Assistant Director, Laboratory Operations Management

Kaiser Permanente•San Jose, CA

About The Position

In addition to the responsibilities listed below, this position is also responsible for ensuring timely and accurate laboratory reporting in the section they oversee; overseeing day-to-day operations of the clinical laboratory in a labor management partnership environment, including both credentialed and non-credentialed personnel; maintaining competency in laboratory testing and performing bench work as appropriate; and overseeing quality assurance, safety, compliance, regulatory, and accreditation standards and activities. Essential Responsibilities: Creates and advocates for developmental opportunities for others; builds collaborative, cross-functional relationships. Solicits and acts on performance feedback; works with leaders and employees to set goals and provide open feedback and coaching to drive performance improvement. Pursues professional growth; hires, trains, and develops talent for growth opportunities; strategically evaluates talent for succession planning; sets performance management guidelines and expectations across teams / units. Oversees implementation, adapts, and stays up to date with organizational change, challenges, feedback, best practices, processes, and industry trends; shares best practices within and across teams. Fosters open dialogue amongst team members, engages, motivates, and promotes collaboration within and across teams; motivates teams to meet business objectives. Delegates tasks and decisions as appropriate; provides appropriate support, guidance and scope; encourages development and consideration of options in decision making; fosters access to stakeholders. Manages designated units or teams by translating business plans into tactical action items; oversees the completion of work assignments and identifies opportunities for improvement; ensures all policies and procedures are followed; partners with key stakeholders and business leaders to ensure products and/or services meet requirements and expectations while aligning with departmental strategies. Aligns team efforts; builds accountability for and measuring progress in achieving results; assumes responsibility for decision making; fosters direct reports to resolve escalated issues as appropriate. Communicates goals and objectives; incorporates resources, costs, and forecasts into team and unit plans; ensures matrixed resources are fulfilling service or performance requirements across reporting lines. Removes obstacles that impact performance; identifies and addresses improvement opportunities; guides performance and develops contingency plans accordingly; influences teams and units to operate in alignment with operational and business objectives. Maintains testing and training standards by: advocating for the departments strategic initiatives and the development and implementation of technical and/or non-technical training materials while also resolving issues related to training and/or training resources; ensuring relevant personnel competency meets defined standards; and developing strategies to meet future training needs, aligning regular, in-service, and competency training programs with those future needs, and completing own training. Maintains compliance and accreditation by: defining and communicating policies and work instructions in alignment with applicable regulations, license requirements, accreditation standards, and inspection checklists pertaining to laboratories and facilities where testing is performed; ensuring assessment of adherence to all requirements related to the recruitment, processing, testing, storage, and distribution of materials and samples; implementing innovative corrective and preventive actions for addressing escalated, higher complexity, technical and/or non-technical deficiencies in regulatory/accreditation inspection processes; overseeing the renewal process for all applicable licensure; and ensuring updates are made to technical and/or non-technical documentation. Serves as a link between medical laboratory services and other services by: managing strategic planning and implementation related to regulatory/accreditation changes and issues, inspection citations, current events, and trends relevant to services, quality, and training; empowering cross-functional teams to proactively evaluate and improve technical and/or non-technical quality management systems; networking and collaborating across internal teams locally to coordinate and align lab operations, quality, and utilization; maintaining and managing relationships with external vendors, local/state public health and safety organizations, and other health care providers; aligning with health care providers on community health concerns and referred testing; and evaluating alignment with local and national standards and regulations, and utilization of technology and initiatives. Ensures medical laboratory operations and improves processes by: ensuring efficient operations, quality, service, patient safety, member/customer satisfaction, and cost effectiveness through evaluation and standardization of technical and/or non-technical services and processes; overseeing innovative work plan processes to improve systems across the continuum of care; identifying new testing methodologies, processes, and technology that have the potential to improve service, quality, and/or efficiency; overseeing resolution of onsite facilities issues of varying complexity and developing long-term strategies for preventing such issues with internal and external vendors; supporting strategies with internal and external vendors; guiding and mentoring employees to cultivate teamwork and foster a progressive work environment; proactively monitoring personnel needs during periods of varying technical and/or non-technical work load; optimizing inventory and maintenance systems, ensuring efficient utilization of supplies inventory, and estimating usage and costs; and providing high level support for ongoing technical and/or non-technical project management, including local, regional, and national initiatives, status reports, and communication with key stakeholders. Manages service quality by: communicating applicable policies and procedures for audit and process improvement projects to teams; overseeing corrective actions, preventive actions, and process improvements based on internal and external quality audits of technical and/or non-technical processes; guiding and influencing plans for correcting deviations from expected quality control results; aligning teams on strategies used to ensure that tests are performed properly and results are verified before being shared; enacting procedures and protocols to ensure specimens are collected and processed according to established time and quality standards; driving the resolution of proficiency testing concerns; and leading the implementation of innovative strategies to resolve problems of varying complexity related to pre-analytical (collection, processing, etc.), analytical, or post-analytical testing, as applicable.

