Director of Admissions

POSITION SUMMARY

The Director of Admissions leads Polara Health’s centralized intake and admissions function and proactively drives appropriate patient volume across the organization’s crisis, inpatient, and residential continuum. The Director develops referral relationships, creates efficient intake and admission pathways, monitors real-time capacity, and removes barriers that delay admission while ensuring patients are placed at the clinically appropriate level of care.

This role partners closely with the Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU), subacute/inpatient services, The Healing Place (THP), outpatient services, clinical leadership, and Finance/Revenue Cycle to strengthen the patient journey from initial referral through admission, discharge, and follow-up care. A primary objective is to maximize clinically appropriate utilization of available CSU chairs, inpatient/subacute beds, and THP capacity while developing an internal referral pathway for individuals who do not meet criteria for higher-acuity services.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Responsibilities will include, but will not be limited to, the following:

1. Centralized Intake & Admissions Leadership:

• Design, implement, and lead a centralized intake and admissions process for CSU, subacute/inpatient, THP, and other designated Polara Health services.
• Standardize referral receipt, clinical review, acceptance/declination, financial clearance, admission coordination, and handoff workflows.
• Ensure referrals are acted upon promptly and barriers to admission are escalated and resolved in real time.
• Establish staffing, communication, coverage, and accountability practices that support timely access to care.
• Recruit, train, coach, and supervise intake/admissions staff as assigned.

2. Census, Capacity & Patient Flow:

• Maintain real-time awareness of census, expected discharges, available beds/chairs, staffing capacity, and anticipated openings across CSU, subacute/inpatient, and THP.
• Collaborate with each business unit to forecast discharge volume and expected capacity so openings can be matched with appropriate referrals as quickly as possible.
• Drive toward full, clinically appropriate utilization of available treatment capacity and develop action plans when census or referral conversion falls below established targets.
• Support the objective of filling available capacity following discharge whenever clinically appropriate and operationally feasible, while maintaining medical necessity, patient safety, regulatory, staffing, and payer requirements.
• Identify bottlenecks affecting admissions and patient throughput and lead cross-functional efforts to eliminate avoidable delays.

3. Referral Development & Volume Growth:

• Develop and maintain strong relationships with Arizona hospitals, emergency departments, crisis providers, health plans, first responders, community providers, and other referral sources.
• Conduct proactive outreach to generate appropriate referrals rather than relying solely on passive referral volume.
• Serve as a senior clinical and operational liaison to key referral partners and resolve access or placement concerns.
• Identify referral channels, geographic opportunities, and service gaps that can increase patient access and sustainable organizational revenue.
• Work with executive leadership to develop strategies for increasing referral volume and market penetration.
• Track referral patterns and identify opportunities where patients are being referred outside of the Polara Health continuum.

4. Outpatient Funnel & Internal Patient Journey:

• Develop a secondary intake pathway for individuals who do not meet criteria for CSU, inpatient/subacute, or residential admission.
• Ensure individuals are evaluated for appropriate Polara Health outpatient services whenever clinically appropriate.
• Partner with outpatient leadership to develop eligibility, scheduling, warm-handoff, and follow-up processes.
• Support post-discharge transitions into appropriate Polara Health outpatient and follow-up services.
• Monitor internal referral conversion and identify barriers preventing patients from connecting with the next appropriate service.
• Promote a patient journey model that seeks to identify an appropriate Polara Health service for each referral whenever possible.

5. Financial Clearance & Revenue Cycle Collaboration:

• Collaborate with Finance and Revenue Cycle to ensure verification of benefits (VOB), eligibility, prior authorization, and other financial clearance requirements are addressed for each admission, as applicable.
• Coordinate clinical acceptance and financial clearance without creating unnecessary barriers or delays to patient access.
• Monitor payer authorization barriers, denials, and admission delays and partner on corrective action.
• Ensure intake/admissions teams obtain and communicate information necessary to support authorization and reimbursement.
• Identify recurring payer or authorization issues that negatively impact admissions or revenue.

6. Performance, Analytics & Accountability:

• Monitor referral volume/source, acceptance and conversion rates, decline reasons, response time, admission turnaround, daily census, utilization, discharge-to-admission turnaround, lost referrals, internal outpatient conversion, and financial-clearance delays.
• Provide daily, weekly, and monthly admissions and census reporting to executive and operational leadership.
• Use data to identify referral trends, capacity gaps, operational barriers, and growth opportunities.
• Establish measurable performance expectations for the centralized admissions function.
• Lead process-improvement initiatives that simplify intake, reduce handoffs, improve referral-source experience, and increase appropriate admissions.

