Director, Patient Access and Care Navigation

City/State

Norfolk, VA

Work Shift

First (Days)

Overview:

The Director of Patient Access and Care Navigation provides strategic and operational leadership over all access, navigation, and consumer experience functions within the Ambulatory Services Division. This role is responsible for designing and implementing scalable access models that improve care coordination, enhance patient experience, and optimize performance across scheduling, registration, call center operations, and care navigation services.

Serving as a key connector between ambulatory operations, hospital-based services, and enterprise functions such as Revenue Cycle and Finance, the Director ensures a coordinated, patient-centered approach that supports seamless transitions across the care continuum.

A critical component of this role involves providing ongoing education, support, and operational resources to ambulatory offices to ensure frontline teams are equipped to deliver high-quality access and navigation services. The Director partners with practice leadership to build capabilities, reinforce best practices, and promote standard work that aligns with enterprise access and capacity goals.

The Director leads cross-functional teams focused on scheduling optimization, pre-visit readiness, insurance authorization, referral management, and navigation services, while ensuring alignment with organizational goals, compliance standards, and operational efficiency targets. This role plays a vital part in enterprise access transformation efforts, acting as a thought partner to executive leadership and an operational liaison across departments to drive system-wide improvements in access and experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic and Operational Leadership Leads the strategic direction, implementation, and continuous improvement of access, care navigation, and consumer experience services within the Ambulatory Services Division. Ensures alignment with enterprise goals related to access, capacity, patient experience, and clinical integration.
• Cross-Functional Oversight Oversees scheduling operations, pre-registration, registration, referral and authorization workflows, call center performance, and navigation services to support patient-centered care delivery. Promotes coordination between ambulatory offices, hospitals, centralized services, and system functions such as Revenue Cycle, Finance, and Care Management.
• Practice Support and Education Partners with ambulatory practice leadership to deliver education, tools, and resources that enable front-line staff to consistently provide high-quality, efficient access and navigation services. Builds local capability and champions standard work adoption across all sites.
• Access Model Design and Optimization Leads the development and execution of scalable, sustainable access models that improve provider utilization, reduce wait times, and streamline scheduling workflows. Applies data-driven strategies to enhance patient access and operational throughput.
• Customer Experience and Service Standards Implements and monitors patient experience and service excellence standards related to access and navigation. Ensures provider and staff interactions reflect the organization’s values, meet service level expectations, and promote equitable access to care.
• Workforce Management and Development Provides leadership to a diverse team across multiple functions. Coaches and develops leaders and team members while fostering a culture of accountability, continuous learning, and professional growth. Ensures effective deployment of staffing, resource management, and productivity monitoring.
• Regulatory and Compliance Oversight Ensures compliance with all regulatory, accreditation, and legal requirements related to access functions (e.g., registration accuracy, insurance verification, pre-authorization). Regularly reviews processes for quality, risk mitigation, and audit readiness.
• Performance Management and Continuous Improvement Monitors operational and performance metrics, identifying trends and opportunities to enhance workflow efficiency, reduce leakage, and improve navigation outcomes. Leads or contributes to enterprise-wide access transformation projects and performance improvement initiatives.
• Stakeholder Collaboration Serves as a connector between Ambulatory Services and key stakeholders across the organization, including physician leadership, clinical operations, hospital-based services, patient financial services, and executive leadership. Facilitates alignment across departments to support seamless care transitions and system integration.
  
  
  

Education

• Bachelor’s degree (Required)
  
  
  

Experience

• Experience with electronic health records (e.g. Epic), digital scheduling platforms, and CRM tools (Required).
• Experience in patient access, ambulatory operations, or health system navigation within a complex healthcare environment (Required).
• 5 years management experience (Required)
• 3 years patient navigation experience (Required)
  
  
  

Benefits: Caring For Your Family and Your Career

• Medical, Dental, Vision plans
• Adoption, Fertility and Surrogacy Reimbursement up to $10,000
• Paid Time Off and Sick Leave
• Paid Parental & Family Caregiver Leave
• Emergency Backup Care
• Long-Term, Short-Term Disability, and Critical Illness plans
• Life Insurance
• 401k/403B with Employer Match
• Tuition Assistance – $5,250/year and discounted educational opportunities through Guild Education
• Student Debt Pay Down – $10,000
• Reimbursement for certifications and free access to complete CEUs and professional development
• Pet Insurance
• Legal Resources Plan
• Colleagues have the opportunity to earn an annual discretionary bonus if established system and employee eligibility criteria is met.
  
  
  

Sentara Health is an equal opportunity employer and prides itself on the diversity and inclusiveness of its close to an almost 30,000-member workforce. Diversity, inclusion, and belonging is a guiding principle of the organization to ensure its workforce reflects the communities it serves.

In support of our mission “to improve health every day,” this is a tobacco-free environment.

For positions that are available as remote work, Sentara Health employs associates in the following states:

Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.