Director of Risk Management, Las Vegas, NV

Role Overview

Excelon Associates has been retained by a 306-bed acute care teaching hospital in the heart of the Las Vegas Medical District to recruit its next Director of Risk Management. The Director leads the hospital's risk management function and is accountable for keeping the organization aligned with The Joint Commission standards, CMS and state regulations, and every requirement tied to hospital licensing and accreditation. The position is full time and on site in Las Vegas, Nevada, and compensation is discussed with qualified candidates.

The client wants an experienced risk leader, ideally one who has already served as Director of Risk Management in a hospital setting. Candidates need a Bachelor's degree in a related field, two to five years of risk management experience, prior management experience, and working knowledge of The Joint Commission standards and CMS/DHS regulations. A Master's degree, acute care experience, and the Certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management (CPHRM) credential are preferred. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States; visa sponsorship is not available.

What Does a Hospital Director of Risk Management Do?

A Director of Risk Management in an acute care hospital is the leader responsible for identifying, analyzing, and reducing the clinical, operational, and regulatory risks that can harm patients, staff, visitors, or the organization. The role owns the hospital's risk management program: it investigates adverse events and near misses, applies root cause analysis (RCA) and failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) to find and fix the systemic causes behind them, tracks trends with statistical analysis, and keeps hospital policies and procedures aligned with licensing and accreditation standards. The Director works alongside clinical personnel and the medical staff every day and serves as a visible point of contact for patients and the public on risk matters.

Hospitals in Nevada operate inside a layered compliance framework. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) sets the Conditions of Participation a hospital must meet to bill Medicare and Medicaid, The Joint Commission surveys hospitals against its accreditation standards and National Patient Safety Goals, and the state licenses hospitals under Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 449 through the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health, whose Bureau of Health Care Quality and Compliance also conducts certification surveys on behalf of CMS. A teaching hospital adds resident physicians, academic affiliations, and medical education accreditation to that picture. The Director of Risk Management is the person who keeps the hospital survey-ready year round, who leads the response when an event or complaint reaches a regulator, and who brings structure, clear communication, and sound judgment to a department that touches every unit in the building.

Primary Responsibilities

Regulatory Compliance, Licensing, and Accreditation

• Ensure compliance with The Joint Commission standards, CMS/DHS regulations, and all requirements tied to hospital licensing and accreditation.
• Uphold and enforce hospital policies and procedures, and keep them current as regulations and accreditation standards change.
• Keep the hospital survey-ready, respond to regulatory inquiries, and track corrective actions through to closure.

Risk Identification and Analysis

• Apply root cause analysis (RCA), failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), and other quality tools to identify, analyze, and reduce risk across the hospital.
• Use statistical analysis to track trends, measure the effect of interventions, and inform risk decisions.
• Review adverse events, near misses, and complaints, and report findings to hospital leadership and the appropriate committees.

Clinical and Medical Staff Partnership

• Build strong working relationships with clinical teams, medical staff, and hospital leadership.
• Work closely with clinical personnel and the medical staff on event review and process improvement.
• Serve as a visible point of contact for patients and the public on risk matters.

Department Leadership

• Lead and develop the risk management team, bringing structure, clear communication, and sound judgment to the department.
• Solve practical problems in situations where limited standardization exists, interpreting instructions delivered in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form.
• Set department priorities and reporting so risk data reaches the people who can act on it.

Qualifications and Requirements

Required

• Bachelor's degree in a related field from an accredited college or university.
• Two to five years of risk management experience.
• Prior management experience.
• Thorough knowledge of hospital policies and procedures, and detailed knowledge of the regulations and standards governing hospital licensing and accreditation.
• Working knowledge of The Joint Commission standards and CMS/DHS regulations.
• Understanding of statistical analysis.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook, along with hospital software programs as applicable.
• Strong leadership, organization, communication, and interpersonal skills.

Preferred

• Previous experience as Director of Risk Management in a hospital setting.
• Master's degree in a related field from an accredited college or university.
• Acute care experience.
• Minimum three years of leadership experience in a related field.
• Certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management (CPHRM).
• Six Sigma or Lean knowledge.

Work Authorization

• Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States. Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.
• No security clearance is required.

Compensation and Work Setting

The client has not published a salary range for this position. Compensation is competitive for a hospital risk management director in the Las Vegas market and is discussed with qualified candidates during the recruiting process, along with the hospital's full-time benefits package.

Hospital risk management directors are typically benchmarked against the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics category for medical and health services managers (SOC 11-9111). Pay in that group varies by hospital size, teaching status, and market. The American Society for Health Care Risk Management (ASHRM) is the professional society for this field, and the CPHRM credential it promotes is the one most hospital employers, including this client, prefer to see.

Who Thrives in This Role?

This role rewards a risk leader who has already run a hospital risk management department and been judged on survey results, event trends, and claims exposure. The strongest candidates have led a hospital through a Joint Commission survey, know the CMS Conditions of Participation well enough to spot a problem before a surveyor does, and can take a serious event from first report through root cause analysis to a corrective action plan that clinical staff will actually follow.

It is a relationship seat as much as an analytical one. Joint Commission surveys are unannounced, so readiness has to be continuous rather than a pre-visit scramble, and that only works when nurses, physicians, and department managers trust the Director enough to report near misses early. In a teaching hospital, resident physicians and attending staff rotate through, so event review and education have to work with a medical staff that changes year to year.

The client asks for someone who can solve practical problems where limited standardization exists, and that describes the day-to-day. The best fit is comfortable on the units as well as in the conference room, brings structure and calm to a department that hears about the hospital's worst days first, and communicates clearly with everyone from a charge nurse to the chief executive.

About Excelon Associates and the Client

Excelon Associates is a retained and contingency executive search firm founded in 2007, headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, with offices in Boca Raton and Delray Beach, Florida, and a dedicated healthcare recruitment practice that places hospital and health system leaders, clinical directors, and physicians. This search is being conducted on a retained basis on behalf of an acute care teaching hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the firm publishes its search fees and engagement terms so clients and candidates know how it works.

The client is a 306-bed acute care teaching hospital in the heart of the Las Vegas Medical District, the health care and medical education hub near downtown Las Vegas that is also home to the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV. The hospital trains resident physicians alongside its clinical teams and is held to The Joint Commission's hospital standards. The client's identity is shared with qualified candidates during the recruiting process. You can browse current open roles or review recent campaigns.

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The client is an equal opportunity employer and values all applications. Excelon does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, marital or veteran status, disability, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.