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The UW Department of Pediatrics is dedicated to improving the health of all children by educating physicians of the future, advancing research, advocating for children and providing the outstanding pediatric clinical care. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive faculty and staff. The Central Administration team has an outstanding opportunity for an Associate Director for Department Operations (Associate Director).
As the second largest Department in the UW School of Medicine, Pediatrics has approximately 1,170 appointments, including 500+ salaried faculty members, 120 paid staff employees, 143 residents, 70+ ACGME fellows, and 380+ volunteer/affiliate faculty.
The Department includes 20 subspecialty Divisions: Adolescent Medicine, Bioethics & Palliative, Cardiology; Craniofacial Medicine; Critical Care Medicine (includes Cardiovascular Intensive Care); Dermatology; Developmental Medicine; Emergency Medicine; Endocrinology; Gastroenterology & Hepatology; General Pediatrics (including Child Abuse/Protection and Pediatric Sports Medicine); Genetic Medicine (including Biochemical Genetics); Hematology/Oncology; Hospital Medicine; Immunology; Infectious Diseases; Neonatology; Nephrology; Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine; and Rheumatology.
The Department occupies space at multiple sites including University of Washington Health Sciences Building (HSB) and Medical Center (UWMC), Harborview Medical Center (HMC), Valley Medical Center (VMC), Seattle Children’s Hospital (SCH), Seattle Children’s Research Institute (SCRI), Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC), and other rental space in the Seattle area.
The Associate Director reports to the Director of Administration and Finance and is responsible for the overall management and oversight of all Department business/administrative operations other than Finance and Medical Education. The Department of Pediatrics has annual operating budget of more than $140M. Under the general direction of the Director of Administration and Finance and in partnership with the Associate Director of Department Finance this position is responsible for effective and efficient stewardship of all department resources.
The Department educates pediatric physicians, advances research, and provides primary and specialty clinical care. The Department of Pediatrics has a strong affiliation with Seattle Children's (Hospital/SCH and Research Institute/SCRI). The Associate Director helps bridge this and other affiliations with staff employed by the University of Washington (UW) and Seattle Children’s. Faculty members and staff employees in the Department are located at various institutions. The Associate Director leads, directs, and manages the work of the non-finance operational administrative/business units. The Associate Director works closely and independently with the School of Medicine Dean’s Office, UW Human Resources, Academic Human Resources, UW Information Technology, Seattle Children’s operational leaders at both the hospital and research institute. The Associate Director interfaces and collaborates with various groups on operational issues that may involve Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC), Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA), and UW Medicine groups. In addition to SCH and SCRI, faculty members in the Department are located at the FHCRC, UW Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center, South Lake Union, Northgate II offices and a variety of other locations.
Primary responsibilities include but are not limited to:
The Associate Director is responsible for providing oversight, direction, leadership of all the business/administrative operations of the Department other than Finance and Medical Education. Responsible for human resources, faculty/academic affairs, information systems/technology, payroll, research operations, space/facilities for the Department and Divisions. As part of the department’s leadership team, the Associate Director participates in the Department Strategic planning processes that may involve UW Medicine, Seattle Children’s, and others. The Associate Director partners with the Director of Administration and Finance and the Associate Director of Department Finance and various affiliate institutions on faculty deployment, business proformas and strategic planning. The position serves as the primary operations advisor to the Director of Administration and Finance, Chair and the Department Executive Committee.
Department-wide Operations and Reporting:
Direct, supervise and manage the Department business/administrative operational activities on a day-to-day basis including:
Provide direction, management and oversight, to reporting individuals and teams.
Establish and maintain control systems for monitoring workloads and staffing needs.
Develop policies, procedures and systems as they relate to the operations and management. This includes development of a complete annual recruitment and staffing plan in collaboration with physician leadership, Director, and Associate Director of Department Finance as part of the budget process for the Department inclusive of divisions and all funding sources.
Provide policy and operational guidance/advice to department and division leadership.
Provide regular reports of the overall department business/administrative operations and projects to the Executive Committee and department faculty leadership.
Respond to external and internal inquiries regarding structure, management tools, process improvement initiatives and “best practices”.
Assure and be responsible for audit compliance and participation in all Department of Pediatrics audits.
Oversee/manage all public records requests.
Participate in department strategic planning.
Engage with Department educational leadership on various aspects of business/administrative operations.
Leadership, Administration and Management:
Develop and maintain excellent working relationships with Divisions, Dean’s office, SCH administration, CUMG/UWP, FHCRC and other UW offices.
Encourage an environment of innovation, improvement, and change for the Department.
Facilitate and work to improve the inter-team communication, collaboration, and coordination required to efficiently deliver service and support to faculty, staff, and Divisional, Departmental, and hospital leaders.
