Vice President of Operations

CLASSIFICATION/STATUS: Exempt, Full Time, Permanent

IMMEDIATE SUPERVISOR: Chief Executive Officer

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES: Associate Director of Primary Care Operations, Manager of Community Health and Health Benefits, Manager of COVID Operations

OVERSIGHT AREAS/DEPARTMENTS: Front desk, health benefits/insurance enrollment, community health, referrals, call center, risk and compliance, emergency management, school-based program

WHO YOU ARE: YOUR ROLE & IMPACT

The mission of Charles River Community Health (CRCH) is to improve the health and well-being of the communities of Allston, Brighton, Waltham and surrounding areas by providing quality, compassionate, coordinated care that is patient-centered, family friendly, and community focused. We are a Community Health Center providing medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, optical, and vision services to diverse underserved local communities. We serve over 13,500 patients annually, and 80% of those served are well below the poverty line while over 70% speak in a language other than English.

The Vice President of Operations provides strategic leadership and oversight of clinical and non-clinical operations to ensure delivery of exceptional patient care across all departments consistent with the vision of the health center as a Patient Centered Medical Home. They lead and sustain effective change, furthering the culture of increasingly integrated, team-based care, and working with the Chief Clinical Officer to champion changes in care delivery needed to meet the goals of value-based payment and the future of primary care. As a member of the Senior Leadership Team and organization with a $21M operating budget and 170 staff, the Vice President of Operations has executive-level accountability to drive operational performance, and works closely with human resources, clinical, and finance leadership to ensure staffing, funding, and workflows are in place to support patient-centered, efficient care that meets productivity, budget, and patient service excellence goals and related metrics. The Vice President of Operations must also be forward thinking to meet CRCH’s current and future strategic priorities as well as the future direction of the care delivery as a safety net provider, and have good emotional intelligence and understanding around how to best support CRCH’s staff and patient populations.

Given CRCH’s size, the vision and expectation of our Senior Leadership Team is to be nimble and comfortable continually moving between strategy and details, pivoting as needed to respond to a changing and fluid healthcare landscape. In addition, each SLT member is expected to be collaborative and supportive, and champion organizational initiatives, needs, and change management efforts, setting a tone and culture of innovation, streamlining and automating where needed to improve departmental and organizational performance through improved efficiency and effectiveness. SLT will also be champions of the organization's mission, vision, and strategic priorities, and embrace a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion, while reducing inequities. The Vice President of Operations must also be a leader of staff growth and succession paths, as this is of significant importance to further stabilize the services and quality of care for patients for years to come.

PRIORITIES FOR THE NEXT 3-18 MONTHS

Based on current and planned organizational initiatives, the Vice President of Operations will be expected to lead or be a key partner in the following mission-critical projects:

• Partner with the CEO and SLT to successfully drive culture change – The CEO laid out culture change goals in early 2021 to increase accountability, and make decisions that meet patient, provider, and organizational needs while better responding to patient and community needs. We are in the midst of this and need the Vice President of Operations to help champion this in all of the work they do.
• Partner with IT/IS leadership for successful change from EHR system to Epic – CRCH purchased Epic with 10 other health centers through our Mass Health Accountable Care Organization Community Care Cooperative (C3). The vision is all health centers will use a shared version of Epic for cost effectiveness and standardization of care delivery to meet quality and budget goals. This also sets the stage for future shared services opportunities among participating C3 health centers. Go Live is taking place December 2022, and so the incoming Vice President of Operations will need to champion this effort and ensure operational support is in place to minimize impact to access to care for patients during and after Go Live. The incoming Vice President of Operations should also work with operations management to identify opportunities for further streamlining key operational workflows by taking full advantage of Epic’s enhanced functionality over the current system.
• Sustain COVID response – Strategic oversight of staff conducting COVID testing, vaccination, treatment and management of PPE that is nimble to pivot as the pandemic changes and eventually ends and care is incorporated into regular primary care services.
• Improve referral processing and related provider communication and reporting – CRCH’s Referrals team makes appointments for specialty care outside of CRCH as our patient population is not able to navigate the system to do this on their own. CRCH is working down a backlog of referrals to specialty care, in part due to referral team turnover, care deferred during the COVID pandemic, and lack of documented processes for new team members and providers to understand the information they need to provide for the Referrals team to successfully process referrals. Significant progress has been made to reduce the backlog, but improvement is needed to enhance provider communication so that clinical and patient availability information is readily available, and data/reporting is available to project staffing truly needed to meet current and longer-term referral needs.
• Plan for operational systems, structures and workflows needed to successfully convert to value based payment models – CRCH plans to participate in MassHealth’s move to primary care capitation, projected to launch in April 2023. A gap analysis and readiness assessment has been completed, and steps are being taken to implement what’s needed so managers, providers and staff provide care in alignment with this reimbursement model. The Vice President of Operations will champion this in operations and ensure operations staff are ready to participate.
• Partner with the Chief Clinical Officer to expand PCP panel size and improve access to care – CRCH experienced the Great Resignation more acutely than other health centers, and has been hiring additional providers to get back to full staffing. This has strained access to care. To improve access and also be able to take on additional MassHealth patients as part of their updated value-based ACO program in April 2023, we are incrementally increasing PCP panel size to accommodate the needs of existing and new patients. The Vice President of Operations will need to champion this.
• Re-launch risk and compliance program – Strategic oversight of staffing, policies, and procedures for CRCH to mitigate clinical and other risk, and be compliant with federal, state and other requirements. Be leadership point of contact for risk and/or compliance site visits, audits or other similar activities, and work with senior leadership to update policies and protocols as needed and make them readily accessible to staff.
• Assess Call Center performance and establish longer-term plans for success – CRCH outsourced our Call Center in late 2021 after failed attempts to keep it in-house due to continued turnover. Abandonment rate data indicates good performance, however it is challenging to ensure the vendor’s staff are abreast of current operational workflows and it is expensive. For successful after conversion to Epic also allows patients to more easily reach their care team, such as through the patient portal. The incoming Vice President of Operations will be expected to do a cost-benefit analysis and determine the best path for Call Center operations in the medium and long term to ensure CRCH’s patients can easily reach us by phone, recognize the current and continuing workforce challenges to hire in-house staff, and recognize new technologies available for patients to reach us.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

