Position Description: Director of Business Operations, Cancer Center - Stanford Hospital & Clinics

Our highly prestigious client, Stanford Hospital & Clinics (SHC) is known worldwide for advanced patient care, particularly for the treatment of rare, complex disorders in areas such as cardiac care, cancer treatment, neurology, neurosurgery and organ transplants.  Stanford Hospital includes 611 licensed beds.  The clinics offer care in more than 100 specialties, including cancer, neurology, surgery and organ transplantation. 

Patients come to Stanford from all over the Western United States and the world, often for specialized procedures unavailable elsewhere.  In recognition of excellent care, the hospital and physicians consistently rank among the top in the nation in surveys by consumers and health care professionals. In July, 2002, Stanford was named to the Honor Roll of America's Best Hospitals by U.S. News & World Report.  The Hospital was ranked #14 out of 100, in 2004.

Management

An overview of top management of the hospital shows an exceptional blend of clinical, operational and business expertise in the field of acute and specialty care and services.  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 level of teamwork and support among the management staff is extraordinarily high and remarkably effective.  This group of Managers and Directors, with their collaborative style and complete commitment to the mission, is the heart of the department’s success.  It is readily apparent that the management team consistently emphasizes teamwork, individual achievement and making the job fun.

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 the healthcare needs of the community.

Center Overview

Designed with the physical and emotional well-being of patients in mind, the warm and welcoming environment of the Stanford Cancer Center offers streamlined care focused on comfort, privacy, and health.

The Cancer Center brings together over 35 outpatient cancer medical services at Stanford formerly performed in groups or individuals into one facility. This consolidation makes treatment more convenient for patients and gives physicians greater opportunities to work together to coordinate optimal patient care.   In addition to the latest treatments and advanced technologies, the Cancer Center also integrates a variety of innovative services designed with patient needs and comfort in mind.

The Cancer Center at Stanford is the largest clinic in the Medical Center.  For the physicians there are six office Pods with one specialist per Pod.  The specialty per POD is flexible and can be changed from day-to-day.  There are 62 exam rooms.  There are 15 separate management groups.  The Center is conducting over 300 clinical trials.

The Center is expected to be designated a Comprehensive Cancer Center within one year.

Position Description

The Director Business Operations, Cancer Center will be responsible for the business aspects of clinic operations including ensuing appropriate billing/revenue processing of accounts, directly managing all the accounting staff, developing systems to improve and enhance operational efficiencies, ensuring the patient and staff satisfaction with Director of Clinical Operations, daily operations for assigned areas, data trending and analysis, and collaborating with the administration/physicians on financial accountability and systems improvement.

He or she will play a key role in achieving the Center’s objective to effective growth and continue to be a leader in cancer treatment and research.  The successful candidate will work in partnership with the Director of Clinical Operations to adopt the vision of the Cancer Center.

The Director of Business Operations will oversee the activities of the accounting functions, the patient access role which comprises new patient coordination, the operations supervisors, HMO Coordinators, office staff and three Assistant Clinic Managers, each with there own operational supervisor

As the expansion of the Center continues and its treatment and research efforts in the area of clinical research increases, the Center will require an administrator who can develop and implement a parallel expansion of treatment and procedures, the research infrastructure and organizational goals.  The successful candidate will provide the leadership traits, skill-set and the vision needed to provide a customer-oriented mentality within the Center.  The right person will have a proven track record in introducing successful change needed to implement a business-like approach with the faculty and staff. 

There are a total of 300 FTE’s in the Center of which 125 are clinical staff.

Reporting Relationship

The Director of Business Operations reports to the Administrative Director of the Cancer Center. 

Administrative Responsibilities

• Responsible for the daily operation of the Center
• Responsible for the budgeting and financial management of the Center
• Develop Management Reports for senior management and other key decision makers
• Manage the space of the Center
• Develop and implement effective IT Systems
• Maintains a close working relationship with the Director of Clinical Operations
• Responsible for personnel management of the program, including hiring and firing, in consultation with Human Resources
• Set-up clear expectations for staff members and provide feedback to enhance staff performance
• Work with the Accounting staff to ensure timely and accurate monthly closings, including the preparation of the monthly financial statements
• Generation of accurate reports on active, pending and terminated grants, grant preparation assistance, business management reports and setting institutional priorities
• Ensure compliance pertaining to grants and contracts and other sources of funding
• Serve as liaison for the special funds aspect of the financial audit and audit grants
• Provide maximum audit assistance in order to achieve audit free savings
• Management defined internal education programs as requested

Research Overview

The Research Program at Stanford University's School of Medicine is well known for the strength of its programs. It has a celebrated record of making discoveries in the life sciences and biomedicine that reveal the fundamental rules that govern life and then determining how those rules apply to disease detection, treatment and prevention. Today, the School of Medicine is building on that strong tradition and launching new programs for the future.

Research Program Highlights

• More than 500 principal investigators.
• Oversee 1,600 sponsored research projects annually.
• Investigators are located in 16 clinical and 11 basic science departments.
• In 2002, the School of Medicine received grants and contracts worth more than $272 million in support of research, teaching and patient care.
• On a per-person basis, our faculty receives more NIH (National Institutes of Health) funding than any other medical school in the United States.

Personal Characteristics

The Director, Cancer Center Operations needs to possess the patience, self-confidence and communication skills necessary to work with the clinical and administrative staff and the Physicians.

First and foremost, this individual needs to be a team player, be a superb communicator and have the style of a diplomat, i.e., be able to work in harmony with other operational entities and to negotiate agreements so each party benefits. It is imperative that he/she be skilled in bringing together the staff functions in a spirit of harmony and with a single-minded purpose.

A hands-on leader who can develop a strategic vision of the department and has the expertise to develop values and goals for a diverse group of constituents will be successful.  The successful candidate will have a proven record of accomplishment of strong leadership skills to ensure that the improvement process within the department continues, that priorities are established and the goals are met.

The successful candidate 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.  This individual will have an appropriate sense of urgency to react to situations quickly and decisively.

Qualifications

A qualified candidate will have a MBA or MHA and three years in a leadership role for physician practice organization or out patient operations.  An oncology background and/or RN are preferred.

Compensation

The compensation plan is based on a competitive base salary commensurate with the experience and the demonstrated accomplishments of the successful candidate.  It will reflect the opportunity at the hospital. The hospital has an excellent employee benefits package, consisting of medical coverage, a dental plan, life insurance, Defined Benefit Retirement Plan and a 403 b program with employer matching.

Bio - Administrative Director

Ms. Pat Byrne is a senior executive experienced in strategic planning, operations, human resource management and program development.  She is responsible for all aspects of cancer care delivery and development of the service line at Stanford Hospital and Clinics. Ms. Byrne is an expert in cancer care delivery.

Previous experience included development of the oncology service line in a 500 bed academic center a primary clinical affiliate of the Harvard Medical School.  She had complete management responsibilities for Clinical Trials office, Research facilities, Radiation Oncology, Medical Oncology and Surgery.

In addition developed affiliations with six  non- Harvard sites to deliver various aspects of cancer care including radiation oncology and chemotherapy administration. Administrative director of two NCI awarded SPORE grants.

Principal in Byrne-Swanson Health Care Consulting. Administrative Director of the Cancer Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Center, Boston Ma.

Administrative Director of the Cardio-Vascular Service Line, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA.

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