Director of Operations, Primary Care Services

Hudson Regional Health Medical Group is seeking an exceptional Director of Operations to lead the outpatient and inpatient operations of its primary care service lines across Northern New Jersey. This is a senior operations leadership position accountable for the full financial, operational, clinical support, and ancillary performance of the assigned primary care service lines, wherever that care is delivered.

Primary care is the foundation of the HRHMG enterprise. It is the front door for patients, the origin of the referral and ancillary stream that supports the specialty portfolio and the three Hudson Regional Health hospital campuses, and the engine of value based care performance. The Director of Operations owns the profit and loss, the access and panel performance, the staffing model, the regulatory posture, the ancillary integration, and the operational relationship with the primary care physicians and advanced practice providers.

The role is deliberately designed to be portable across primary care service lines and locations so that HRHMG can assign, combine, and reassign scope as the portfolio grows through acquisition, infusion, diffusion, and de novo development. The successful candidate will be equally comfortable redesigning a pediatric schedule template, closing a quality gap at panel level, and coordinating a post discharge follow up workflow with a hospital campus.

Scope of Responsibility

The scope of this position is fully integrated and spans both outpatient and inpatient settings. The Director of Operations is accountable for the financial, operational, clinical support, ancillary, and administrative performance of the assigned service lines wherever care is delivered: in HRHMG ambulatory practices and de novo sites, in hospital based outpatient departments, in procedural and diagnostic suites, and on the inpatient units, consult services, and hospital based programs of Hudson Regional Hospital (Secaucus), Bayonne University Hospital, and Hoboken University Hospital.

Service Lines in Scope

This position may be assigned to any single primary care service line, to any combination of service lines, or to the entire primary care portfolio, at any and all assigned locations. The listings below are illustrative of the current and planned HRHMG portfolio and are not exhaustive or limiting.

Current State (illustrative, not exhaustive)

• Internal Medicine and Adult Primary Care.
• Family Medicine.
• Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
• Geriatric Medicine and the care of the frail and homebound adult population.
• Advanced Primary Care and Patient Centered Medical Home operations, including panel management, team based care, and care coordination at the practice level.
• Preventive and wellness services, including Annual Wellness Visits, immunization programs, screening programs, and chronic disease management.
• Women health primary care and integrated obstetric and gynecologic primary care coordination.
• Behavioral health integration within primary care, including collaborative care model workflows coordinated with the HRHMG behavioral health service line, the Partial Hospitalization Program and Intensive Outpatient Program, the Community Mental Health Centers, and the Giant Steps program.
• Practice based ancillary services, including point of care laboratory, phlebotomy and draw station operations, in office diagnostics, electrocardiography, spirometry, immunization inventory, and physical therapy referral coordination.
• Inpatient facing primary care coordination, including admission notification, hospitalist handoff, post discharge follow up, and continuity with the Hospitalist Medicine program at Hudson Regional Hospital in Secaucus, Bayonne University Hospital, and Hoboken University Hospital.

Planned and Future State (illustrative, not exhaustive)

• Urgent care and extended hours access sites integrated with the primary care panel and the Patient Access Center.
• Virtual primary care, e visit, and asynchronous care channels integrated with in person access.
• Advanced Primary Care Management program build out, including care coordination, remote monitoring integration, and risk stratified panel management.
• Employer, occupational health, and employee health service lines serving Hudson Regional Health and external employers.
• Home based and mobile primary care for the frail, homebound, and post acute population.
• School based, community based, and federally aligned access points across the assigned Northern New Jersey counties.
• Expansion of integrated behavioral health within every primary care site.
• De novo primary care sites, acquired primary care practices, and provider infusions and diffusions executed through the HRHMG MAIDD growth model, including the integration of newly acquired management services organization practices.

Role Expectations and Key Responsibilities

The Director of Operations is expected to operate as a general manager of the assigned service lines, accountable for results rather than activity, and to lead through a disciplined daily management system.

Financial Leadership, Outpatient and Inpatient

• Own the profit and loss for every assigned primary care service line and every assigned location, including budget development, monthly variance analysis, forecasting, and written countermeasures for adverse variance.
• Drive contribution margin improvement through visit volume, encounter capture, payer mix, preventive and chronic care service capture, ancillary capture, and labor productivity.
• Own provider productivity management, including work relative value unit performance, panel size and panel balance, session and template utilization, and compensation plan administration in partnership with Finance and the Chief Executive Officer.
• Maximize appropriate and compliant capture of the full set of primary care billable services, including Annual Wellness Visits, transitional care management, chronic care management, principal care management, behavioral health integration, advance care planning, and preventive services, in partnership with Coding and Compliance.
• Partner with Revenue Cycle to improve charge capture, coding accuracy, denial prevention, patient collections, and days in accounts receivable.
• Own supply, vaccine, and point of care testing inventory cost management, including vaccine purchasing, storage, wastage, and billing accuracy.
• Build and defend pro formas for new providers, new locations, extended hours, urgent care, and primary care service expansion.
• Quantify and report the downstream contribution of primary care to the specialty portfolio and to the three hospital campuses, and use that analysis to inform investment decisions.

