Director Ambulatory Surgical Centers

UT Southwestern Medical Center • Dallas, TX

4d

About The Position

The Director, Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASC), provides regional strategic and operational leadership for UT Southwestern's network of ambulatory surgery and endoscopy facilities, with a strong emphasis on physician partnership and growth. The centers support a broad range of procedural specialties, including gastroenterology, advanced endoscopy, minimally invasive diagnostics, ophthalmology, orthopedics, and other key ambulatory surgical services. This role leads and develops on-site Center Administrators and partners closely with physician leaders, medical directors, and governing boards. The Director is accountable for consistent operational excellence, regional growth, and high reliability performance across multiple ASC locations. A critical component of the role is building and managing relationships with multiple strategic partners (e.g., physician groups, the joint venture stakeholders between Children's Health and UT Southwestern, and key vendors), ensuring alignment to UTSW strategy, performance expectations, and regulatory requirements.

Requirements

• Master's Degree in business administration, health care administration, public health, nursing, or a related discipline.
• Equivalent combination of education and significant related leadership experience may be considered in lieu of Master's degree.
• 7 years progressively responsible related experience.
• Demonstrated success leading multi-site ASC operations, with accountability for financial, quality, and operational outcomes (endoscopy, ophthalmology, orthopedics, and multi-specialty surgical environments preferred).
• Strong working knowledge of ambulatory surgery regulations, accreditation standards, and survey readiness processes.
• Experience managing complex stakeholder relationships and partnerships, including physician alignment and governance structures.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in joint venture environments and/or managed care markets, including familiarity with physician practice operations and financing.
• Track record of implementing measurable performance improvement, outcomes reporting, and risk reduction programs in ambulatory surgery.
• OR, Pre-Op, and PACU experience, and a demonstrated ability to manage perioperative workflows, staffing models, patient flow, and clinical readiness across the full surgical continuum.
• RN licensure in the state of Texas (if applicable), or
• FACHE certification by the American College of Healthcare Executives, or
• CMPE/FACMPE certification by the American College of Medical Practice Executives.
• Certification in Ambulatory Surgery or Healthcare Management (e.g., CASC, CNOR).

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the regional strategy for ASC performance, network growth, and service-line development aligned with UTSW's enterprise priorities (quality, access, service, affordability, and patient experience).
• Identify and advance growth opportunities across the ASC network (de novo sites, expansions, new procedures, service-line additions, block optimization, and capacity planning).
• Partner with health system and physician leadership to evaluate, prioritize, and execute specialty growth opportunities (e.g., ophthalmology, orthopedics, gastroenterology, advanced endoscopy, and other high-value ambulatory procedures), ensuring alignment with enterprise strategy while maintaining safety, throughput, patient experience, and financial performance.
• Provide oversight and direction for day-to-day operations across the ASC network through direct leadership of Center Administrators and interdisciplinary teams.
• Standardize workflows, operating rhythms, and evidence-based clinical protocols to optimize patient flow, throughput, efficiency, and service consistency across all centers.
• Establish operational performance expectations, scorecards, and accountability structures across centers (including OR/endoscopy utilization, on-time starts, turnover time, staffing models, and supply cost management).
• Lead ASC start up and operational readiness efforts, including construction planning, facility activation, workflow design, and cross functional coordination to ensure new sites open safely, efficiently, and fully aligned with UTSW performance goals.
• Ensure each center consistently meets or exceeds accreditation, regulatory, quality, and compliance standards within the ambulatory surgical environment.
• Lead performance improvement and risk management programs, including outcomes measurement, event review, corrective action planning, and high reliability practices.
• Direct readiness and successful execution of accreditation surveys (e.g. Joint Commission, CMS, AORN, or other applicable accrediting bodies) and state/federal compliance requirements.
• Own regional financial performance including budgets, expense management, productivity, revenue, and investment planning across the ASC portfolio.
• Manage and prioritize capital requests and expenditures; develop business cases and ROI justification for technology, imaging, equipment, and facility enhancements (e.g., ophthalmic equipment, orthopedic instrumentation, advanced endoscopy platforms).
• Partner with finance and revenue cycle teams to ensure accurate forecasting, cost control, and sustainable growth.
• Collaborate with physician leaders, medical directors, and governing boards to align clinical priorities, operational decisions, quality goals, and growth initiatives.
• Support physician engagement and satisfaction through transparent communication, service recovery, performance reporting, and shared problem-solving.
• Enable specialty service-line success by partnering with physicians to develop efficient, safe, and scalable models of care in the ambulatory surgical setting.
• Build, manage, and strengthen relationships with strategic partners across the ASC ecosystem, including joint venture stakeholders, physician groups, vendors, and other enterprise partners.
• Ensure partner performance aligns with contractual expectations, quality standards, and UTSW’s operational model; address escalations and negotiate solutions as needed.
• Coordinate cross-functional collaboration with internal partners (legal, compliance, supply chain, IT, HR, quality, finance) to support operations, growth, and standardization.
• Promote a high-reliability culture focused on safety, teamwork, service excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Oversee workforce planning with Center Administrators, ensuring effective staffing models, leadership development, succession planning, and engagement strategies.
• Foster a supportive environment for nurses, technicians, and administrative staff to ensure smooth daily operations and exceptional patient care.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• PPO medical plan, available day one at no cost for full-time employee-only coverage
• 100%25 coverage for preventive healthcare-no copay
• Paid Time Off, available day one
• Retirement Programs through the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS)
• Paid Parental Leave Benefit
• Wellness programs
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Qualified Employer

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees