Senior Manager of Front Desk Operations and Patient Experience

UHS•Washington, DC

22d•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Manager of Front Desk Operations and Patient Experience provides operational leadership for front-desk and patient-access services across an assigned portfolio of medical entry points. Reporting to the Director of Medical Front Desk Operations, the role ensures patients and families receive a welcoming, respectful, efficient, and consistent experience from arrival through departure. The Senior Manager translates patient-experience goals into daily front-desk practices and leads front-desk supervisors, team leads, and patient service representatives. The role monitors service and operational performance, resolves escalated patient concerns, and collaborates with clinical and administrative leaders to improve patient flow. Responsibilities also include registration quality, insurance verification, scheduling support, point-of-service collections, workforce management, employee development, and adherence to established policies and service standards.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in healthcare administration, business administration, hospitality management, communications, nursing, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of relevant education and experience as permitted by organizational policy.
Five years of progressively responsible experience in medical front-desk operations, patient access, patient experience, ambulatory practice management, hospitality, or healthcare operations.
At least three years of leadership experience managing supervisors, team leads, or multidisciplinary front-desk teams.
Demonstrated experience improving patient satisfaction, customer service, or service-recovery performance.
Working knowledge of patient registration, insurance eligibility, scheduling, referrals, authorizations, and point-of-service collections.
Experience with electronic health record and practice-management systems.
Demonstrated ability to coach employees, manage conflict, and address performance concerns.
Strong written, verbal, interpersonal, organizational, and presentation skills.
Ability to analyze operational and patient-experience data and develop measurable improvement plans.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in healthcare administration, business administration, management, or a related field.
Experience overseeing front-desk operations across multiple ambulatory practices or medical entry points.
Experience with Epic or a comparable electronic health record system.
Certified Patient Experience Professional, Certified Healthcare Access Manager, Lean, Six Sigma, or project-management certification.
Experience developing patient-service training and employee competency programs.
Experience leading workflow redesign or organizational change.

Responsibilities

Champion a patient-first culture across assigned medical entry points and establish expectations for professional, compassionate, respectful, and efficient interactions.
Ensure consistent patient communication throughout check-in, waiting, and check-out.
Observe front-desk interactions and provide timely employee coaching and feedback.
Monitor patient satisfaction results, complaints, compliments, surveys, and service-recovery trends; develop improvement plans based on feedback and performance data.
Ensure patient concerns are promptly acknowledged, appropriately investigated, and resolved when possible; personally manage sensitive or complex concerns requiring leadership involvement.
Partner with clinical teams to improve communication about delays, scheduling changes, wait times, and next steps.
Promote practices that respect patient privacy, dignity, cultural backgrounds, communication needs, and accessibility requirements.
Recognize employees who demonstrate exceptional service and organizational values.
Provide daily operational oversight for front-desk and patient-access activities across assigned entry points.
Ensure consistent execution of check-in, check-out, registration, scheduling support, insurance verification, referral processing, consent collection, and payment collection.
Implement and reinforce standardized operating procedures established by the Director.
Conduct routine site visits and operational assessments to identify workflow gaps and service concerns.
Lead, coach, and evaluate front-desk managers, supervisors, team leads, and other assigned employees.
Establish measurable goals and performance expectations aligned with departmental and organizational priorities.
Hold leaders and employees accountable for patient-service standards, registration quality, productivity, attendance, and professional conduct.
Conduct regular leadership meetings, individual coaching sessions, and performance reviews.