Institute for Healthcare Improvement
Position Summary
Senior Vice President, Continuum Portfolio
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (www.ihi.org) is an independent, not-for-profit organization that works with health care providers and leaders throughout the world to achieve safe and effective health care at affordable costs. IHI focuses on motivating and building the will for change, identifying and testing new models of care in partnership with both patients and health care professionals, and ensuring the broadest possible adoption of best practices and effective innovations. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, IHI mobilizes teams, organizations, and increasingly nations, through its staff of more than 100 people and partnerships with hundreds of faculty around the world. IHI is a truly unique organization with a highly respected brand and a rich heritage as the pioneers of the health care quality improvement movement. IHI works around the world with hospitals, health care systems, primary care practices, communities, ministries of health, and governments to effect lasting and positive change in the health of populations, the experience of care for individuals while simultaneously reducing costs.
Portfolio Summary
Within IHI, the Continuum Portfolio’s activities, programs, and projects work to guarantee the best health for individuals and families across all health care settings and in their communities. The portfolio achieves this aim by developing, testing and implementing, and spreading changes that:
· Improve the health of individuals and populations;
· Increase the value of care by reducing, or at least controlling, per capita cost while improving quality for both individuals and systems; and
· Enhance the quality of care and the experience of individuals and families when they interact with the health care system.
The portfolio’s work encompasses an array of content areas that includes: primary care transformation, IHI’s Triple Aim, care transitions, and health information technology optimization Approximately 18 staff work under the portfolio; positions include a Vice President, an Executive Director, Directors, Improvement Advisors, Project Managers, and Project Coordinators.
Position Summary
The Senior Vice President, Continuum Portfolio will provide strategic leadership and content/subject-matter expertise to the Portfolio by leading and aligning the Portfolio’s work with IHI’s vision and aims to improve health and health care across the continuum of care. The Senior Vice President will also be responsible for overseeing measurable programmatic results across portfolio projects, developing relationships and new business with potential partners, and cultivating faculty and subject-matter experts in portfolio content areas. A successful candidate will simultaneously lead the portfolio’s strategy while working in tandem with the portfolio operational team to keep a pulse on the overall functioning and success of the portfolio. The Senior Vice President needs to be a visionary leader, do-er, driver, self-motivator, and success-driven individual.
The primary responsibilities of this position are:
1. Organizational Leadership
· Serve on IHI”s Executive Team and collaborate with IHI senior leadership to develop IHI’s vision, aims, strategies, objectives, and measures for the organization
· Advance IHI’s organizational aims, as well as the goals of the Continuum Portfolio, by working collaboratively across other portfolios and IHI support departments (e.g., Research and Development)
2. Portfolio Strategic Leadership
· Translate IHI vision, aims, strategies, objectives and measures into a plan for improving care across the continuum of care
· Oversee a portfolio of complex, revenue- and margin-generating projects that span multiple departments and geographic settings (these projects include IHI-initiated offerings—for which we can charge tuition—as well as grant- and contract-funded work, joint ventures, and other models of program design)
3. Content Development and Advising
· Provide content expertise to programs within the Continuum Portfolio
· Maintain an up-to-date content knowledge of current issues affecting care settings across the continuum, population health, financial models, and systems-level thinking in order to infuse innovative and promising best practices into portfolio programming
· Infuse population health models and thinking into portfolio content
· Initiate and lead internal content development and innovation work (e.g., 90-day research and development projects) in collaboration with various internal staff and departments
4. Relationship and Business Development
· Identify unique opportunities for the Continuum Portfolio programming to address present and future concerns facing organizations and staff working across the continuum of care
· Lead vetting and decision-making around portfolio new business opportunities for both IHI-initiated programming and grant- and contract-funded work
· Develop and strengthen partner relationships in order to augment portfolio business and extend IHI’s reach
· Ensure that IHI has mutually rewarding and satisfying relationships with leading faculty able to advance the quality and reach of IHI’s work; foster relationships with new faculty
Necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities include:
· Experience managing a portfolio of complex projects and programs;
· Proven ability to provide both leadership and management in an environment of complex relationships and operations;
· Skilled at identifying new opportunities for content and/or program development, including external business opportunities that align with portfolio aims;
· Skilled at building and maintaining relationships at all levels within the organization as well as externally with allies, current partners, and potential partners;
· Proven ability to take a large project, department, or business from conception and vision to successful implementation;
· Passionate about care across the continuum and committed to the overarching concepts of IHI’s Triple Aim;
· Appreciation for systems-level thinking and ability to influence change within systems
· Expertise in mentoring and developing talent;
· Excellent writing skills and superb interpersonal and verbal communication skills; a master at presenting information, ideas, and results is critical;
· Ability to work in a fast moving and, at times, intense environment; and
· Knowledge in the following areas and ability to use this knowledge to help IHI focus on areas where we can make unique and valuable contributions:
o Health care landscape at national- and state-level
o Improvement methods in cross-continuum care settings
o Role of the patient as a central role in care and improvement
o Health care industry from the various stakeholder perspectives
o Interplay between providers, payers, employers, communities, public health services, and governmental/regulatory agencies
o Clinical issues and basic principles of continuity of care
o Most common models of ambulatory care redesign (e.g., chronic care model)
o Health information technology applications across the continuum of care
o Applications and integration of population health in ambulatory care
o Care transitions across the continuum of care
Candidate qualifications include:
· Advanced Clinical Degree required
· Master’s degree in business, public health, or policy preferred
· Ten years experience practicing in the ambulatory care setting required
· Five years experience in managing large and small scale quality improvement projects required
· The candidate must have knowledge of IHI’s mission and a willingness to embrace and actively support the unique culture and values of IHI and our work
Qualified candidates should contact the IHI Vice President of Human Resources at:
Ken Tebbetts
(617) 301-4841
Institute for Healthcare Improvement
Vice President, Human Resources
20 University Road, 7th Floor
Cambridge, MA 02138