Director - Patient Connection Center

Experience the advantages of real career change!

Join Piedmont to move your career in the right direction. Stay for the diverse teams you’ll love, a shared purpose, and schedule flexibility that frees you to live for what matters both in and outside of work. You’ll feel valued, motivated to be your best, and recognized for your contributions to exceptional patient outcomes. Piedmont leaders are in your corner, invested in your success. Our wellness programs and comprehensive total benefits and rewards meet your needs today and help you plan for the future. 

The Piedmont Healthcare Patient Connection Center Director is responsible for leading and overseeing a Patient Connection Center service center team encompassing 2-7 contact center and financial clearance Managers, with ultimate accountability of 50-100+ frontline associates. Organizes, plans and monitors daily operations of inbound and outbound patient contact center, scheduling, verification and authorization teams, which support Piedmont Healthcare's physician practices and hospitals. Champions an accountable culture with a focus on delivering a next-generation, hassle-free access experience for both patients and providers. Promotes a cohesive vision aligned across the entire Patient Connection Center. Serves as Director representative to functional advisory panels, collaborates to drive efficiency and continuous improvement. Functions that report to this position include Scheduling, Preregistration, Patient Estimates, Upfront Collections, Clinic Messaging, Order Indexing, Order Validation and Medical Necessity for both hospital and physician services; plus, other tangential functions as assigned. The incumbent serves as the leader of the Patient Connection Center service center for hospitals and physician practices within the Piedmont health system to internal and external organizations, including government agencies, payer organizations, external auditors, and business partners.

What you will do

• Oversee, measure, and report ongoing financial and operational performance of Patient Connection Center functions for all Piedmont entities, including the scheduling of physician office, inpatient and outpatient hospital visits, pre-registration of accounts when adequate information is available during the scheduling process.
• Partners with Director of Operational Effectiveness and Operational Effectiveness team to develop, implement, and oversee efficient and effective operational policies, processes, tools, and educational materials within all functional areas that report to the Patient Connection Center.
• Reviews and provides input on KPIs for Patient Connection Center functions; ensures the implementation of action plans where performance is not meeting expectations; review KPI expectations with corporate/local leadership annually and adjust appropriately; recognize areas of excellence as appropriate
• Maintains understanding of Patient Connection Center workflows and functions to identify potential process improvements and supports the design and implementation changes as requested, leveraging on-site and corporate leadership where appropriate
• Develop expertise for all applications utilized in Patient Connection Center to include all related information systems, tools, technologies, and processes; assist other employees as needed to ensure all tools are fully utilized to create an efficient and effective department
• Ensure Patient Connection Center employees comply with established policies, processes, and quality assurance programs
• Act as a primary liaison between Patient Connection Center for facilities and physician practices.
• Monitor and facilitate service level agreements (SLAs) between Patient Connection Center operations and other related functions within Patient Experience, Revenue Cycle and Clinical operations
• Work positively with physician practice and hospital leadership to ensure that needs/concerns/requests in relation to Patient Connection Center processes are being addressed proactively and in a way which does not negatively impact efficiencies or operational flows established.
• Build strong relationships and facilitate productive communication between key Patient Experience and Revenue Cycle stakeholders, including peer leaders of Patient Experience and Revenue Cycle services and core support departments (e.g., human resources, business support services, finance)
• Create a work environment for employees through team building, coaching, constructive feedback, work delegation, personal example and goal setting that encourages creativity, open dialogue on work issues, professional growth, and a consistent, high level of performance
• Encourage and supports employee decision-making within their scope of responsibilities
• Perform any special assignments as requested

• Bachelor’s Degree from a recognized college or university Required
• Master’s degree from a recognized college or university in Management Engineering, Health Care Administration or Business Administration Preferred

• 7 years Contact Center, Customer Service, Healthcare Operations, or Patient Access experience Required
• 5 years of management experience within a progressive contact center or healthcare environment. Required
• Call center experience requiring high volume inventory management Required
• Physician practice or contact center operations, scheduling, patient access, consulting and/or project management experience for at least five (5) years Preferred
• Leader or member of an operational transformation effort where key functions were reviewed for standardization and centralization Preferred
• Leadership in a multi-hospital and employed physician environment Preferred
• Previous experience using or implementing Epic Preferred
• Experience leading a remote workforce Preferred