The following is a high level summary of the scope of duties under the Vice President of Operations role:

• Provides strong, hands-on, on-site operational support to primary care and affiliated services with a focus on ensuring providers have what they need to care for patients in an efficient and effective manner.
• Hybrid on-site/remote schedule is available; however, it is expected that 3-4 days/week will be on-site given the nature of the health center’s work
• Ensures operations areas have in place standard policies, procedures, and protocols, and champion creation and adoption of new policies as needed by leading KPI and metric tracking for all roles/departments.
• Models a “we are one team” management philosophy, and positively messages Senior Leadership Team decisions and drivers behind them.
• Accountable for financial performance of operations departments. Clearly communicates budget goals and expectations to staff; monitors performance and pro-actively manages expenses and identifies creative solutions to budget challenges.
• Leads the risk management and compliance program at CRCH, and puts in place plans, training and actions to ensure continuous compliance and risk mitigation for all aspects of the organization.
• Strategic oversight of specialty referral processing, outsourced call center, health insurance enrollment, and school-based program.
• Strategic oversight of community health team and programs, and ensuring clinically and cost effective access to interpreting services for patients.
• Strategic oversight of operational aspects of value-based payment programs in which the Health Center participates. Ensures operations workflows, systems, structure, and resources are in place to allow Health Center to meet or exceed quality and financial value-based program metrics.
• Monitors service performance and patient experience data and enacts effective data-driven change to improve performance and meet patient satisfaction, patient access, quality, and budget goals.
• Ensures activities and operations are performed in compliance with local, state, and federal regulations and laws governing business operations, and meet DPH clinic licensure, NCQA Medical Home accreditation, HRSA FQHC program requirements, and other regulatory and/or funding requirements.
• Attends monthly board meetings.
• Ensures compliance and completion of deliverables for grants that fund operations programs and staff.

YOUR QUALIFICATIONS, COMPETENCIES, TRAITS

• Master’s degree in Business Administration, Health Administration, Public Health, or related field.
• 5-7 years of operational experience, ideally in a Federally Qualified Health Center or similar safety net provider setting. Strong commitment to the community health center movement and mission.
• Experience in diverse culture preferred, with strong commitment to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion and championing health equity.
• Results-proven track record of hands-on problem solving and management of teams resulting in meeting or exceeding operational goals.
• 5-7 years of budgeting and financial oversight.
• Ability to revamp or create protocols and streamline departmental processes to ensure the organization runs smoothly.
• Successful work as change agent.
• Present as an inspirational, accountable, and creative leader.
• Demonstrated experience managing with transparent communication that aligns staff with organization goals and senior leadership team messaging.
• Strong ability to encourage and facilitate open dialogue, bring conflicts into the open for resolution, and be a skilled listener who encourages direct, open, and honest conversation.
• Strong influencing and advocacy skills, with demonstrated ability to gain buy-in and support across internal and external stakeholder groups.
• High degree of integrity and trust and able to work both independently and collaboratively.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

WHO WE ARE & WHAT WE DO

Charles River Community Health’s?mission is to improve the health and well-being of the communities of Allston, Brighton, Waltham and surrounding areas by providing quality, compassionate, coordinated care that is patient-centered, family friendly, and community focused.

CRCH is a comprehensive practice providing medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, optical, and vision services to diverse underserved local communities. We serve over 15,000 patients annually, and 80% of those served are well below the poverty line while over 60% speak in a language other than English.

We are committed to providing patients with timely access to the right care, at the right place and at the right time, collaborating with other organizations to connect patients with a comprehensive range of services and provide continuity of care, and creating new community partnerships to meet the changing needs of patients and the community.

We value caring for everyone with dignity, respect, and compassion, reducing cultural, financial and other barriers to care, and eliminating health care disparities for our patients. ?We also advocate for the needs of our patients, the community, and public health causes.

OUR PROMISE

If you are passionate about providing service excellence in a mission-driven, team-oriented, and progressive organization, you will find your career as the The VP OF OPERATIONS rewarding and impactful! You will also find a partner in your career path goals and trajectory!

OUR BENEFITS & PERKS

Medical, Vision & Dental Insurance

Short, Long-term Disability, Life Insurance

Generous Paid Time Off

Flexible Spending Account

Employee Assistance Program

Tickets at Work

Health Reimbursement Arrangement

Travel Reimbursement

Professional Development Opportunities

Solid track record of developing and promoting employees internally!

Charles River Community Health is strongly committed to diversity and a workplace environment that respects, appreciates and values employee differences and similarities. By providing and supporting a work culture that fosters and builds upon diversity and its strengths, CRCH will better serve our local communities and continue to provide quality patient care and services. CRCH is an employment at-will organization and an equal opportunity employer committed to maintaining a work and learning environment free from discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, national origin, pregnancy, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital/civil union status, ancestry, place of birth, age, citizenship status, veteran status, political affiliation, genetic information or disability, as defined and required by state and federal laws. Additionally, CRCH prohibits retaliation against an applicant or employee because he or she has engaged in protected activity under the statutes prohibiting discrimination in the workplace.