Centralus Health Director Infection Prevention and Control

Job description

About Arnot Health
Arnot Health offers patient-centered, comprehensive health services to the Southern Tier of New York and Northern Tier of Pennsylvania. Campuses include Arnot Ogden Medical Center and St. Joseph's Hospital in Elmira; Ira Davenport Memorial Hospital in Bath, NY; and over 40 medical offices in the Southern Tier. Arnot Health is currently affiliated with more than 300 physicians from 50+ specialties.
Arnot Health is a member of Centralus Health, a community-based integrated delivery system. Our mission is to deliver high-quality care, empower our teams to succeed, and improve the wellbeing of the communities we serve.
Our commitment to quality personalized care begins with our exceptional team—over 6500 employees strong. At Arnot Health, you will work in a collaborative environment that values excellence, integrity, compassion and stewardship. Together, we create an environment where empathy, honesty and a dedication to quality thrive, empowering us to make a positive impact on the lives we touch.
We offer competitive wages, comprehensive benefits, and professional development opportunities to help our employees grow and thrive. Whether you are just starting your career or taking the next step in healthcare, we invite you to join us in shaping the future of care in our communities.
Learn more at www.arnothealth.org .
Centralus Health Director Infection Prevention and Control
The Director of Infection Prevention & Control provides strategic leadership and system-wide oversight for infection prevention across all hospitals, ambulatory, and post-acute settings within Centralus Health. This role is responsible for ensuring regulatory compliance, advancing organizational readiness for accreditation and survey activities, and proactively aligning infection prevention with organizational brand, reputation, quality outcomes, and financial risk mitigation.
The Director will serve as a trusted advisor to executive and clinical leadership, working across disciplines to build sustainable systems, future-proof infection prevention strategies, and ensure integration with quality, risk, and patient safety initiatives. As part of Centralus Health's Integrated Quality Division, the Director is the accountable executive for mitigation efforts aimed at reducing overall risk to the organization, its patients and families, and the broader community based on the burden of disease.
This role requires cross-disciplinary alignment between Laboratory, Pharmacy, and critical clinical service lines to ensure a comprehensive approach to infection prevention and population health improvement efforts. By leveraging the antibiogram and epidemiologic insights, the Director ensures that organizational strategies address antimicrobial resistance, optimize stewardship, and reduce variation in care delivery while proactively anticipating emerging threats and exposures that pose risks to patients and staff.
Roles and Responsibilities:
• Co-create and operationalize strategic leadership and governance with the Associate Chief Quality Officer and Medical Directors, by developing and executing a system-wide infection prevention strategy that aligns with organizational goals, public health priorities, and Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) findings. Maintain rotational on-site presence across all hospitals, ambulatory, and post-acute sites to ensure alignment and accountability.*
• Advise executive and clinical leadership on emerging risks, evolving epidemiologic trends, and community disease burden, ensuring proactive mitigation of exposures that could impact patients, staff, and the community.*
• Lead governance structures that integrate infection prevention into Centralus Health's Integrated Quality Division, ensuring alignment with quality, patient safety, and enterprise risk management frameworks. Serve as the accountable executive for system-level infection prevention risk mitigation that acts proactively and autonomously.*
• Collaborate with Population Health, Public Health agencies, Laboratory, Pharmacy, and clinical service lines to ensure a comprehensive approach to infection prevention, antimicrobial stewardship, and population health improvement. Leverage the antibiogram and surveillance data to proactively address antimicrobial resistance and optimize stewardship practices.*
• Ensure regulatory and accreditation readiness by maintaining compliance with CMS Conditions of Participation, Joint Commission standards, NHSN requirements, and state/federal regulations. Provide executive oversight of system readiness for surveys, tracers, and audits, including unscheduled regulatory visits. The Director is accountable to all standards and will ensure proactive and ongoing compliance monitoring.*
• Oversee quality integration and outcomes, partnering with Quality, Risk, CDI, Clinical Data, and Patient Safety leaders to monitor, track, and report Healthcare-Associated Conditions (HACs). Ensure results are translated into evidence-based, system-level interventions that reduce variation, protect reimbursement under Value-Based Purchasing (VBP), and safeguard organizational reputation.*
• Direct team development and oversight, serving as mentor and leader to the Clinical Manager and Infection Preventionists across the system. Build capacity through succession planning, APIC-aligned competency development, and a culture of accountability and psychological safety.*
• Collaborate with Finance, Marketing/Communications, Sr. Director/Associate Chief Quality Officer, and Chief Medical Officer(s) to ensure that HAC performance and infection prevention outcomes are communicated transparently, with clear links to both brand and financial impact.*
• Partnering with Clinical Data, Clinical Education and Learning Management to integrate infection prevention standards into onboarding, annual competencies, and leadership training across all care settings.*
• Serve as the escalation authority for complex infection prevention issues, outbreak responses, or cross-disciplinary conflicts. Facilitate alignment across departments, ensuring timely, evidence-based solutions and translating lessons learned into sustainable organizational practice change.*
• Maintains oversight and co-ownership with relative operational leaders for accountability of service expectations and metrics for clinical contracts that directly impact subject matter.
• Promotes and facilitates research activities that contribute to evidence-based practice and continuous improvement in infection prevention and patient care
• Other duties as assigned.

Required Skills and Experience:
• Master's degree in Nursing, Epidemiology, Microbiology, Public Health, or related health sciences.
• Minimum 10 years in infection prevention, epidemiology, or quality leadership, with at least 5 years in a director-level/system leadership role.
• Certification in Infection Control (CIC®) required.
• Demonstrated success in leading infection prevention across multi-hospital systems and engaging with public health agencies.
• Demonstrated ability to design, facilitate, and sustain improvement teams across hospitals and clinics, ensuring alignment with system priorities and achievement of measurable performance goals.

Preferred Skills and Experience:
• Doctorate degree in Epidemiology, Public Health, Nursing, or related healthcare discipline required. Master's in Nursing, Public Health, or Healthcare Administration preferred.
• Fellowship with APIC, SHEA, or CPH (Certified in Public Health).
• Proven ability to sustain optimal performance in employee engagement.
• Strong knowledge of NHSN reporting, EHR surveillance tools, and CMS/Joint Commission standards.
• Ability to translate data into clear strategies that improve outcomes, reduce burden, and enhance organizational readiness.
• Experience with NHSN, EHR surveillance tools (Epic Bugsy, Theradoc, etc.), and advanced Excel or data visualization platforms (Tableau, Power BI, Qlik).

Physical Requirements:
• Must be able to remain at a workstation and move around the workspace as needed to complete job tasks, with or without reasonable accommodation.

Location, Travel and Shift Requirements:
• Onsite- Rotational on-site presence at all Centralus Sites
• Full Time Days
• 50% Travel can be expected in this role

Pay Range Disclosure:
• Standard Rate of $120,000-$170,000 salary plus benefits

Centralus and its affiliates are committed to treating all patients, providers, staff and volunteers equitably and with dignity, ensuring the highest levels of safety, care and respect, and striving to recognize and overcome biases and policies that contribute to disparities in healthcare access, equitable care and positive health outcomes for all.
We are proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer, supporting the growth and health of our employees and community by embracing the rich diversity, needs and circumstances of all peoples and prioritizing opportunities to build a diverse and inclusive workplace. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable protected characteristics.
If you require reasonable accommodation to complete a job application, pre-employment testing, a job interview or to otherwise participate in the hiring process, please contact the Centralus Talent Acquisition team at [email protected] .