Quality, Risk & Continuous Improvement Manager - UPMC Kildare

Role overview

This permanent role at UPMC Kildare Hospital in Clane, County Kildare is focused on leading the hospital’s quality, patient safety, risk management, and continuous improvement work. The position is responsible for helping the organisation meet national healthcare standards, advancing improvement initiatives, supporting accreditation activity, and strengthening risk controls across the hospital.

Quality management

• Work alongside the General Manager, Director of Nursing, Chief Quality and Compliance Officer, Medical Director, and other hospital leaders to shape the quality improvement programme and overall strategy.
• Build, roll out, and track the hospital’s Quality Management System.
• Maintain alignment with national healthcare requirements and standards such as HIQA, JCI, ISO, CHKS, JAG, and HSA.
• Direct quality audits, coordinate corrective actions, and follow through on improvement results.
• Review quality metrics, create dashboards, and share updates with senior leadership.
• Support both clinical and non-clinical teams with policy creation and policy review.

Risk management

• Manage the hospital’s risk framework, including identifying, assessing, reducing, and tracking risks.
• Lead incident handling, from investigation and root cause analysis to embedding lessons learned.
• Encourage transparent disclosure and provide support to employees involved in incidents.
• Ensure incidents and risks are reported to the appropriate statutory bodies when required.

Patient safety

• Implement and improve safety programmes covering areas such as falls prevention, medication safety, and infection prevention.
• Track patient safety indicators and clinical outcomes, spot trends, and support targeted improvement actions.
• Chair or facilitate multidisciplinary patient safety groups and committees.
• Help maintain compliance with safeguarding, patient rights, and safe care standards.

Continuous improvement and lean management

• Lead improvement work using tools and methods such as Lean, Six Sigma, PDSA cycles, and process mapping.
• Coach staff in the use of quality improvement techniques and tools.
• Support improvement projects across departments and assess their effectiveness.
• Define and monitor KPIs to measure progress and sustain gains.

Accreditation, compliance, and governance

• Take the lead in preparing for internal reviews, external inspections, and accreditation surveys.
• Ensure policies, documentation, and operational processes meet the required standards.
• Act as a point of contact with regulators and accreditation organisations.
• Support service development and organisational change initiatives.
• Prepare regular reports on quality, risk, and patient safety for hospital leadership.
• Keep records accurate and make sure compliance reports are submitted on time.
• Contribute to clinical audit activity and manage audit-related action plans.
• Participate in governance forums and support evidence-based decisions.

Training, education, and staff engagement

• Deliver training on incident reporting, risk management, quality tools, and improvement methods.
• Promote a workplace culture built on safety, accountability, and continuous learning.
• Engage teams through communication, feedback, and recognition of improvement efforts.
• Support service development through continuing education, research activity, and ongoing awareness of current literature and new developments in management, education, and practice.
• Advise colleagues who are undertaking professional development in the relevant area.
• Contribute to the design and delivery of induction, training, education, and development programmes for nursing and non-nursing staff.
• Take part in in-service training, orientation, appraisals, nurse training programmes, and other hospital development initiatives.
• Provide supervision and professional development support to appropriate staff.
• Participate in performance review processes, including personal development planning, objective setting, and feedback discussions.

Role requirements

Applicants should hold a bachelor’s degree in Nursing, Healthcare Management, Quality, or a related discipline. A master’s degree is desirable. Training in Lean, Six Sigma, or another quality improvement methodology is preferred, with Green Belt or Black Belt considered an advantage.

The role requires experience in healthcare quality, patient safety, or risk management, along with at least 5 years of healthcare administration experience. Prior work with hospital accreditation is essential, particularly CHKS or JCI. Candidates should understand healthcare standards and regulatory obligations, demonstrate strong knowledge of quality and safety frameworks, and show practical ability to apply standards and standardisation to everyday practice and processes.

Strong IT capability is also required, including MS Office, MS Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and effective use of email systems such as Outlook. Core strengths for the position include leadership, sound quality-based decision-making, excellent organisation, project management, stakeholder engagement, problem solving, root cause analysis, data interpretation, report writing, strategic thinking, and a continuous improvement mindset.

Compensation and benefits

Salary is listed at €65,000 to €80,000 per annum, based on a 39-hour work week.

UPMC provides an equal opportunity workplace and is committed to inclusion and diversity. The total rewards package includes competitive pay, performance-related and premium pay where applicable, fully paid maternity and paternity leave, a competitive pension plan, a company-funded death-in-service benefit equal to 3 times salary, critical illness cover up to age 66, annual performance recognition through the ACES programme, enhanced annual leave up to 27 days, flexible working options, and opportunities for continued learning and career progression.

About the organisation

UPMC is a global academic medical centre focused on patient-centred care, clinical and technological innovation, research, and education. In Ireland, the organisation operates hospitals and outpatient services across multiple locations, including UPMC Kildare Hospital in Clane.

Important notice

This job outline may be updated as the needs of the hospital and the post evolve over time.

Employment details

This is a permanent position based onsite in Clane, County Kildare, Ireland.