Director, Patient Access and Surgery Scheduling Operations

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General Summary

The Director, Patient Access and Surgery Scheduling Operations provides operational leadership for centralized call center and surgery scheduling functions through direct oversight of the Call Center Supervisor and Surgery Scheduling Supervisor. This role is accountable for daily work queue management, staffing and coverage, scheduling quality, patient communication standards, schedule access, block utilization, department reporting, process improvement, compliance, and service recovery. The manager ensures that workflows are standardized, staff is appropriately trained and supported, patient and provider needs are addressed in a timely manner, and performance measures are used to improve access, accuracy, efficiency, and the overall patient experience. Requirements

Essential Job Function/competencies

· Department Leadership and Daily Operations: Lead daily operations through the Call Center Supervisor and Surgery Scheduling Supervisor, with clear accountability for work queues, staffing, coverage, service levels, quality, escalation management, and team performance. · Establish a consistent operating cadence that includes daily workload review, regular team huddles, supervisor check-ins, performance review, and timely escalation of barriers. · Balance assignments across the centralized team so that no provider or location is left without scheduling support during absences, vacancies, demand spikes, or technology disruptions. · Recruit, onboard, coach, develop, and evaluate supervisors and staff; address performance concerns promptly and consistently in partnership with Human Resources. Maintain staffing, cross-coverage, and business-continuity plans, including reliable workflows for remote and on-site operations. Ensure appropriately trained schedulers can safely continue work when the assigned scheduler is unavailable. · Scheduling Quality and Execution: Ensure appointments, surgeries and procedures are scheduled accurately, completely, and within established service standards. · Standardize the end-to-end workflow from receipt of the scheduling request through case confirmation, patient communication, facility handoff, and resolution of outstanding items. · Maintain current facility requirements, block-time rules, provider scheduling preferences, contact lists, and escalation pathways in a controlled and accessible source. · Monitor scheduling defects, near misses, rework, and recurring exceptions; complete root-cause review and corrective action when patterns emerge. · Patient Communication and Service: Set and enforce consistent standards for the timing, content, documentation, and tone of patient communications before appointments, surgeries or procedures. · Ensure patients receive clear and accurate information regarding date, time, location, approved preparation requirements, required testing or clearances, and whom to contact with questions. · Use approved scripts, templates, and communication channels while preserving appropriate personalization and accessibility for each patient. · Monitor responsiveness, complaints, rescheduling, cancellations, and communication failures; ensure timely service recovery and escalation. · Capacity, Access, and Placement: Drive effective use of facility block time and clinic templates by identifying open capacity early, filling appropriate openings, managing release deadlines, and escalating persistently underused capacity. · Improve surgeon schedule efficiency by reducing avoidable gaps, sequencing cases appropriately in coordination with facilities, and aligning scheduled time with expected case duration and provider preferences. · Monitor the interval from the request for scheduling to scheduled appointment or procedure/surgery date; identify backlogs, bottlenecks, and access risks and implement corrective actions. · Support appropriate placement of cases at The Urology Center (TUC) when clinically appropriate and consistent with payer requirements, patient needs, facility capabilities, and provider judgment. · Promote appropriate health-system alignment between the patient’s primary care provider and the facility where surgery is performed, while accounting for network participation, clinical needs, patient choice, and available capacity. · Partner with providers and facility leaders to evaluate clinic template and block allocations, demand patterns, cancellations, add-ons, and opportunities to improve access and utilization. · Process Development and Continuous Improvement: Own the department’s policies, standard operating procedures, workflow maps, templates, training materials, and change-control process. · Create standardized onboarding, role-based training, competency validation, and cross-training programs for supervisors and schedulers. · Build practical feedback mechanisms for schedulers, providers, patients, offices, and facilities; translate themes into prioritized improvement work. · Lead process-improvement initiatives using data, staff input, root-cause analysis, and controlled pilots; measure whether changes produce sustained improvement. · Optimize use of Veradigm, shared work queues, Teams, dashboards, and other approved tools; partner with Information Technology when system or access changes are needed. · Maintain a documented failover plan for technology, connectivity, staffing, and facility-interface disruptions and periodically test readiness. · Performance Management, Reporting, and Physician Engagement: Define metric specifications, data sources, targets, owners, and review frequency in partnership with operational leadership and physicians. · Develop and maintain department dashboards that distinguish workload, access, quality, utilization, patient service, and staff-performance measures. · Provide leaders with routine operating reports and physicians with concise quarterly reports that identify trends, exceptions, decisions needed, and corrective actions. · Meet with providers and practice leaders to understand scheduling needs, review performance, resolve recurring issues, and maintain confidence in the centralized model. · Use balanced measures; avoid incentives that could compromise clinical appropriateness, patient choice, safety, compliance, or scheduling accuracy. · Collaboration, Compliance, and Risk Management: Maintain effective working relationships with providers, office teams, hospital and ASC scheduling departments, pre-admission testing, anesthesia, clinical leadership, prior authorization and financial-clearance teams, and revenue cycle operations. · Clarify ownership and handoffs across departments so scheduling work is not duplicated, omitted, or delayed. · Ensure department practices comply with HIPAA, TUG policies, facility requirements, payer rules, record-retention standards, and applicable laws and regulations. · Protect patient information in office and remote-work settings; monitor access, documentation, and secure communication practices. · Escalate patient-safety concerns, compliance risks, repeated facility conflicts, material capacity issues, and unresolved provider concerns promptly. · Supervisor Accountability: Maintain an effective operating cadence with documented daily workload review, supervisor check-ins, huddles, escalation follow-up, and regular performance review for the Call Center Supervisor and Surgery Scheduling Supervisor. · Ensure supe