Senior Director- Clinical Operations Path & Lab Medicine- Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

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The Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania is seeking a Senior Director of Clinical Operations to join the team:

Summary:

• The Senior Director of Clinical Operations supports the Chief Operating Officer by providing strategic operational leadership, supervision, and direction regarding all administrative, financial, regulatory, human resources, patient/employee satisfaction and clinical aspects within the hospital operations of Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. The incumbent will work very closely with key administrative leadership and stakeholders across the institution to ensure operational excellence aligned with UPHS core values and departmental goals. The scope includes an operating budget of $114 million for over 30 accounting units encompassing more than 500 FTES. Working with the COO and Vice Chair for Clinical Services, the Senior Director will develop processes and lead teams to ensure consistency, utilization of best practices, and clear communication between all local system entities, including the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Pennsylvania Hospital, as well as Radnor, Cherry Hill, Bucks County and Rittenhouse locations.

Responsibilities:

• Employee Recruitment/Development/Engagement: Recruits competent, service-oriented staff to meet operational needs. Conducts proper orientation of staff to their roles, accountabilities and performance measures within probationary period. Creates a work environment that is aligned with UPHS Core Values, focusing energies on open communication and collaborating in problem resolution. Assigns work with clearly defined expectations that uses staff skills and talents, provides responsibility and challenge, allows for creativity, and offers leadership opportunities. Encourages continuous growth and helps staff to realize full potential by identifying stretch objectives and creating learning plans to further develop skills. Regularly meets with employees to build productive relationships, providing guidance and support. Continuously communicates to staff the importance of patient satisfaction, quality of care, sound financial performance, and priorities for improving performance in meeting and exceeding patient and customer expectations. Provides effective and timely performance management by recognizing and rewarding individuals for a job well done, addressing performance issues immediately and directly, and conducting annual performance appraisals. Analyzes employee satisfaction data and identifies opportunities for improvement. Develops succession planning for current and future staff.
• Internal Partnerships: Participates in Hospital/Health System initiatives as needed to represent the department and assist in achieving the required change in process and work flow. Monitors and ensures that hospital services (environmental, physical, clinical engineering, and materials management, etc.) are promptly provided to the department and any non-satisfactory issue is resolved promptly. Collaborates with the department Chair, Vice Chairs and Chief Operating Officer to develop and implement strategic clinical goals for the department. Works with leadership to anticipate customer needs and develop programs, services and initiatives to build customer loyalty and generate profitable growth. Sets standards and drives operational integration of programs by ensuring alignment of communication across departmental entities. Provides ongoing review of technical and managerial operations within the department, providing recommendations to further optimize the structure and service of the evolving Health System Laboratory concept. Supports business development and marketing in partnering with affiliates to develop mutually beneficial clinical, operational and marketing plans and programs.
• Patient Care Processes: Ensures all department patient care processes are aligned with Health System standards. Supports the creation of clinical effectiveness targets, improvement plans and reporting systems to ensure the delivery of high quality, effective and efficient care to patients and their families. Ensures all departmental facilities and environments of care are clean, safe and patient friendly. Confirms all outsourced services meet agreed upon service standards. Meets with faculty, independent UPHS physicians, referring MDs and volunteers to understand their respective needs and expectations, to build relationships, and to gauge patient/customer satisfaction. Monitors satisfaction of our clients and proactively implements changes to improve work flow. Manages patient complaints and provides timely follow up. Ensures that teams and individuals have the clinical, information and organizational tools needed to serve our patients and customers effectively and efficiently.
• Technical Services: Monitors overall workflow within the sections to ensure the service is meeting expected turnaround times and service commitments to various inpatient and outpatient areas. Reviews complaints and incidents involving services from physicians, nurses, other health care providers. Trends data for systems problems and collaborates with faculty and supervisory staff to devise and implement corrective actions. Monitors outcomes of corrective actions to ensure appropriate strategies have been implemented. QI/Regulatory/Compliance: Verifies compliance with all OSHA, CDC, CAP, JCAHO, EPA, ACGME, CMS, DOT, CLSI, state and federal agencies. Monitors changes in regulatory requirements from these agencies which directly impact operations. Devises and implements departmental standards to ensure that each lab section maintains quality control, instrument records, test records, and other documentation in a manner that complies with all regulatory requirements and will be reported to/reviewed by the department's Clinical Effectiveness and Quality Improvement Committee (CEQI) meetings. Ensures sections are enrolled in appropriate proficiency testing programs, which meet federal, state and accrediting agency requirements. Reviews systems problems, recommending and implementing corrective measures to improve service. Ensures department human resource management practices comply with labor law, state & federal requirements. Directs and monitors the departmental efforts to maintain a safe working environment through development of safety policies, ongoing surveillance of the environment and work practices, and ensuring staff compliance with continuing education mandates.
• Change Management: Proactively develops and implements change management strategy for major organizational activities and events within the department in alignment with UPHS objectives. Recognizes the systemic impact of employee communication and/or policy changes and solicits proactive feedback prior to implementation. Identifies and facilitates agreement of major messages which are consistent, credible, and reflect UPHS' core values. Effectively manages routine and crisis communication plans throughout the entity/community as they arise. Ensures appropriate follow-up of major issues. Evaluates effectiveness of change and implementation plans. Financial Management: Assists in the implementation of departmental strategic capital and operating budgets using system wide standards and processes. Partners with HUP Leadership team in developing performance targets and assumptions, reporting variances and creating remediation plans. Utilizing a Health Systems Laboratory perspective, assesses technologic changes and/or shifts in service demands and identifies consolidation/restructuring opportunities which will reduce costs and improve service. Assists faculty and technical managers in preparing appropriate justifications and/or ROIs for new program or replacement item funding. Manages FTE budgeted positions - reviews jobs, classifications and maintains a competitive salary structure. Directs the department's charging, billing and compliance program for both the clinical practice and the hospital billing functions. Space Planning: Facilitates facility planning strategy, plan development and implementation. Responsible for oversight of facilities at multiple sites where clinical services are provided.

Education or Equivalent Experience:

• Bachelor of Arts or Science (Required)
• 10+ years Operational functions and services of a major academic medical center, health system, or institute (Required)
• 5+ years Experience managing high volume clinical labs while meeting superior customer satisfaction expectations (Required)

We believe that the best care for our patients starts with the best care for our employees. Our employee benefits programs help our employees get healthy and stay healthy. We offer a comprehensive compensation and benefits program that includes one of the finest prepaid tuition assistance programs in the region. Penn Medicine employees are actively engaged and committed to our mission. Together we will continue to make medical advances that help people live longer, healthier lives.

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We are an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. Candidates are considered for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, marital status, familial status, genetic information, domestic or sexual violence victim status, citizenship status, military status, status as a protected veteran or any other status protected by applicable law.