Vice President of Surgical Services

Erlanger Health System•Chattanooga, TN

About The Position

The Vice President of Surgical Services provides leadership to align Surgical Services with Erlanger’s mission, vision, values, and strategic imperatives. In partnership with stakeholders, the role develops and maintains the Surgical Services strategic plan, identifies short- and long-term goals, and develops tactics to achieve them. The position is accountable for capital and annual operating budgets, productivity and operational budgets, variance reporting, and corrective tactics where needed. The role leads and integrates Erlanger Surgical Services through collaborative relationships or direct operational oversight. Areas of responsibility may change according to organizational needs and include surgical services and related departments across Erlanger facilities, such as operating rooms, surgery centers, central sterile, anesthesia, day surgery, scheduling, education, billing, transport, environmental services, and extended recovery. The Vice President fosters teamwork, collaboration, mutual trust, and a high-reliability, accountable culture. The role ensures regulatory compliance and service-line quality in alignment with national standards and best demonstrated practices; leads continuous quality improvement; and develops and implements policies and procedures to improve safety, quality, operations, and efficiency. The position promotes Erlanger’s academic partnerships, including its affiliation with UT College of Medicine Chattanooga, leads and develops a high-performing leadership team, and represents or partners with the health system across departments, service lines, and external constituencies. Performance measures include targeted service-line market-share growth; surgery-specific net revenue and volume; contribution and EBDITA margins; quality and process indicators; team-member, provider, and patient satisfaction; and operational measures such as block utilization, capacity management, on-time starts, and turnover time.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Nursing, Business, Healthcare Management, or a directly related area.
Master’s degree in Business, Healthcare Management, or a directly related area; the degree may be completed within three to five years of employment if not held at hire.
At least five years of progressive leadership experience in a complex health care system.
Experience collaborating with multiple clinical disciplines to improve patient safety, quality, and excellence.
Proven surgical services leadership skills driving safety, quality, satisfaction, efficiency, and accountability.
Demonstrated success developing positive customer relationships across departments, service lines, and providers.
Thorough knowledge and understanding of current health care delivery trends, including alternative delivery systems, performance improvement, and clinical quality programs.
Extensive experience developing and executing budgets, policies, and procedures.
For non-Tennessee residents, Tennessee licensure or multistate licensure from a compact state must be obtained within three months of hire.

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated leadership experience within Surgical Services at an academic health system.
Experience working with nonprofit entities, including board and leadership roles.
Experience working in an organization with multiple surgical locations and facilities.
Experience working in a Trauma Center.
Registered Nurse license to practice nursing in Tennessee.
CNOR certification.

Responsibilities

Align Surgical Services with Erlanger’s mission, vision, values, and strategic imperatives.
Develop and maintain the Surgical Services strategic plan in partnership with stakeholders and in alignment with Erlanger’s strategic plan.
Identify short- and long-term goals and develop tactics to achieve them.
Manage accountability for Surgical Services capital, annual operating, productivity, and operational budgets; report variances and develop corrective tactics where needed.
Foster teamwork, collaboration, and mutual trust among team members, physicians, administration, specialties, services, and departments.
Ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, and local regulations and Erlanger policies and procedures.
Ensure service-line quality aligns with national standards and best demonstrated practices, including clinical outcomes, credentialing and privileging, processes, services, and customer and patient satisfaction.
Lead continuous quality improvement focused on systems and process improvement.
Develop, enhance, and implement policies and procedures to improve safety, quality, operations, and efficiency.
Promote and support academic partners, including the affiliation with UT College of Medicine Chattanooga.
Promote a high-reliability culture and a success-oriented, accountable environment.
Lead, recruit, retain, mentor, and develop a high-performing leadership team, supporting management development and succession planning.
Partner with or represent the health system across teams, departments, service lines, and with customers, patients, physicians, business partners, and other external constituencies.
Effectively interact with Erlanger senior leaders.
Lead and integrate Erlanger Surgical Services through collaboration or direct operational oversight.
Monitor service-line performance measures, including market share, revenue and volume, margins, quality indicators, satisfaction, and surgical operational metrics.