Operational Leadership, Outpatient and Inpatient

• Own access performance for every assigned primary care location, including same day and next day availability, third next available appointment, new patient lag, and continuity with the assigned provider.
• Design, standardize, and enforce scheduling templates, session counts, hours of operation, open access capacity, and extended and weekend hours models across all assigned locations.
• Own panel management, including empanelment accuracy, panel size and balance by provider, attribution accuracy, and outreach for unassigned and inactive patients.
• Own patient throughput and cycle time, including check in, rooming, provider contact, checkout, and follow up scheduling, and reduce patient wait without reducing visit quality.
• Own no show and cancellation reduction through reminder strategy, overbooking rules, waitlist management, and transportation and social barrier mitigation.
• Partner with the Patient Access Center on call handling, abandonment rate, scheduling protocols, conversion rate, nurse triage, and after hours coverage for the assigned primary care sites.
• Own inpatient facing primary care operations, including admission and discharge notification workflow, hospitalist handoff, post discharge follow up scheduling within the required interval, and continuity of care with the three hospital campuses.
• Standardize operations across all assigned sites so that a patient, a provider, or a staff member experiences the same process at every HRHMG primary care location.
• Lead performance improvement using Lean, Six Sigma, or equivalent structured methodology, with documented structured problem solving for every material performance gap.
• Own facilities, space utilization, equipment readiness, and environment of care for all assigned locations, and serve in the operational leadership structure for emergency management and downtime events.

Clinical Operations, Quality, and Regulatory Compliance

• Partner in a dyad model with primary care physician leaders, medical directors, and site Chief Medical Officers on clinical workflow, protocol adoption, care pathway standardization, and provider performance.
• Own the operational components of quality performance, including preventive screening completion, immunization rates, chronic disease control measures, and care gap closure at the practice and panel level.
• Own operational readiness for all applicable regulatory and accreditation standards, including New Jersey Department of Health requirements, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requirements, National Committee for Quality Assurance Patient Centered Medical Home recognition, Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments waived testing requirements, Vaccines for Children program requirements where applicable, Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards, and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy and security requirements.
• Lead Patient Centered Medical Home recognition and recertification activity across all assigned locations, including documentation, evidence collection, and sustainment.
• Own medication management operations, including sample and vaccine handling, refrigeration and temperature monitoring, controlled substance operational controls, prescription refill workflow, and medication reconciliation support.
• Lead survey readiness, audits, payer reviews, and external inspections, and own the corrective action plan and its verification of effectiveness.
• Own patient experience performance, including survey results, complaint and grievance resolution, service recovery, and closed loop communication.
• Participate in quality and safety event review and root cause analysis, and implement the operational components of the resulting corrective actions.
• Exercise immediate authority to suspend any workflow, procedure, or location activity that presents a patient safety, staff safety, or regulatory risk.

Ancillary Service Management

• Own operational and financial performance of the ancillary services supporting primary care, including point of care and reference laboratory, phlebotomy and draw stations, diagnostic imaging referral, electrocardiography, spirometry, immunization programs, and physical therapy and rehabilitation referral.
• Drive in network capture of laboratory, imaging, therapy, specialty referral, and procedural volume generated by primary care, and measure and reduce leakage to out of network providers and facilities.
• Own the referral management process end to end, including referral generation, scheduling, completion tracking, consult note return, and closed loop communication to the referring primary care provider.
• Own turnaround time and result communication standards for laboratory and diagnostic services ordered in primary care, and hold the closed loop on critical and abnormal results.
• Coordinate with hospital based laboratory, imaging, pharmacy, and rehabilitation services to ensure primary care patients receive the access and turnaround performance they require.
• Evaluate the business case for expanding in office ancillary capability at assigned sites and present recommendations to the Chief Executive Officer of HRHMG.

People Leadership, Talent, and Culture

• Directly supervise Practice Administrators, Practice Managers, Service Line Managers, Supervisors, and Coordinators across all assigned locations, and lead through those managers rather than around them.
• Own workforce planning for the assigned service lines, including full time equivalent models, skill mix, coverage schedules, float and cross coverage pools, and reduction of agency, temporary, and overtime reliance.
• Partner with Human Resources on recruitment, onboarding, competency validation, compensation administration, engagement, retention, performance management, and progressive discipline.
• Establish and sustain a daily management system, including daily huddles, visual management boards, tiered escalation, and standard work for every leader in the assigned structure.
• Build the leadership bench. Maintain documented development plans for all direct reports and identify at least two internal successors for key positions.
• Model and enforce the HRHMG service standards, professional conduct expectations, and just culture principles at every assigned location.

Technology, Data, and Analytics

• Own operational optimization of eClinicalWorks in the ambulatory environment and coordinate with hospital leadership on MEDITECH dependent workflows affecting the assigned service lines.
• Define, build, and govern the operational and financial dashboards for the assigned service lines, and hold every manager accountable to a single agreed source of truth.
• Partner with the Patient Access Center on scheduling protocols, call handling, abandonment rate, conversion rate, referral routing, and after hours coverage for the assigned service lines.
• Support the enterprise telephony transition and any other system implementations affecting the assigned locations, including workflow design, training, go live support, and post implementation stabilization.
• Ensure data integrity, documentation of assumptions, and reproducibility of any operational or financial reporting produced by the assigned service lines.
• Identify and sponsor automation, digital access, self scheduling, and artificial intelligence enabled workflow opportunities that reduce administrative burden and improve access.

