Director, Clinical Operations

Lighthouse Guild•New York, NY

About The Position

Lighthouse Guild is a not-for-profit healthcare organization serving people who are visually impaired. The Director, Clinical Operations provides operational, strategic, and administrative leadership for the separately licensed OMH Article 31 Mental Health Treatment and Rehabilitative Services Clinic and DOH Article 28 Diagnostic and Treatment Center, as well as Low Vision and Optical Dispensary divisions. The Director works closely with the Medical Director, clinical leaders, and administrative leadership to ensure services are accessible, coordinated, efficient, and responsive to community needs. The role oversees patient access and experience, care coordination, staffing, operational performance, and quality and safety measures. It promotes multidisciplinary integration and regulatory compliance with the New York State Department of Health and Office of Mental Health. The Director provides daily oversight of medical, behavioral health, optometry, occupational therapy, and optical dispensary operations; leads staffing, workflows, and service planning; and partners with clinical, compliance, finance, billing, and revenue-cycle teams. The position also oversees crisis-related procedures and may cover after-hours patient crisis calls when the clinic manager is unavailable. Success is evaluated through improvements in access, patient flow, referral completion, patient experience, staff retention, revenue-cycle management, budget performance, and timely completion of quality and compliance initiatives. The role is based at Lighthouse Guild’s convenient Upper West Side location. A competitive salary and benefits package is offered.

Requirements

Master’s degree in healthcare administration, nursing, public health, business administration, or a related field.
Progressive leadership and healthcare operations experience in a regulated outpatient facility, diagnostic and treatment center, or community health center.
Demonstrated ability to manage staffing, budgets, patient access, quality improvement, and organizational change.
Strong working knowledge of healthcare privacy, patient safety, and regulatory compliance practices.
Experience using electronic health records, scheduling systems, and operational reports.
Knowledge of technology used to improve clinical workflow, operational efficiency, and patient experience, and ability to integrate new and emerging technology into clinical practice.
Understanding of Medicaid, Medicare, managed care, and community-based healthcare delivery, and experience serving diverse New York City communities.
Demonstrated success in performance management and process improvement.
Foundational knowledge of outpatient clinic structures and workflows unique to medical and behavioral health practitioners and optometrists.
Success in optimizing revenue-cycle management.
Experience managing complex budgets, electronic data systems, and strategic market growth.
Foundational understanding of the psychosocial, medical, and accessibility needs of people who are blind, living with low vision, or have other disabilities.
Strong communication, analytical, conflict-resolution, and team-leadership skills.

Nice To Haves

Current New York State professional clinical license preferred.
Experience in an Article 28 facility or FQHC preferred.

Responsibilities

Provide daily oversight of medical, behavioral health, optometry, occupational therapy, and optical dispensary clinical operations.
Manage scheduling, registration, patient flow, and follow-up workflows to improve appointment availability and continuity of care.
Manage referral-source relationships, ensure timely handling of inbound referrals, and provide appropriate feedback to referral sources.
Establish consistent procedures for intake, clinical handoffs, diagnostic testing, results tracking, and referral completion.
Provide oversight, guidance, and consultation to a multidisciplinary team of therapists, social workers, psychologists, and psychiatric staff.
Serve as the primary point of contact for NYSDOH and OMH site visits, certification renewals, and regulatory audits.
Promote a collaborative, patient-centered whole-health model and improve cross-departmental referrals and communication.
Address patient complaints and service concerns, identify recurring issues, and implement improvements.
Supervise and support professional staff across health and behavioral health disciplines and secretarial and administrative support staff.
Manage clinical and administrative workflows, including integrated EHR systems, scheduling, and staff productivity tracking.
Partner with the Medical Director, Manager of Behavioral Health, Chief Psychiatrist, and Optometric Lead to support clinical quality, patient satisfaction, and service coordination.
Oversee crisis-intervention policies and procedures and cover after-hours patient crisis calls when the clinic manager is unavailable.
Lead operational planning for service expansion, new programs, and changes in patient demand.
Partner with clinical and compliance leadership to implement applicable NYSDOH requirements, including Article 28 requirements, and requirements associated with the center’s licenses and services.
Establish expectations for service quality, teamwork, productivity, and accountability.
Maintain operational policies and procedures for patient rights, confidentiality, infection prevention, emergency preparedness, and safe care delivery.
Coordinate survey readiness, operational audits, corrective action plans, and follow-up.
Support incident reporting, complaint review, and quality-improvement activities.
Coordinate operational readiness for medical emergencies and behavioral health crises under approved clinical protocols.
Work with credentialing personnel and clinical leaders to ensure licenses, credentials, and competencies remain current.
Work with billing and finance to support compliance with coding requirements for evaluation and management, behavioral health interventions, and optometric services.
Oversee operating budgets for the health and behavioral health centers and Optical Dispensary, and improve revenue-cycle efficiency across billing structures.
Monitor financial KPIs and develop and monitor operating budgets, staffing expenses, supply costs, and resource utilization.
Track appointment access, patient volume, wait times, missed appointments, referral completion, patient satisfaction, and other agreed performance measures.
Use data to identify operational problems, set improvement priorities, evaluate results, and implement process-improvement initiatives.
Collaborate with billing and revenue-cycle teams to improve registration accuracy, eligibility verification, authorization workflows, and timely documentation.
Implement performance-improvement measures and present performance reports and recommendations to organizational leadership.