Job Description

The Director of Ambulatory Operations is responsible for the key hospital initiatives within the Ambulatory enterprise. The critical responsibility is to optimize Access to ambulatory care services across Tufts Medical Center to achieve our strategic access goals and provide exceptional patient service. This includes overseeing the creation and implementation of policies, procedures and standards related to Practice operations, staffing models, patient care issues, and customer service. The Director provides broad support and guidance to the Medical Center in matters regarding the provision of quality patient care and patient service, working with multiple constituencies to ensure that problems are identified and resolved, that regulatory requirements and other professional standards are maintained, and that service standards are upheld.

Under the direction of the Vice President, this position is responsible for supporting the Tufts Medical Center (Tufts MC) and Tufts Medical Center’s Physicians Organization (Tufts MCPO) ambulatory agenda. It is anticipated that the areas of focus would include patient appointment access, collaboration with revenue cycle operations, ambulatory patient flow and service innovation initiatives.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• In collaboration with the VP, plays a lead role in development of our ambulatory vision and goals.
• Accountable for achieving significant and continuous improvement on access metrics across Tufts Medical Center on our CGCAHPS patient surveys
• Identify and execute key tactics and projects that will support access improvement and exceptional patient experience
• Review and report out to ambulatory leadership results of all access projects and make recommendations for revisions and/or deployment of successful best practices across the ambulatory enterprise.
• Oversight of Tufts Medical Center Contact Center operations, personnel and budget
• Provide leadership and direction including communication and collaboration with senior leaders and staff to deliver on the competitive imperative of ambulatory access
• For areas with constrained access, either episodic or long-standing, work with physician and administrative leadership across Tufts Medical Center and our partners as appropriate to identify and implement specific strategies for short and longer term to meet patient care needs
• Develop, integrate, and oversee ongoing audits of template and scheduling practices to ensure consistency with our scheduling policies.
• Focus on growing new patient volumes for key services and the success of new programs
• Work closely with Contact Center team to ensure access goals and first call appointment is in alignment.
• Lead the Tufts Medical Center Access Task Force to ensure rapid progress on key access strategies across the clinics
• Actively participate on Tufts Medical Center strategic committees and other key leadership meetings on Ambulatory Access.
• Maintain current knowledge on emerging best practices on access, contact center management, technology and other strategies to optimize patient access on a national level.
• Foster continuous improvement methods to develop innovative approaches to add valued convenience to the patient experience in their Tufts Medical Center journey from the moment of first contact.
• Oversee Contact Center budget to ensure optimal quality and service along with efficiency and fiscal responsibility.
• Establish and develop excellent relationships with the staff physicians, as well as other clinicians
• Work collaboratively with business managers to plan and execute ambulatory improvement initiatives focused on patient access and service.
• Lead Tufts MC and Tufts MCPO hospital based practices to participate in ambulatory initiatives.
• Collaborate with ambulatory management to develop and implement ambulatory standards, metrics and performance measures
• Work with appropriate leadership to develop quality and safety guidelines and measures
• Monitor the ambulatory patient satisfaction surveys to measure improvement efforts and guide future interventions.
• Serve as an internal consultant to ambulatory operating departments on a variety of projects including process improvement, regulatory matters, and clinical operations.
• May perform other job related duties as required or requested.

Qualifications

JOB KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS:

• Personal Leadership and Integrity – open, genuine, inclusive communication style. Effective at championing a compelling vision and leading by example. Guides team through transition to new achievements.
• Strategic Thinker – Understands large picture and how the Contact Center ties into larger strategic goals of Tufts Medical Center & the Network. Creates a plan/tactics to achieve vision/strategic goals. Ability to simplify complexity. Uses data to make decisions while relying upon strong inter-personal skills to drive change.
• Team Building – Experience and skill in engaging employees and creating positive, enthusiastic work environment that fosters loyalty and employee satisfaction
• Interpersonal skills – Effectively influences and negotiates with others to achieve win/win situations. Others want to work with/for this person.
• Drive for results – Goal oriented. Seeks to overcome obstacles to achieve goals.
• Collaborative Team Member – Works well with others inside/outside organization. Understands needs/preferences of internal customers (clinics) – high sensitivity to the importance of patient experience at clinics. Seeks to work with clinics in optimizing patient experience at all touch points.

EDUCATION:

• BA or BS required; Master’s degree in business or health care strongly preferred
• 10+ years demonstrated success/results in customer service support or Contact Center organization. 5+ years in management capacity.
• Previous experience in Business to Business and/or Business to Customer environments
• Healthcare Industry experience highly desirable

EXPERIENCE:

• Seven to ten years of progressive management growth in a physician/hospital setting.

WORKING CONDITIONS:

• Normal Office Working Conditions

Additional Information

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES STATEMENT:

Must be able to perform all essential functions of this position with reasonable accommodation if disabled.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed. They are not intended to be construed, as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of personnel so classified. Tufts Medical Center reserves the right to modify position duties at any time, to reflect process improvements and business necessity.

COVID-19 POLICY:

Please note that effective October 1, 2021, as a condition of employment at Tufts Medical Center, all employees and new hires must have received their complete dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, unless they have been granted an exemption.