Director, Patient Experience

Allen Hospital - Waterloo, IA

Full-time, Monday-Friday Schedule

At UnityPoint Health, you matter. We’re proud to be recognized as a Top 150 Place to Work in Healthcare by Becker's Healthcare several years in a row for our commitment to our team members.  

Our competitive Total Rewards program offers benefits options that align with your needs and priorities, no matter what life stage you’re in.  Here are just a few:      

• Expect paid time off, parental leave, 401K matching and an employee recognition program.   

• Dental and health insurance, paid holidays, short and long-term disability and more. We even offer pet insurance for your four-legged family members.  

• Early access to earned wages with Daily Pay, tuition reimbursement to help further your career and adoption assistance to help you grow your family.   

With a collective goal to champion a culture of belonging where everyone feels valued and respected, we honor the ways people are unique and embrace what brings us together.   

And, we believe equipping you with support and development opportunities is a vital part of delivering an exceptional employment experience. 

Find a fulfilling career and make a difference with UnityPoint Health.

• Lead and mentor a team of experience professionals, fostering professional growth and collaboration
• Design and implement a strategic framework for improving the patient and family experience across care settings, in alignment with system standards
• Provides direction, supervision, and support to team members. Delegates accountability and responsibility appropriately to leadership team.
• Ensures effective recruitment, selection, supervision and retention of direct reports and departments reporting to Director.
• Embed patient experience principles and best practices into leadership development, hiring, onboarding and daily operations
• Manage departmental budget and resources to effectively align with organizational goals.
• Establishes efficient, ongoing monitoring systems including capital, operating expenses, staffing, productivity, equipment, tests, procedures/policies, information system, and fiscal requirements.
• Conducts annual performance appraisals for assigned team members.
• Develop and maintain communication to establish regular and consistent communication with team embers, leaders and key stakeholders.
• Share concerns and/or escalate issues to leadership and key stakeholders as appropriate.
• Serves as the administrative leader and liaison with all department physicians, physician partners, and activities; assists with the contract preparation, negotiation, and execution of radiologist agreements and execution of Market-specific agreements where applicable; serves as the administrative representative to Medical Staff departments, sections, and committees.
• Employs system thinking in decision making, directs resolution of complex problems and provides consultation and advice.
• Oversees daily operations to ensure delivery of high-quality services and support. Provides ongoing monitoring and oversight to annually assess effectiveness of department and organizational outcomes.
• Analyze and interpret data from patient experience surveys, complaints and grievances, and external sources
• Design and deliver dashboards, reports and presentations for leadership and team members
• Set performance targets and support departments in creating action plans tied to key drivers and opportunities for improvement
• Ensure compliance with CMS, DNV and other regulatory requirements related to complaints, grievances and patient rights
• Lead experience coaching for leaders, providers and team members to support development
• Facilitate training programs on service-related competencies
• Recognize and elevate best practices; design programs to celebrate staff who demonstrate exceptional experience behaviors
• Engage Patient & Family Advisory Councils (PFACs)
• Elevate the voice of the patient across the organization to inform decision-making, service design, organizational priorities and education
• Participate in quality and patient experience committee.
• Proactively engage patients and team members through leader rounding

Education:

Bachelor's Degree in healthcare administration, social work, nursing, communication or related field required

Experience: 

5 years healthcare and/or customer service experience required

3 years patient experience, patient relations, language services, volunteer services, process improvement or complaint resolution experience required

3-5 years of leadership experience in patient experience or related field required

Credentials:

Certified Patient Experience Professional within 2 years of employment start date preferred

Other:

Excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills with ability to handle sensitive interactions with professionalism, empathy, discretion and executive presence

Strong critical thinking and conflict resolution skills; ability to de-escalate emotional situations

Familiarity with CMS grievance guidelines, DNV standards, HIPAA and patient rights

Ability to work independently while contributing to a collaborative team environment

Highly organized with attention to detail; comfortable prioritizing and working with deadlines

Bilingual or multilingual communication skills preferred

Competency using electronic health record and patient feedback tools (e.g., Epic, RLDatix, NRC Health, Press Ganey, etc.) preferred