Manager of Oral Health Operations

POSITION SUMMARY

The Manager of Oral Health Operations is responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the dental department, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, patient-centered care. This role involves managing clinical staff, coordinating community outreach programs, and developing strategies to improve oral health services. The Manager of Oral Health Operations will work closely with other healthcare leaders to advance the organization's mission and goals, focusing on serving underserved populations.

KC CARE CULTURE CODE

KC CARE follows a culture code in all we do. Our code determines how we work, treat each other, and move health equity forward. As an employee of KC CARE, you will:

Put patients first, always

Treat all people with dignity, respect, and kindness

Create safe places for others to share their voice; encourage creativity

Always strive for improvement; keep learning

Own your work, action, and mistakes - no one is perfect

Have fun - work should be fun and we want you to have fun at KC CARE

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Oversee the daily operations of the dental department, ensuring efficient and effective service delivery.
• Develop and implement policies, procedures, and protocols to maintain high standards of care.
• Monitor and manage clinical performance metrics, patient satisfaction, and health outcomes.
• Coordinate scheduling and workflow to optimize patient care and staff productivity.
• Ensure compliance with all relevant healthcare regulations, accreditation standards, and FQHC requirements.
• Serves as infection control officer by coordinating training, ensuring policies and procedures comply with state and federal infection control guidelines, and doing quality checks.
• Serves as the Radiation Safety Officer by coordinating training, ensuring policies and procedures comply with state and federal radiation guidelines and doing quality checks.
• Maintains inventory of equipment, instruments, and supplies at acceptable levels for clinic operations.
• Maintains oral health equipment and coordinates repairs and maintenance as needed.
• Serves as a resource for all oral health staff during clinic hours to address problems or concerns.
• Provide leadership and supervision to dental assistants and other clinical staff.
• Conduct regular performance evaluations, provide feedback, and support professional development.
• Foster a collaborative and supportive work environment, promoting teamwork and continuous learning.
• Recruit, train, and onboard new dental staff members. Address patient concerns and ensure a compassionate, culturally competent approach to care.
• Manage the dental referral process, ensuring timely and appropriate referrals to specialists and other healthcare providers.
• Coordinate follow-up care and communication between patients, dental staff, and referral partners.
• Assist with community outreach to promote oral health awareness and services.
• Partner with community organizations, schools, and other stakeholders to provide oral health education and resources.
• Participate in health fairs, screenings, and other community events.
• Track the impact of outreach programs on community oral health outcomes.

LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES

People Management - Identifies strengths and weaknesses, evaluates workloads, and splits tasks among team members accordingly; accurately identifies and responds to the expression of feelings to prevent conflict and develop relationships to provide the psychological safety needed to thrive in the workplace; clearly defines employee roles and responsibilities; establishes common ground while also nurturing individual talents, meaningfully connecting teammates in ways that encourage further interaction; sets standards for communication and models those behaviors; leads by example.

Operations Management - Directs and guides operations in alignment with the KC CARE's overall mission, vision, and culture code; ensures the execution of efficient processes to maximize KC CARE's resources.

Strategic Leadership - Balances day-to-day with future plans; creates better processes and solutions and motivates others to do the same; creates teams that support strategic initiatives and propels them forward; effectively communicates strategies internally and externally; creates a culture to support strategies and provides mechanisms to implement them; fosters buy-in and enthusiasm with employees.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

Associate's degree in Dental Assisting, Dental Hygiene, or related field.

Five years of experience in a dental or clinical setting

One year of supervisory or lead experience

PREFERRED REQUIREMENTS

Licensed by the State of Missouri

• Certificate in Dental Assisting

Experience in an FQHC or community health setting

Knowledge of dental workflows, scheduling, and patient access strategies

Familiarity with dental billing, insurance, and HER systems

WORKING CONDITIONS AND DEMANDS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Working Conditions

General working conditions are in a healthcare facility. As such, there is a potential exposure to virus, disease, and infection from patients while performing the duties of this job. May experience traumatic situations including psychiatric traumatized and deceased patients. Travel may be expected to community meetings, client homes, or other agencies.

Physical Demands

While performing duties of this job, employees are regularly required to set, walk, and stand; talk and hear; both in person and by telephone; use hands repetitively to finger, handle, feel, or operate standard office or clinical equipment; reach with hands and arms; and occasionally lift up to 20 pounds.

Mental Demands

While performing the duties of this job, employees are regularly required to use written and oral communication skills; read, analyze, and interpret data, information and documents; analyze and solve non-routine and complex problems; use math and mathematical reasoning; observe and interpret situations; learn and apply new information or skills; perform highly detailed work on multiple, concurrent tasks; work under intensive deadlines with frequent interruptions; and interact with others outside of their department.

Duties and responsibilities, as required by business necessity may be added, deleted, or changed at any time at the discretion of management, formally or informally, either verbally or in writing. Scheduling, shift assignments, and location may be changed at any time, as required by business necessity.