VP Surgical Services

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta

About The Position

The Vice President, Surgical Services provides executive leadership for surgical and perioperative services across the system. The role is accountable for safe, high-quality, patient- and family-centered care; operational and financial performance; workforce strategy; growth; and responsible resource stewardship. As the administrative dyad partner to the Surgeon in Chief, Division Chief of General Surgery, and other surgical specialty Chiefs, the VP translates system strategy into surgical services priorities and coordinates delivery across the perioperative continuum, including preoperative services, operating rooms, post-anesthesia care, inpatient and outpatient services, ambulatory surgery centers, and sterile processing. Working with the Children’s Physician Group, community surgeons, physicians, and clinical and operational leaders, the VP drives measurable outcomes in quality, patient experience, access, capacity, workforce engagement, labor performance, and financial sustainability. The role also supports an optimal environment for providers and helps meet the surgical needs of the pediatric community served by Children’s.

Requirements

Ten years of progressive healthcare leadership experience, including at least five years as an executive or senior leader in a complex healthcare organization.
Proven experience leading surgical, perioperative, or other complex clinical and business operations across multiple sites, functions, or service lines.
Demonstrated success partnering with surgeon and physician leaders to develop and execute strategic clinical care, growth, access, and capacity plans.
Demonstrated experience improving operating room throughput, utilization, quality, safety, patient flow, and financial performance while achieving superior clinical outcomes.
Proven experience developing workforce and labor strategies, optimizing staffing models, managing premium labor, and aligning workforce capacity with surgical demand and financial targets.
Experience leading systemwide strategy, large-scale transformation, and measurable performance improvement in partnership with clinical, non-clinical, medical, operational, and administrative stakeholders.
Experience benchmarking against peer health systems and national organizations and translating leading practices and emerging trends into actionable surgical services strategies.
Bachelor’s degree in business, health administration, industrial engineering, or a related healthcare field.
Ability to lead complex, cross-organizational surgical services initiatives through influence, collaboration, and negotiation among stakeholders with competing priorities.
Ability to lead multiple perioperative functions and develop and execute systemwide strategy, transformation, and measurable performance improvement.
Ability to build trusted relationships with patients, employees, surgeons, physicians, and senior clinical and non-clinical leaders across organizational levels and specialty areas.
Strong executive presence and ability to lead necessary organizational and operational changes.
Ability to use financial, workforce, quality, safety, patient experience, access, capacity, and operational data to set priorities, manage risk, and drive measurable improvement.
Strong business and financial acumen, including budgeting, forecasting, labor productivity, premium labor management, margin improvement, and delivery of high-quality surgical care within established financial parameters.
Ability to develop and use dashboards, key performance indicators, and scorecards to monitor operating room utilization, throughput, quality, workforce, and financial performance and guide executive decision-making.
Ability to develop a comprehensive surgical services workforce strategy, align staffing models and skill mix with demand, strengthen recruitment and retention, and steward labor resources responsibly.
Ability to evaluate and prioritize capital investments in technology, equipment, facilities, and programs based on return on investment, clinical impact, risk, capacity, and strategic value.
Advanced analytical capability to assess needs, evaluate costs and benefits, identify risks and mitigations, and make timely, well-informed decisions.
Commitment to patient care, service excellence, continuous improvement, workforce engagement, and partnerships with surgeons and physicians.
Excellent executive-level written and verbal communication skills and ability to deliver results in a fast-paced, high-accountability environment.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in health administration or business administration.
Pediatric healthcare experience, preferably within surgical or perioperative services.

Responsibilities

Provide executive leadership for safe, efficient, integrated, and fiscally responsible surgical and perioperative operations across hospitals and outpatient surgery centers, including preoperative, operating room, post-anesthesia care, and sterile processing services.
Partner with the Surgeon in Chief, Division Chief of General Surgery, other surgical specialty Chiefs, surgeons, physicians, specialty leaders, and clinical and non-clinical leaders to translate system strategy into priorities and coordinate operations across the perioperative continuum.
Develop and execute surgical services strategy for growth, access, capacity, competitive threat mitigation, service deployment, and utilization across system operative locations.
Align surgical services priorities, performance, and resource decisions with broader system goals and targets.
Set expectations and drive measurable improvement in patient safety, clinical quality, patient and family experience, workforce engagement, operating room utilization, throughput, on-time performance, case volume, and operational reliability.
Lead surgical services workforce planning and strategy, including demand and capacity planning, staffing model and skill-mix optimization, recruitment, retention, leadership development, succession planning, performance accountability, and employee engagement.
Maintain accountability for labor productivity, premium labor, workforce utilization, scheduling efficiency, and labor cost performance, aligning staffing resources with surgical demand, quality requirements, and financial parameters.
Maintain accountability for operating and capital performance, budgeting, forecasting, revenue, expense management, margin improvement, resource utilization, capacity, key volumes, and financial sustainability.
Prioritize and allocate people, operating, and capital resources across surgical services to advance strategic initiatives, improve access and throughput, and achieve organizational priorities.
Evaluate and prioritize investments in technology, equipment, facilities, and programs based on return on investment, clinical impact, risk, capacity, and strategic value in collaboration with stakeholders.
Develop and use dashboards, key performance indicators, and scorecards to monitor quality, safety, experience, workforce, access, utilization, throughput, and financial performance; identify trends and ensure timely corrective action.
Oversee regulatory and accreditation readiness for surgical and perioperative services, communicate material performance risks to executive leadership, and ensure timely mitigation and resolution.
Maintain a visible leadership presence, build trusted relationships with staff and stakeholders, and respond decisively to operational issues, opportunities, and risks using data and stakeholder input.
Partner with surgical chiefs and operations leaders to develop and implement innovative surgical programs, modalities, technologies, and care delivery models.
Own and drive Surgical Services talent management, including talent selection, performance accountability, leadership development, succession planning, retention, and employee engagement.
Achieve Operate with Excellence targets across people, patient experience, quality and safety, operations, growth, and financial performance.