Director, Access Center and Specialty Services Operations

Saint Luke's Health System•Kansas City, MO

23d

About The Position

Saint Luke's Health System is seeking a strategic, results-oriented leader to develop and execute a comprehensive access strategy across the medical group's primary care and specialty practices, while providing operational oversight for designated specialty service lines and hospital-based physician practices. The Director provides executive oversight of the centralized Access Center, enterprise provider scheduling and template optimization, specialty clinic operations, and physician practice operations. The role partners with physicians, advanced practice providers, clinical and administrative leaders, and support departments to advance patient access, quality, provider engagement, growth, and financial performance. The Director oversees specialty clinics including Infectious Disease, Endocrinology, and Ambulatory Infusion Services, as well as hospital-based physician practices including Wound Care, Medical Education Clinics, Oncology, and Hepatology, with future-state oversight of Neurosciences and Gastroenterology. For hospital-based physician practices, the oversight is more focused on physician contracts and physician support than operational oversight. The Director aligns people, processes, technology, and resources with organizational priorities and promotes patient-centered care, accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Healthcare Administration, Business Administration, Nursing, Healthcare Management, Public Health, or a related field.
3–5 years of progressive leadership experience in healthcare operations.
Understanding of provider scheduling templates, referral workflows, capacity management, and access performance metrics.
Strong leadership, communication, relationship-building, and team development skills.
Ability to analyze operational data and implement effective process improvement strategies.
Ability to collaborate effectively with physicians, clinical leaders, and operational stakeholders.
Commitment to quality, service excellence, patient-centered care, and continuous improvement.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading centralized scheduling, contact center operations, referral management, provider scheduling, and patient access initiatives.
Experience with Epic scheduling and access management tools.
Knowledge of patient access operations, centralized scheduling, ambulatory services, and healthcare service delivery.

Responsibilities

Develop, own, and execute a multi-year access strategy aligned with organizational growth goals, service line priorities, and system initiatives.
Serve as the senior ambulatory access leader and subject matter expert, advising executive and physician leadership.
Establish, monitor, and improve access measures, including appointment lead time, third-next available appointment, abandonment rates, referral conversion, no-show rates, patient satisfaction, and digital scheduling adoption.
Lead efforts to improve access equity and reduce barriers to care, aligning access strategies with clinical capacity and patient demand.
Represent ambulatory access and specialty operations in executive meetings, strategic planning forums, and service line governance.
Provide strategic and operational oversight of the centralized Access Center, including scheduling, referral management, patient communications, care navigation, and related support functions.
Set access service levels and performance standards; optimize workforce management, staffing models, quality monitoring, and performance improvement.
Lead implementation and optimization of telephony, omnichannel communications, Epic scheduling, and patient engagement technologies.
Develop quality assurance processes that support service, scheduling accuracy, and patient experience.
Own enterprise provider template management strategy, governance, and scheduling standards; use data to improve provider schedules, access, clinical efficiency, and throughput.
Chair and facilitate Scheduling and Access Governance Councils and develop dashboards and analytics for provider utilization, template effectiveness, and capacity management.
Ensure effective use of Epic scheduling tools, referral workflows, appointment decision trees, and scheduling automation.
Oversee specialty clinic operations for Infectious Disease, Endocrinology, and Infusion Clinic Services, pursuing quality, patient experience, growth, access, workforce, and financial goals.
Collaborate with physicians and clinical leaders on care delivery models, operational efficiency, service line growth, patient retention, and market expansion.
Ensure regulatory, accreditation, and organizational compliance, and oversee budgets, productivity, staffing plans, and resource allocation for assigned specialty clinics.
Provide administrative and physician-focused leadership for hospital-based practices including Wound Care, Medical Education Clinics, Oncology, Hepatology, and future-state Neurosciences and Gastroenterology.
Partner with physician leaders to advance quality, patient outcomes, provider satisfaction, operational performance, and financial stewardship; facilitate strategic planning and growth initiatives.
Support effective clinic operations, staffing structures, scheduling optimization, patient flow, and implementation of best practices across hospital-based ambulatory services.
Support recruitment, onboarding, integration, and operational readiness for new physicians, APPs, and service line expansions.
Identify and implement initiatives to improve throughput, increase new patient acquisition, reduce wait times, and improve specialty access.
Support development and launch of programs, clinics, providers, and service lines; partner with marketing, business development, and physician leaders on growth and referral development.
Use analytics and market data for service line planning and operational decisions; champion online scheduling, telehealth, MyChart adoption, and automation.
Lead, mentor, coach, and develop managers, supervisors, and operational leaders, fostering accountability, collaboration, engagement, continuous learning, and succession readiness.
Model Saint Luke's values and leadership principles and promote Lean Daily Management, visual management, and continuous process improvement.
Build partnerships with physicians, clinical leaders, service line administrators, IT, finance, human resources, and executive leadership.
Collaborate with Epic and technology teams to optimize access, scheduling, reporting, and patient engagement tools.
Develop relationships with referral partners, community providers, and external stakeholders to improve care coordination and access.
Represent Saint Luke's in professional organizations, industry forums, and benchmarking collaboratives related to access, ambulatory operations, and specialty services.