Oversee department-level liaison functions with the various UW and SCRI operational offices (AAC, Human Resources, and UW IT), UW business offices (Compliance, Payroll, Travel, UW IT, Records Management) as well as the practice plans (CUMG/UWP).
Provide direction to the Division Administrators on business, operational and staffing matters.
Work with all Divisions and/or business units to formulate strategies for financial stability, compliance and efficiencies as it relates to finance, information technology and research.
Drive programs and projects to completion by ensuring timelines are met and resources are deployed appropriately through the use of project management tools and methodologies.
Lead the development of program/project plans for all managed projects across administrative/business units and divisions.
Supervise staff and provide an interface between faculty members, administrative staff, leadership, and other key stakeholders.
Work closely with other administrative leaders, key stakeholders, administrative leaders, and executive committee to ensure a strong cohesive team approach.
Conduct program reviews to ensure quality and timeliness of services and project milestones.
Explore solutions to delays in meeting established goals or times lines with department leadership; identify and implement solutions.
Develop presentations, reports, and emails for purposes of providing updates and communications to team members, stakeholders, and senior leadership.
Continuous Improvement:
Facilitate efficient management of the administrative/business units introducing best practices and guiding each unit, with its unique focus, to achieve goals, outcomes, and targets.
Provide administrative/business operational leadership, support and guidance to units, and develop plans and approaches to meet goals and initiatives.
Work with the all administrative leaders and division administrators to facilitate plans for growth, including (but not limited to): identifying resource needs, writing clear and pragmatic business plans, coordinating implementation, and identifying and building the required partnerships.
Proactively identify high-level barriers to success and propose innovative solutions.
Actively manage to performance metrics and collect quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate workload and progress of process improvement initiatives.
Create processes to implement solutions, identify and engage the appropriate stakeholders.
Understand and constantly verify the needs, expectations, and performance objectives of the Executive Leadership Team, as well as division chiefs and center directors.
Recognize, develop and implement general systems and processes that will ensure effective and efficient delivery of accurate services.
Forge highly collaborative business relationships with program leadership, administrative units, divisions, and all institutional partners including Seattle Children’s, to find solutions to various projects/initiatives.
Oversee and manage the Continuous Performance Improvement efforts aimed at developing and maintaining strategic focus, improving value to stakeholders/business partners, streamlining services and increasing standardization.
Introduce and utilize effective and rigorous approaches to evaluation that will enable greater impact and increased efficiency.
Conduct targeted workshops for point improvements and strategic development (value stream mapping).
With department leadership, develop procedures for proposing, evaluating and prioritizing improvement activities, especially labor-intensive workshops.
Provide analysis and recommendations regarding streamlining services and improving value and standardization.
Develop benchmarks for administrative unit productivity and implement data-gathering activities in close collaboration with leadership.
Represent the Department in intra-institutional, inter-institutional and national efforts focused on performance improvement.
Workforce Planning:
Be responsible for designing and implementing a program to evaluate Divisions or individual programs to assure they are “right sized”.
Recommend restructuring to ensure the most effective and efficient operations.
Supervision & Personnel:
The Associate Director has direct supervisory responsibility over the managers of faculty affairs, staff human resources, payroll, research operations, and information technology teams that constitute the Department’s Central Administration group (approximately 15-20 FTEs). Central administration staff are located at Seattle Children’s Laurelhurst campus and in the RR-wing of the UW Health Sciences Building. Supervision includes:
Performance evaluations, disciplinary actions, professional development.
Maintain staff time records and leave requests, monitor overtime requests.
Coordinate staff workloads and recommend revisions in roles and responsibilities as needed.
Responsible for personnel request paperwork.
Responsible for onboarding, orientation, and training of new staff.
Special Projects and Other Duties:
Represent Director of Administration and Finance at various meetings and on committees as requested or assigned. Provide expertise, consultation, and work product as requested with special projects and other duties as needed.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
This position requires a Master's degree in Business Administration, Health Care Administration or related field. Ten years of progressively increasing responsible positions within a large clinical practice or academic medical center setting. Other essential qualifications include:
Leadership, management, collaboration, organization assessment
Physician relations
Financial analysis
Oral/written communication
Team building
Systems expertise
Decision-making and interpersonal skills
Staff development skills
Candidates must also demonstrate a high degree of initiative, financial analysis, operational efficiencies and cost containment, human resource management, process improvement/lean expertise and strategic planning. A functional working knowledge of academic institutions, physician clinical billing and practice management are also required.
A combination of education and experience demonstrating an advanced level of competence, in all of the above areas, may suffice in place of the requirement of an advanced degree.
CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT
The application process for UW positions may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process. These assessments may include Work Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others. Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select “Apply to this position”. Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your “My Jobs” page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed. |
