Director of Clinical Support & Operations

Job Description

Job Description

The Director of Clinical Support & Operations is responsible for providing strategic and operational leadership for the clinical support functions that facilitate efficient communication and coordination between patients, Medical Assistants (MAs), nurses, and other members of the care team.

The Director oversees the Medical Assistant team responsible for serving as the primary call-buffer and frontline support function for the nursing department. This role establishes and maintains the operational structure necessary to ensure incoming calls, patient requests, messages, and care-related communications are appropriately received, documented, prioritized, and routed to the appropriate member of the care team.

The Director is responsible for ensuring that clinical support operations are structured to protect nursing capacity, improve patient access and communication, reduce unnecessary interruptions, and create consistent and efficient workflows.

This position provides leadership for staffing, workforce planning, operational performance, quality, training, workflow development, process improvement, and cross-functional collaboration. The Director partners closely with nursing leadership and other organizational leaders to ensure clinical support operations align with organizational goals, patient needs, and established clinical standards.

COMPETENCIES

• Strategic Leadership
• Operational Leadership
• Clinical Workflow Management
• Care Coordination
• Team Development
• Performance Management
• Workforce Planning
• Quality Improvement
• Data-Driven Decision Making
• Process Improvement
• Critical Thinking
• Problem Solving
• Patient-Centered Service
• Communication
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Change Management
• Accountability
• Strong organizational and prioritization skills
• Healthcare operations knowledge
• Knowledge of HIPAA and patient privacy requirements
• Ability to use performance data and KPIs to manage operational performance

TRAVEL

• Travel is expected for this position

Essential Job Duties:

Provide strategic and operational leadership for clinical support functions; establish the structure, workflows, performance expectations, policies, procedures, and standards necessary to support efficient patient communication and nursing workflow

Lead, supervise, coach, and develop the Medical Assistant team. Establish performance expectations, productivity standards, accountability measures, staffing, scheduling, workload distribution, and performance management processes.

Oversee the MA team serving as the primary call buffer for nurses. Ensure patient calls and requests are appropriately managed, documented, prioritized, and routed to the appropriate nurse or care team member.

Oversee communication between patients, MAs, nurses, and other departments. Establish standardized processes for handoffs, follow-up, escalation, and tracking of outstanding patient requests.

Partner with nursing leadership to develop and maintain effective workflows, call guides, scripts, escalation procedures, job aids, and clearly defined responsibilities for MAs, nurses, and other care team members.

Establish quality standards and monitor the accuracy of MA documentation, call handling, message routing, and adherence to organizational policies, HIPAA requirements, and established procedures.

Establish onboarding and competency expectations for MAs and clinical support staff. Partner with Training to develop role-specific training and ongoing competency and development programs.

Develop, monitor, analyze, and report key performance indicators, including call volume, response and routing timeliness, nurse message turnaround time, documentation accuracy, escalation rates, abandoned/missed calls, MA productivity, staffing, quality results, patient experience, nurse satisfaction, training completion, workload trends, and process adherence.

Develop staffing models based on call volume, patient needs, operational requirements, and organizational growth. Evaluate staffing levels, optimize schedules and coverage, monitor workload distribution, and identify opportunities for efficiency.

Serve as an operational liaison between clinical support and nursing leadership. Collaborate with Quality, Training, Client Advocacy, Workforce Management, IT, and other departments as needed and communicate operational changes, expectations, and priorities.

Continuously evaluate clinical support operations for efficiency, quality, and scalability. Identify bottlenecks and recurring issues, lead approved process-improvement initiatives, evaluate technology and automation opportunities, and monitor outcomes.

Develop short- and long-term goals for Clinical Support & Operations, establish departmental priorities, develop operational plans and performance goals, provide leadership with updates regarding performance and operational risks, and serve as a subject-matter resource for clinical support operations and MA workflow design.

Maintain regular and dependable attendance, including working on-site and/or remotely as assigned, during established business hours, scheduled shifts, or project-based work schedules to effectively support business operations and departmental objectives.

Perform other related duties as assigned.