Director of Specialty Practice Operations

St. Mary’s Healthcare has been providing high-quality, compassionate healthcare to the people of Montgomery and Fulton counties since 1903. At St. Mary’s Hospital, the Rao Outpatient Pavilion and other locations, the local, independent healthcare organization offers the comprehensive, critical services its community needs and deserves. St. Mary’s Healthcare has also been named a 2025 Times Union Top Workplace—the first acute care hospital in the Capital Region to earn the distinction since the Times Union launched the recognition program 14 years ago.

Job Requisition: DIREC001472

Employment Type: Full-Time

Shift: Days
Hours Per Week: 40 Hours

Hiring Range: Starting salary of $105,000.00

The actual compensation for this position will be determined based on experience and other factors permitted by law.

Responsibilities:

• Operations: Responsible for oversight of all front end and back end operational functions for the medical and specialty practice sites to include indirect oversight of reception and registration personnel, medical records, and support services. Monitors patient flow through the practices to ensure appropriate utilization of physician and provider time and staff coverage. Monitors and reviews intake data at time of registration for timeliness, accuracy, and thoroughness. Develops special workload reporting to adjust staffing levels as necessary and utilizes metrics to assess phone volume to ensure ease of access for patients needing to reach the medical office. Demonstrates effectiveness in coordinating the operations across the various specialty practices to best meet the needs of SMHA. Maximizes the utilization of existing resources to ensure efficient delivery of services to both the providers and patients/visitors. Develops benchmarks and metrics and monitors routinely to ensure continued success of SMH medical and specialty practice sites. Participates fully in the formation of strategic and operational plans, both short and long range; operating and capital budgets; and serves on committees and participates in special projects as directed.

• Human Resources: Develops and monitors a staffing pattern to ensure optimal care/service and productivity for the practices and used objective metrics to validate appropriateness of staffing levels within the specialty practices. Responsible for providing leadership, mentoring/coaching and direct supervision to the managers within the specialty practices and has routine interaction with clinical and clerical support staff in those practices. Provides ongoing feedback to managers concerning their performance and ability to effectively implement corrective action and performance improvement plans as needed and per human resource policy. Ensures performance evaluations for direct reports are thorough; completed in a timely manner; and incorporate goal setting for each team member. Establishes systems for open communication and problem solving. Promotes growth and development in self and others. Develops and documents orientation and ongoing training programs for departmental personnel. Effectively uses time, attendance and payroll system. Effectively interprets and implements Human Resource policies in consultation with Human Resources as necessary.

• Fiscal: Prepares and monitors a comprehensive financial plan, annual operating budget and capital budgets for the medical and surgical specialty practice sites. Uses appropriate metrics to monitor ongoing performance. Proactively identifies and develops a plan to correct budget variances. Reviews revenue cycle information for the practices and collaborates with the billing vendor to ensure effective charge capture and documentation of care rendered within the medical note. Conducts spot audits to ensure compliance with established policies and procedures. Monitors non-salary expenditures for the practices and puts metrics in place that managers can track and trend. Oversees the daily/monthly expenditures, staffing and overtime hours and all other expenses for the practice sites and implements process improvement strategies as trends/patterns are identified. Supports the financial stability of the organization; fully participates in the financial planning process by developing budgets for staffing, volume, revenues, expenses, and capital projections annually. Assists in the monitoring of annual practice(s) budgets by analyzing financial impact of changes in clinical activities and forecasts actual revenue/expenditures versus approved budget. Recommends implementation/purchase of new services/equipment. Develops cost/benefit analysis of new services and equipment to maximize patient revenues. Collaborate with colleagues to ensure effective systems and process for any enhanced payment capture (i.e. bundled payments; capitation) that may be prevalent in the medical and surgical specialty practices. Provides timely reporting of key metrics and results to providers to ensure a level of engagement and understanding of operational performance. ·

• Service: Maintains high levels of customer satisfaction as measured by patient satisfaction, provider satisfaction, and employee satisfaction surveys. Assists in the processing and handling of patient complaints through the execution of the organization’s quality and risk management reporting and the service recovery program. Instills a culture of customer service by emphasizing responsiveness, resourcefulness, follow-through, accuracy, timeliness, and accountability.

• Physician Relationships: Interacts on a routine basis with the physicians and advanced practitioners in the medical and surgical specialty practices to ensure that their practice needs are being met; resolution to any administrative issues or concerns is done timely and effectively; lines of communication remain open between practice staff and administration; and high employee morale and a professional, effective, and efficient working atmosphere exists. Participates in strategies to enhance medical provider satisfaction. Demonstrates ability to effectively communicate, negotiate, and collaborate with medical providers to effectively support a continuum of patient care. Monitors physician referral activity and works with providers to resolve any perceived gaps in quality or efficiency of care that may be leading to referrals leaving the network.

• Quality: Establishes, monitors, and assures that all departments within area of responsibility have in place updated written policies, procedures, work schedules, job descriptions, and other necessary documents required for compliance with governing agencies. Analyzes average patient waiting time, turnaround times and other relevant outcome measures to ensure ease of access into the medical and surgical specialty practices. Works collaboratively with other members of the leadership team to improve systems and processes related to the continuum of care; implements best practices for clinical support areas; and collaborates to accomplish the vision and goals of the organization.

• Safety: Assures that practice operations and policies meet hospital safety policies for: equipment, management, life safety, infection control and disasters. Assures on-going training for staff. Collaborate with colleagues to ensure that all appropriate systems and processes are in place to meet regulatory requirements.

Additional Responsibilities:

• Participates on various committees and volunteers and is visible in the community and with professional organizations; encourages involvement by staff and peers.
• Other duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Practice Managers within the medical and surgical specialty care network.

Education, Training & Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in business management or related field required; Master’s degree strongly preferred.
• Minimum of seven (7) years of progressive leadership experience in multi-specialty physician office and/or network required.
• Clinical experience in an outpatient care setting preferred.
• Prior experience in operational process improvement; experience with patient scheduling, registration, and revenue cycle systems and other applicable processes as required; Knowledge of MEDITECH EXPANSE a plus.
• Experience and/or exposure to medical and surgical specialty areas of operation with demonstrated track record of collaboration and partnership development.
• Prior experience with business plan development; familiarity with financial planning, management systems, healthcare, and reimbursement required.

Required Skills and Attributes:

• Clear demonstration of sound leadership characteristics; ethical standards, creativity, risk-taking.
• Ability to work collaboratively with diverse constituents including, but not limited to, staff, leaders, medical staff, patients and the community.
• Able to instill a sense of teamwork and a team-oriented environment.
• Excellent communication skills (written, oral, listening, presentation) required.
• Effective coaching and mentoring skills.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office: Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• Demonstrates a thorough understanding of general financial principles and procedures pertaining to budget development, monitoring and justification.
• Sound problem solving, critical thinking and analytical skills.
• Able to perform high level conceptual analysis, formulate plans and implement.
• Able to prepare complex reports, memoranda and other written materials.
• Understands, interprets and applies laws, rules, regulations and policies related to assigned area.
• Embrace a vision for customer service excellence and reinforce that vision through demonstrated actions and words.
• Able to multitask and prioritize.
• Ability to lead a multidisciplinary team.
• Must be able to remain professional, focused, composed and positive under stressful situations.
• Able to effectively give and receive feedback and incorporate feedback into performance.
• Strong and effective conflict resolution skills.
• Strong working knowledge of hospital industry, key issues, trends and opportunities.
• Effective leadership skills of delegation.
• Familiar with DNV standards compliance requirements in assigned areas.
• Ability to adapt to changing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Must be able to speak, read, write and follow instructions in English.