Growth, Integration, and Strategic Execution

• Support the HRHMG growth model, internally referred to as MAIDD: Mergers, Acquisitions, Infusions of providers and their patient panels into developing practices, Diffusions of providers out of capacity constrained practices into new or low volume sites, and De Novo site development.
• Conduct operational due diligence on acquisition and alignment targets, including staffing, space, volume, payer mix, systems, compliance posture, and integration cost.
• Own the operational integration plan and the first 180 days of post transaction performance for any assigned acquired, infused, diffused, or de novo location.
• Build and defend pro formas for new sites, new services, new provider additions, and service line expansion, in partnership with Finance.
• Support payer contracting and managed care strategy with accurate volume, capacity, cost, quality, and network adequacy inputs.
• Represent HRHMG professionally with providers, hospital leadership, payers, vendors, regulators, and the community.

Other Duties as Assigned

Performs any and all other job duties as assigned, at any and all assigned locations. This includes temporary or permanent assignment or reassignment to any HRHMG practice site, hospital campus, ambulatory location, administrative office, or affiliated location within the Hudson Regional Health network, and includes assuming operational coverage for additional service lines, departments, programs, projects, or leadership vacancies as directed by the Chief Executive Officer of HRHMG or designee.

This position description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, or qualifications associated with the role. Duties, responsibilities, reporting relationships, and assigned locations may be added, deleted, or modified at any time at the sole discretion of HRHMG.

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Minimum Qualifications

Candidates must meet every minimum qualification listed below to advance in the selection process.

Experience

• A minimum of five years of progressively responsible experience in a similar Director of Operations, Practice Administrator, Regional Director, Service Line Administrator, or equivalent senior operations leadership role within a medical group, health system, integrated delivery network, or multi site physician enterprise.
• Demonstrated leadership experience in ambulatory primary care operations, including internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, geriatrics, or a combination.
• Demonstrated experience managing a multi site primary care network with more than one practice location.
• Demonstrated experience with access improvement, panel management, and provider template design.
• Demonstrated working experience with quality and value based performance programs affecting primary care.
• Demonstrated experience with combined outpatient and inpatient or hospital based operational accountability.
• Demonstrated profit and loss accountability, including budget development, variance analysis, and delivery of measurable financial improvement.
• Demonstrated experience leading through subordinate managers across more than one physical location.

Education

• Bachelor degree from an accredited institution in Healthcare Administration, Business Administration, Public Health, Nursing, Health Informatics, Finance, or a closely related field is required.
• Master degree (MHA, MBA, MPH, MSN, MSHA, or equivalent) is strongly preferred and may substitute for one year of the minimum experience requirement.
• Active clinical licensure, where held, must be current and in good standing in the State of New Jersey or in a compact state recognized by New Jersey.

Other Requirements

• Valid driver license, reliable transportation, and the ability to travel routinely among all assigned HRHMG and Hudson Regional Health locations across the assigned Northern New Jersey counties.
• Ability to satisfy all pre employment and ongoing requirements, including background check, drug screen, health clearance, immunization compliance, and federal exclusion screening.
• Unrestricted authorization to work in the United States. HRHMG does not guarantee visa sponsorship for this position.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master degree in Healthcare Administration, Business Administration, Public Health, Nursing, or a related field.
• Lean Six Sigma certification at Green Belt level or higher, or equivalent formal performance improvement certification.
• Certification through the American College of Healthcare Executives, the Medical Group Management Association, or the Project Management Institute.
• Direct experience leading National Committee for Quality Assurance Patient Centered Medical Home recognition or recertification.
• Experience with Medicare Shared Savings Program, ACO REACH, Primary Care First, clinically integrated networks, or Medicaid and Medicare Advantage value based arrangements.
• Experience with pediatric practice operations, including Vaccines for Children program administration.
• Experience launching urgent care, extended hours, or de novo primary care locations.
• Experience integrating acquired primary care practices, including provider onboarding, systems conversion, and panel transition.
• Working knowledge of eClinicalWorks and MEDITECH.
• Experience with New Jersey specific licensure, ambulatory care regulation, and Medicaid and commercial payer requirements.

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation based on experience and qualifications: When determining the compensation, several factors may be considered including, years of relevant experience, credentials, union contracts, education, and internal equity.
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance
• 401K, Retirement savings plan
• Generous Paid Time Off (PTO) and paid holidays
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Opportunities for professional growth, development, and continuing education
• Employee wellness programs and resources

Influenza Vaccinations are a requirement for employment. If you are not currently vaccinated you will be required to receive the vaccination prior to hire date, during the influenza season, if you are offered employment, unless you request and receive an approved medical exemption.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer encouraging diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by law.