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Position Description – Director, Finance – Children’s Hospital and Health Center in San Diego

Our highly prestigious client, Children’s Hospital & Health Center San Diego, located in San Diego, California, was founded in 1954. The mission of the Health Center is “to restore, sustain and enhance the health and developmental potential of children.” The hospital enjoys an outstanding reputation, locally, regionally and nationally as a preeminent children’s health provider.

Children’s Hospital & Health Center, a 238 bed facility, is the region’s only designated pediatric trauma center and the only area hospital dedicated solely to pediatric care. Our client is in the third year of a joint collaboration with the University of California San Diego which has reaped innumerable benefits for its patients and has substantially grown Children’s organ transplant program. Children’s jointly manages the pediatric program at Palomar Medical and Scripps-Mercy Hospital.

In addition to caring for children at the main campus, Children’s has 15 neighborhood centers offering primary care and specialized services. Children’s is also active in numerous community outreach programs, including health education, early intervention and counseling, child abuse prevention and child safety issues.

The healing environment, which is nationally recognized, incorporates a unique combination of design, light, color and art. Within this environment of caring, children and their families become part of the healing process.

The Research Center at Children’s Hospital and Health Center was formed in 1982 to administer federal funding for research in children’s health. Over the years, the image of Children’s as a leader in research has grown with the establishment of recognized national and international research laboratories.

The center for pediatric clinical research is a newly formed organization combining the strengths of Children’s clinical scientists and the infrastructure of Children’s Hospital and Health Center. The Center for Pediatric Clinical Research oversees and conducts over 200 clinical trials per year investigating new drugs, devices, and techniques, all with the aim of improving the care of children.

The Management

Underlying the management team's skill-set is a passionate, deep-seeded and visionary commitment to excellence, innovation and growth. The style of management and the organizational culture of excellence are deeply rooted in teamwork and mutual support. The commitment of the management team to the mission, which is “Kids”, is outstanding and highly effective in keeping the management and staff focused on the big picture. To complement the management team an individual must be able to blend their individual success into that of the entire team and share in the commitment and the satisfaction of taking care of very sick children.

Key management individual’s work together to focus the combined resources of the organization on particular challenges by working together and sharing resources. The level of teamwork and support within and among the management group is extraordinarily high and remarkably effective. This group of managers, with their collaborative style and complete commitment to the mission, is the heart of the organization’s success.

Position Description

The Director, Finance is responsible for financial transaction recording and financial reporting for all Children's divisions. He or she manages the Accounting Department personnel in the performance of their duties, participates as a team member and team resource throughout the organization on financial matters, is responsible for the development and implementation of a comprehensive and effective internal control structure for areas affecting financial operations and reporting. The Director, Finance is also responsible for managing the annual financial statement audit and external reporting, and works collaboratively with a variety of internal and external customers providing financial expertise.

Responsibilities

Participates in organizational planning related to departmental/program functions
Exercises managerial-level judgment and assumes responsibility for decisions and results
Works collaboratively in team problem-solving and adapts situationally.
Meets departmental objectives by setting clear, achievable standards, and operational policies and procedures; develops monitoring and evaluation methods.
Initiates, cultivates, and maintains friction-free relationships with internal and external customers such as physicians, patients, families, peers, visitors, hospital staff, vendors and the community; monitors customer service and responds appropriately.
Participates in development of the budget process, including forecasting based on analysis of operational statistics.
Acts as a resource to operating units in preparing forecasts and budgets based upon specific assumptions, organizational goals, and departmental/program needs.
Seeks explanations of budget variances from departments or programs, when appropriate, and communicates budget variances consistently with support for variations and explanations.
Prepares financial statements and footnotes for external reporting purposes.
Ensures annual financial audit is completed timely, efficiently and accurately.
Serves as primary liaison with audit team and coordinates interfaces with accounting department personnel and balance of CHHC organization.
Ensures outside auditor efficiency, resulting in minimal fee increases over time.
Demonstrates knowledge and ability to collect appropriate data for management and clinical decision making.
Aggregates, processes, reports and interprets data for decision making in an effective and efficient manner.
Develops and implements an internal control structure over all areas of financial operations and reporting.
Review procedures related to business cycles within the organization in order to identify opportunities to increase efficiency and/or effectiveness of processes and controls.
Monitor the effectiveness of and compliance with internal control procedures and take appropriate action.
Provides atmosphere for innovation and employee empowerment; monitors and develops staff; coordinates orientation and training and communicates appropriately, effectively, and timely.
Conducts timely performance reviews, sets objectives performance standards, provides ongoing feedback; takes appropriate corrective/disciplinary action when necessary.
Develop and implement an internal control structure over all areas of financial operations and reporting.
Knows regulatory and policy protections for various types of data within area of responsibility.
Maintains security of data within areas of responsibility releasing only to those having a need to know or right to know.

Experience and Education

Bachelor's Degree in business, preferably in accounting. A CPA certificate and/or a Master’s Degree is highly preferred, a minimum of seven years' experience in hospital financial management or equivalent experience. Proven experience with financial reporting in a not-for-profit environment is desirable and with the design and implementation of internal controls over financial operations and significant experience supervising personnel. Experience with Meditech Hospital Information Systems is desirable.

Personal Characteristics

As the Health Center is poised to move to a higher level, it is imperative that he/she be first and foremost a team player.
He/she will, as to both written and oral skills, be a superb communicator, and have the style of a diplomat, i.e., able to get along well with everyone and to negotiate agreements where each party benefits
He/she will be a person who possesses a strong work ethic, rejects setbacks, and values accomplishments highly. An action-oriented personality that deals with specifics within a broad conceptual framework will be most effective in this position.
He/she will have an appropriate sense of urgency that allows him/her to react to situations quickly and decisively.
A nonpolitical "speak your mind" approach will work most effectively within the Company's culture. Board and industry presentations are an aspect of the position and for that reason he/she should project the appropriate image.

Opportunity

As a nationally respected Pediatric Center, the hospital will continue to serve as a key referring location for Southern California Pediatric Care, therefore maintaining a reputation as leading-edge facility with extraordinary technology and services, and the level of excellence and respect is especially critical and essential to our client’s future.

The healthcare delivery system has and will continue to undergo significant change. As the vast majority of healthcare providers are finding it difficult, at best, to keep pace with the growing clinical demands, while controlling the cost of care.

This position offers the right person an opportunity to work in an innovative environment. Director, Finance will have an opportunity to significantly grow their direct experience and knowledge of the industry and position themselves to met future career challenges with a broad and noteworthy experience base.

Compensation

The compensation plan is based on a competitive base salary commensurate with the experience and the demonstrated accomplishments of the successful candidate, and will reflect the opportunity at the Company. This position is part of the Senior Management Benefits Program, which is an extremely attractive package.