Director of Perioperative and Sterile Processing Services

Job Description

The Director of Perioperative and Sterile Processing Services provides strategic, operational, and clinical leadership for all perioperative and sterile processing functions to ensure safe, efficient, and high-quality surgical services. This role is responsible for aligning perioperative operations with organizational goals, regulatory requirements, and best practices while driving operational excellence, patient safety, financial stewardship, and staff engagement. The Director partners with surgeons, anesthesia, nursing leadership, infection prevention, and supply chain to optimize surgical throughput, instrument readiness, and outcomes across the continuum of perioperative care.

Responsibilities

Job Function: Communication and Relationship Building

• Effective communication - proficient in communication and technology to address nursing, healthcare and organizational issues appropriate to diverse audiences.
• Establishes structures and processes to ensure effective information sharing among patients, families, and the healthcare team.
• Demonstrates follow-through on commitments and concerns.
• Demonstrates care about people as individuals with empathy and concern while ensuring that organizational ethics, goals, and objectives are met.
• Builds credibility with physicians as a champion for patient care, quality, and nursing professionalism.
• Fosters relationships with nursing academia to provide clinical experiences and resources for students.
• Participates and represents administration in community boards, agencies, or projects that complement hospital mission and goals. Responsible for planning and implementing strategies that improve the quality of health care delivery to the community

Job Function: Business Skills

• Understands healthcare finances as evidenced by preparing and analyzing unit budgets.
• Correlates the relationship between effective staffing, patient care and budgeting.
• Identifies educational needs of existing and potential staff.
• Establish the perioperative and sterile processing strategic plan and annual operational goals that support the organization's strategic plan.

Job Function: Quality Improvement

• Utilizes and interprets evidence-based data for the establishment of standards, practices, and patient care models for delivery of care.
• Participates in systems review to improve quality of patient care delivery and to critically evaluate and anticipate risks to patient safety with the aim of preventing patient care errors.
• Identifies and participates in performance improvement processes that provide outcome measurement.
• Communicates, educates and involves staff in quality improvement processes.
• Actively participates in patient satisfaction strategies and service recovery.
• Ensures that clinical policies and procedures are reviewed and updated in accordance with evidence-based practice.

Job Function: Safety

• Articulates and takes action to support the TJC National Patient Safety Goals.
• Demonstrates knowledge of internal and external disaster plans and fire drills.
• Incorporates safety into clinical processes, policies, and procedures.
• Supports a non-punitive environment for reporting errors.
• Administrative authority, responsibility and accountability to accomplish all assigned and related duties necessary to ensure conformity to institutional, regulatory, professional and accrediting agency standards governing patient care practices and delivery of patient care. (such as JCAHO, Ohio Department of Health, CMS and the Ohio State Board of Nursing

Job Function: Resource Management

• Maintains current knowledge of patient care delivery systems and innovations.
• Serves as a change agent when patient care and processes are re-designed.
• Articulates federal and state regulations.
• Develop and implement budget and control activities for perioperative and sterile processing divisions and other areas of responsibility. Determines perioperative patient care needs and manpower patterns to deliver cost-effective quality patient care

Job Function: Supervision of Staff

• Actively recruits and initiates strategies for staff retention.
• Utilizes corrective action appropriately to mitigate work behavior issues.
• Coaches staff in development of career plans.
• Provides visionary thinking and provides input in the staffing issues impacting the patient flow.
• Delegates tasks appropriately to health care personnel.
• Creates an environment that recognizes and values differences in staff, physicians, patients, and communities.
• Ensures decision-making authority of staff is acknowledged and incorporated into patient care delivery.

Job Function: Professionalism

• Exhibits personal and professional accountability and career planning.
• Supports and encourages staff to be involved in professional organizations, projects, Clinical Advancement Program, to obtain certification and advanced education.
• Articulates in the application of ethical principles for patient care and operations.
• Create and promote a healthy work environment that is conducive to opinion sharing and decreases moral distress.
• Role model the perspective that patient care is the core of the organization's work.

Qualifications

Required: Master's Degree, Ohio RN License, 3-5 years equivalent experience | Preferred: Certified in area of specialty, 6-10 years equivalent experience

Position requires demonstrated knowledge and ability to effectively administrate the Perioperative Services Care Team.

Demonstrated ability to apply current perioperative nursing/patient care practice models, leadership/management skills and performance improvement concepts that achieve organizational goals for improving the delivery of perioperative services.

Demonstrated ability to apply current sterile processing techniques to achieve organizational goals for achieving best practices and improving operational efficiencies within the sterile processing department.

Demonstrated ability to operate within financial guidelines, implement organizational strategies, effectively administrate regulatory guidelines and standards into current perioperative and sterile processing practices.

At UC Health, we're proud to have the best and brightest teams and clinicians collaborating toward our common purpose: to advance healing and reduce suffering.

As the region's adult academic health system, we strive for innovation and provide world-class care for not only our community, but patients from all over the world. Join our team and you'll be able to develop your skills, grow your career, build relationships with your peers and patients, and help us be a source of hope for our friends and neighbors.

UC Health is an EEO employer.