7. Clinical, Quality & Regulatory Oversight:

• Ensure intake and admissions activities comply with applicable AHCCCS, ADHS, CMS, Joint Commission, payer, privacy, and Polara Health requirements.
• Ensure admission decisions are based upon clinical appropriateness, medical necessity, program criteria, patient safety, and organizational capability.
• Ensure census and revenue objectives do not override clinical judgment, medical necessity, patient safety, or regulatory requirements.
• Partner with Quality, Compliance, Nursing, and clinical leadership regarding intake and admissions quality concerns.
• Develop and maintain admissions policies, procedures, escalation pathways, scripts, and standard work.

8. Leadership & Clinical Support:

• Serve as an active member of Polara Health’s leadership team and collaborate across clinical, operational, financial, and administrative functions.
• Maintain a visible operational presence at the CSU and other service locations as needed.
• When actively licensed and credentialed as an RN, provide nursing support within scope of practice during urgent operational needs, including assistance with clinical responses and codes, without compromising primary responsibilities.
• Perform other duties as assigned in support of Polara Health’s mission and organizational goals.

INITIAL PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS

• Within the first 30 days, establish a centralized operating process for referral management, capacity visibility, escalation, and admissions performance reporting.
• Develop and execute a strategy to move CSU chairs, subacute/inpatient beds, and THP toward established capacity targets while maintaining clinical appropriateness and safe staffing.
• Establish consistent communication with key Arizona hospital, crisis, payer, and community referral partners.
• Implement a process for rapidly matching anticipated discharges with appropriate incoming admissions.
• Establish an internal referral pathway so individuals who do not meet higher-acuity criteria are offered an appropriate Polara Health service whenever available and clinically appropriate.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

A minimum of five years of progressively responsible experience in healthcare admissions, intake, patient access, behavioral health operations, hospital operations, or a closely related function is required, preferably in a behavioral health setting:

• Current, unrestricted Registered Nurse (RN) license in Arizona or multistate compact privilege to practice in Arizona.
• Bachelor’s degree in Nursing, Healthcare Administration, Business Administration, Human Services, or related field; equivalent highly relevant experience may be considered.
• Demonstrated experience increasing census, referral conversion, patient throughput, or admissions performance.
• Leadership experience with responsibility for staff, workflows, performance expectations, and cross-functional execution.
• Strong knowledge of behavioral health levels of care, admission criteria, utilization management, payer authorization, and patient flow.
• Ability to develop productive relationships with hospitals, crisis systems, health plans, providers, and community referral partners.
• Strong analytical, communication, negotiation, problem-solving, and relationship-management skills.
• Must be able to provide or obtain an AZDPS Level One Fingerprint Clearance Card.
• Must possess and maintain a valid Driver License, current automobile insurance, and an acceptable driving record.
• CPR/First Aid and CPI certification required; training may be provided by Polara Health.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Seven or more years of healthcare admissions, patient access, crisis, inpatient, or behavioral health leadership experience.
• Experience leading centralized admissions/intake across multiple levels of care.
• Extensive knowledge of Arizona’s hospital, crisis, behavioral health, and payer systems.
• Established professional relationships with Arizona hospitals and behavioral health referral partners.
• Experience with VOB, prior authorization, utilization management, revenue-cycle processes, EHRs, referral-management systems, and dashboards.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS & WORKING CONDITIONS

The physical and working demands described here are representative of those required to perform the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodations may be made for qualified individuals with disabilities.

• Behavioral health crisis/inpatient and office environment; travel to Polara Health locations and community/referral partners as needed.
• Heavy exposure/use of computers, cell phones, office phones, and related technology.
• Daily, weekly, monthly, and annual deadlines and performance expectations.
• Ability to sit, stand, walk, reach, climb, bend, and remain seated for prolonged periods.
• Manual dexterity and vision sufficient to operate office equipment and review electronic and written information.
• Must be able to occasionally lift and/or move 25 or more pounds.
• Must respond appropriately and effectively in crisis situations using good judgment and Polara Health protocols.
• When providing RN support, must be able to perform the physical requirements associated with assigned nursing duties and required CPI training.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities


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