Requirements

Minimum one (1) year of experience managing operational or project budgets.
Minimum five (5) years of experience in a leadership role with or without direct reports in a healthcare related field.
Bachelors degree in medical lab science or equivalent, or health care related field AND minimum eight (8) years of experience in medical technology, clinical laboratory sciences, or health care related field OR Minimum eleven (11) years of experience in medical technology, clinical laboratory sciences, or health care related field.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs): Operations Management; Employee Training; Safety Management; Computer Literacy; Member Service; Medical Sanitation and Infection Control; Medical Terminology; Medical Equipment; Quality Improvement; Quality Assurance and Effectiveness; Patient Sample Collection; Business Process Improvement; Cost Optimization; Operational Excellence; Compliance Management; Confidentiality; Health Care Compliance; Maintain Files and Records; Stakeholder Management; Legal and Regulatory Requirements; Health Care Quality Standards; Medical Equipment Scoping and Planning

Nice To Haves

Medical Technologist Certification.
Clinical Laboratory Scientist Certification.

Responsibilities

Ensuring timely and accurate laboratory reporting
Overseeing day-to-day operations of the clinical laboratory
Maintaining competency in laboratory testing and performing bench work as appropriate
Overseeing quality assurance, safety, compliance, regulatory, and accreditation standards and activities
Creating and advocating for developmental opportunities for others
Building collaborative, cross-functional relationships
Soliciting and acting on performance feedback
Working with leaders and employees to set goals and provide open feedback and coaching to drive performance improvement
Pursuing professional growth
Hiring, training, and developing talent for growth opportunities
Strategically evaluating talent for succession planning
Setting performance management guidelines and expectations across teams / units
Overseeing implementation, adapting, and staying up to date with organizational change, challenges, feedback, best practices, processes, and industry trends
Sharing best practices within and across teams
Fostering open dialogue amongst team members, engages, motivates, and promotes collaboration within and across teams
Motivating teams to meet business objectives
Delegating tasks and decisions as appropriate
Providing appropriate support, guidance and scope
Encouraging development and consideration of options in decision making
Fostering access to stakeholders
Managing designated units or teams by translating business plans into tactical action items
Overseeing the completion of work assignments and identifies opportunities for improvement
Ensuring all policies and procedures are followed
Partnering with key stakeholders and business leaders to ensure products and/or services meet requirements and expectations while aligning with departmental strategies
Aligning team efforts
Building accountability for and measuring progress in achieving results
Assuming responsibility for decision making
Fostering direct reports to resolve escalated issues as appropriate
Communicating goals and objectives
Incorporating resources, costs, and forecasts into team and unit plans
Ensuring matrixed resources are fulfilling service or performance requirements across reporting lines
Removing obstacles that impact performance
Identifying and addressing improvement opportunities
Guiding performance and developing contingency plans accordingly
Influencing teams and units to operate in alignment with operational and business objectives
Maintaining testing and training standards
Maintaining compliance and accreditation
Serving as a link between medical laboratory services and other services
Ensuring medical laboratory operations and improves processes
Managing service quality