Director Behavioral Health Services

Ellis Medicine • Schenectady, NY

2d • $54 - $86 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Behavioral Health Services is responsible for the coordination and management of Ellis Medicine's inpatient and outpatient behavioral health programs. The Director supports consistent operations, quality, safety, regulatory compliance, workforce effectiveness, patient experience, and financial performance across assigned programs. The Director provides oversight to inpatient and outpatient behavioral health leaders and works collaboratively with the Chair of Psychiatry, Chief Nursing Officer, Emergency Services leadership, medical staff, and organizational support departments. The Director implements organizational priorities, identifies operational barriers, and recommends service improvements within established Ellis Medicine planning and approval processes.

Requirements

• Master's degree in nursing, social work, healthcare administration, public health, psychology, or a related field required.
• Current New York State Registered Professional Nurse license or appropriate New York State clinical social work license with current registration required.
• Minimum of five years of progressive behavioral health management experience required.
• Knowledge of New York State Office of Mental Health requirements, behavioral health quality and safety practices, budgeting, staffing, and regulatory readiness required.
• Demonstrated communication, collaboration, problem-solving, analytical, and change-management skills required.
• For social work candidates, credentials necessary to provide or oversee required professional social work supervision are required.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with both inpatient and outpatient behavioral health services preferred.

Responsibilities

• Manage assigned inpatient and outpatient behavioral health programs in alignment with organizational goals, approved plans, policies, and budgets.
• Provide direction and support to program leaders and monitor day-to-day operational performance.
• Coordinate work across programs to improve communication, patient transitions, access, and continuity of care.
• Identify operational issues, recommend solutions, and escalate significant risks or resource needs to the Chief Nursing Officer.
• Implement approved program changes and support evaluation of results.
• Partner with medical, nursing, quality, and program leaders to support safe, patient-centered, trauma-informed, and recovery-oriented care.
• Maintain knowledge of applicable OMH, DOH, CMS, Joint Commission, Mental Hygiene Law, hospital, and professional requirements.
• Coordinate survey readiness, regulatory reviews, incident follow-up, corrective actions, and ongoing compliance activities for assigned programs.
• Monitor quality and safety indicators, including restraint and seclusion, workplace violence, patient rights, medication safety, care transitions, readmissions, and complaints.
• Ensure program leaders develop and complete improvement actions when performance does not meet expectations.
• Work with inpatient, outpatient, Emergency Services, and medical leaders to improve access, patient flow, admissions, discharges, follow-up, and continuity of care.
• Support review and resolution of patient and family concerns and identify opportunities for service improvement.
• Monitor relevant access, throughput, and patient-experience measures and report barriers requiring organizational support.
• Develop and manage operating and capital budgets for assigned departments in collaboration with Finance and the Chief Nursing Officer.
• Monitor volume, revenue, expenses, productivity, staffing, overtime, and supply utilization and address variances within assigned authority.
• Recommend staffing and resource adjustments based on patient needs, service demand, regulatory requirements, and budget expectations.
• Prepare routine operational and financial updates and supporting information for leadership review.
• Recruit, orient, coach, support, and evaluate assigned program leaders.
• Partner with Human Resources, Nursing Administration, and Labor Relations on workforce planning, recruitment, retention, employee relations, and application of organizational policies and collective bargaining agreements.
• Monitor vacancies, turnover, attendance, overtime, contingent labor, engagement, competency, and other workforce indicators.
• Promote leadership visibility, teamwork, accountability, staff development, and a respectful work environment.
• Collaborate with the Chair of Psychiatry and physician leaders regarding clinical-program priorities, quality, access, and operational needs.
• Coordinate behavioral health program expectations for psychiatric crisis services with Emergency Services leadership; Emergency Department nursing operations remain under Emergency Services leadership.
• Maintain working relationships with community providers, government agencies, advocacy organizations, schools, payers, and other partners as assigned.
• Participate in internal committees and external behavioral health workgroups as assigned.
• Monitor an assigned set of quality, safety, access, workforce, operational, patient-experience, and financial measures.
• Provide regular updates to the Chief Nursing Officer regarding performance, risks, barriers, corrective actions, and resource needs.
• Complete other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Pay is based on experience, skills, and education.
• Exempt positions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) will be paid within the base salary equivalent of the stated hourly rates.
• The pay range may also vary within the stated range based on location.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director