Director of Lab Services

Under the direction of the Vice President, Ancillary and Support Services, the incumbent will be accountable for the Clinical Laboratory Strategic planning, business development, budgeting and operational oversight for both inpatient and outpatient service lines.

This position will require an external perspective of the core service line in order to identify costs and set business strategies to address market opportunities. The position will require a strong understanding of managed health care pricing, contracting, physician perspectives, marketing, and methodologies for evaluating the efficiency of services.

The incumbent must be knowledgeable of systems in order to extract and effectively use information from databases and requires the ability to assemble and lead multidisciplinary teams. Must be able to cultivate appropriate business relationships with physicians, vendors, community and Renown Health personnel. In consultation with the Medical Director(s), the incumbent will establish the technical policies and procedures which meet patient care needs as well as regulatory, accrediting, and licensure requirements. 

In this management position the incumbent must function interdependently with the Medical Directors to monitor and enhance laboratory services. The position is responsible for all operational issues including managing personnel, increasing patient satisfaction, maintaining an engaged employee workforce and adherence to the budget and expenditures. Technical decisions regarding implementation of new testing policies and procedures will be made in conjunction with and approval of the Medical Directors.

The major responsibilities of this position involve handling multiple priorities such as arranging clinical laboratory testing services for multiple patient care settings, from trauma victims to routine outpatients. The incumbent is accountable for ensuring regulatory & accrediting compliance. The incumbent must provide an infrastructure capable of providing consistently accurate and timely laboratory results to nursing and medical staff. Innovative cost reduction strategies are a continually developed, tested, and implemented when appropriate. New growth opportunities and possibilities are developed and presented to the vice president.

Fundamental to the role of Laboratory Director is the building of volume and market share of the outpatient service line, while managing the expenses for all services and achieving turnaround time goals for all services. The laboratory director will work closely with Renown Health Marketing to develop creative and effective marketing strategies and plans. The laboratory director will have the creativity to formulate new programs within the discipline and the analytical skills to prepare accurate and persuasive business justifications to support all new proposals.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

1. Adopts a philosophy consistent with the Renown Health Standards of Conduct and models behavior in accordance with the standards.
2. Have a thorough understanding of payment and reimbursement rules, regulations, and practices for the hospital, technical, and professional services related to laboratory services.
3. Ability to successfully create, implement, and measure the results of business plans.
4. Effective communication skills, both written and oral, to discuss and obtain patient information with appropriate caregivers. Communicates suggestions, instruction, delegation, disciplinary action and requests to staff in a respectful manner.
5. Ability to comply with company policies and rules and maintain and promote the corporate culture with a philosophy of perpetual quality improvements.
6. Maintains corporate compliance as set forth in the Renown Health System Corporate Compliance Program, the Renown Health System Code of Professional Ethics and department specific Laboratory Compliance Program as defined by laboratory policies and external regulatory standards.\
7. Possess thorough knowledge of laboratory medicine in both a hospital environment and reference laboratory setting. Understands diversity and age specific variation for both the patient populations served and human resources managed. General knowledge of all hospital department roles and responsibilities, quality management methodologies, as well as the delivery of health care services within a health system environment.
8. Thorough understanding of customer service requirements and philosophy in terms of guest relations to enhance the satisfaction of all human contacts. Maintains confidentiality of medical and personal information of all customers.
9. Ability to establish positive working relationships with peers and superiors. Works as part of a team to meet the mission, goals, and objectives of Renown Health. Works efficiently and in collaboration with superiors, peers, and subordinates in the work setting by using appropriate team building skills.
10. Maintains current working knowledge of the recommendations, guidelines, rules and/or regulations of regulatory, accrediting, and licensing agencies.
11. Ability to coordinate research and development activities related to new test procedures, kits, and/or methods according to CLSI guidelines.
12. Knowledge of strategic planning, business development, healthcare, budget development and financial control with project planning and organizational skills needed to develop and/or review orientation, technical/age-specific training /competency materials, staffing schedules, inventory control and safety audits.
13. Ability to provide leadership and support for peers and subordinates. Ability to act as a change agent to implement new tests, policies, programs, or procedures in the least threatening manner.
14. Ability to act as liaison between the laboratory and other hospital departments to address problems under a continuous quality improvement framework.
15. Performs other related duties as assigned or requested.

This position does not provide direct patient care.

The foregoing description is not intended and should not be construed to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, skills and efforts or work conditions associated with the job. It is intended to be an accurate reflection of the general nature and level of the job.

Name

Description

Education:

Must have working-level knowledge of the English language, including reading, writing and speaking English. Requires a bachelor’s degree in Medical Technology or related field. Master's Degree preferred.  

Experience:

Requires six (6) or more years of medical laboratory experience as a nationally

certified Clinical Laboratory Scientist (Medical Technologist). A minimum of five (5) years progressive healthcare management or administrative experience required.  

License(s):

Ability to obtain and maintain a State of Nevada Laboratory General Supervisor license within 12 months of hire.

Certification(s):

Requires national certification as MLS(ASCP) or equivalent. Specialty certification in one or more areas of responsibility preferred.

Computer / Typing:

Must be proficient with Microsoft Office Suite, including Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel and Word and have the ability to use the computer to complete online learning requirements for job-specific competencies, access online forms and policies, complete online benefits enrollment, etc. Knowledge of Laboratory Information Systems is required.