; utilize research findings to inform staff and improve clinical care.
CANDIDATE QUALIFICATIONS
Attributes
- A compassionate leader who exhibits warmth and provides clear, direct leadership. Builds strong teams and cultivates a culture of team work and collaboration.
- Is articulate, poised, and persuasive. Possesses exceptional communication skills.
- Has a reputation as creative, passionate and proactive.
- Is innovative and takes calculated risks.
- Has a calm, steady style.
- Is action-oriented and outcomes-focused; has a reputation for follow through.
- Manages effectively through influence. Is adept at creating win-win situations. Is politically savvy and handles complex situations with sensitivity.
- Promotes cooperation and teamwork. Is inclusive of peers and/or key stakeholders when making decisions that affect the organization
- Solicits feedback and ideas from staff; holds others accountable and is fair. Delegates appropriately and provides opportunities for team to cross-train and further develop their skills.
Experience to include:
- Proven leader with minimum of 5 years experience in provision of culturally competent health care and pediatric research
- Planning and implementing organizational strategies to improve patient care
- Quality improvement initiatives and/or improving clinical outcomes
- Mentoring and developing staff, faculty, and executive leaders in cultural competency
- Ability to contribute at an executive level
- Ability to plan and achieve large-scale organizational change
- Establishing long-range strategic partnerships with community organizations, government entities, and academic institutions
- Ability to educate and influence health care providers, medical students, and faculty
- Ability to effectively, compassionately, and ethically engage with diverse community organizations, patients, and families
- Ability to identify and prioritize regional child health disparities and implement participatory research projects
EDUCATION
- An MD degree is preferred. Physician candidates will have graduated from an accredited medical school, and completed an accredited residency program in pediatrics. Must be Board-Certified in field of specialty.
CONTACT
Kate Kingsley or Barbara Walker
KLKingsley Executive Search
1333 No. California Blvd., Suite 570
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
Email: kate@klkingsley.com or barbara@klkingsley.com
Web: www.klkingsley.com
Phone: 925-934-4306
Fax: 925-934-4327
