Medication Safety & Regulatory Compliance Director

As our pharmacy services continue to expand in scope, complexity, and system-wide impact, we are thoughtfully strengthening and advancing our leadership structure to support this growth. This role reflects our commitment to operational excellence, clinical innovation, and strategic alignment across the organization - ensuring our teams have the guidance and resources needed to thrive. Through this intentional investment in leadership, we are positioning our pharmacy services for sustained success in an increasingly complex healthcare environment.

The Medication Safety & Regulatory Compliance Director serves as the system-wide leader responsible for advancing medication safety, ensuring regulatory compliance, and preventing drug diversion across all settings within the organization including acute care, ambulatory, retail & specialty, infusion, and long-term care. This role combines direct supervision with strategic leadership through influence, risk-based decision-making, and deep expertise in medication safety and compliance.

This Director partners with system leaders within quality, pharmacy, nursing, medical staff, risk management, accreditation, compliance, and the executive team to foster a culture of safety, minimize medication-related harm, and maintain continuous readiness for accreditation and regulatory surveys.

What you will do

• Strategic Safety, Diversion, & Compliance Leadership: Evaluate, develop, and lead the health system’s medication safety, diversion prevention, & compliance programs in alignment with national guidelines, best practices and organizational quality goals
• Performance Monitoring & Process Improvement: Monitor, analyze, and report medication safety, diversion, and regulatory compliance trends and key performance indicators to system leadership, and partner with leaders to implement process, technology, and standardization improvements that advance high-reliability performance
• Medication Safety: Champion the vision for system-wide medication safety and execute strategies in alignment with the Institute of Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) and other best practice standards
• Drug Diversion Prevention, Investigation & Reporting: Oversee system-wide diversion prevention through robust monitoring and detection processes, lead prompt and thorough investigations, and ensure all required internal and external reporting to authorities
• Survey & Accreditation Readiness and Regulatory Compliance: Lead pharmacy organizational readiness for surveys, inspections, audits and other regulatory visits. Ensure compliance with all Federal, state, and local regulations related to medication management.
• Policy & Standards Management: Facilitate maintenance of pharmacy policies and procedures that comply with regulatory requirements, best practices, and national standards
• Education & Subject Matter Expertise: Provide education and expertise on medication safety, regulatory expectations, and diversion prevention strategies
• Professional Leadership, Best Practices, & National Engagement: Actively engage in national networks and benchmarking collaboratives to bring leading-edge practices to Riverside

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelors Degree, or higher in Pharmacy (Required)

Experience

• 5 years experience as a Health System Pharmacist (Required)
• 3 years of progressive and relevant leadership experience in medication safety, and/or regulatory compliance (Required)
• 1 year completion of ASHP PGY-1 Residency (Preferred)
• 1 year completion of ASHP PGY-2 Residency in medication safety, informatics, or health system pharmacy administration (Preferred)

Skills and Abilities

• Extensive knowledge of medication safety standards from organizations such as ISMP, ASHP, DNV, and WHO
• In-depth understanding of federal and state pharmacy regulations, including FDA, DEA, CMS, and Board of Pharmacy requirements
• Knowledge of root cause analysis (RCA), failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), and other patient-safety risk assessment methodologies
• Knowledge of medication-use systems, including prescribing, dispensing, administration, and monitoring processes in inpatient and outpatient settings
• Strong analytical and data-interpretation skills to evaluate medication error trends, safety metrics, and reports
• Adept at fostering collaboration across interdisciplinary teams, promoting shared accountability and integrated approaches to safety and compliance
• Excellent leadership and change-management skills, including the ability to implement organization-wide safety initiatives and regulatory programs
• Skilled in policy development and documentation, including writing, reviewing, and revising medication safety protocols and compliance policies
• Effective presentation and communication skills for educating staff, leading committees, and interacting with senior leadership and regulatory bodies
• Ability to design, implement, and oversee comprehensive medication safety and diversion prevention programs, including reporting systems, audits, and quality initiatives

Licenses and Certifications

• Licensed Pharmacist - Virginia Department of Health Professions (VDHP) within 60 Days(Required)
• Board of Pharmacy Specialties (BPS) - Board of Pharmacy Specialties in any specialty (Preferred)
• Completion of DNV ISO and NIAHO training within 1-1/2 Yrs (Required)
• ISMP Medication Safety Certificate or Equivalent within 1-1/2 Yrs (Preferred)

To learn more about being a team member with Riverside Health System visit us at https://www.riversideonline.com/careers.