Director of Operations - Northshore

Position Summary

Access Health Louisiana (AHL) seeks a senior healthcare operations leader to provide regional leadership for AHL’s Northshore operations. This position is responsible for regional clinic operations, access, productivity, quality, patient experience, financial performance support, community relationships, strategic growth, and value-based care execution across assigned Northshore sites and programs.

The Director of Operations-Northshore serves as the senior regional operating leader and community representative for the assigned service area. The role translates organizational strategy into regional execution, supports site leadership, identifies growth opportunities, and works with clinical, finance, quality, population health, behavioral health, pharmacy, dental, school-based health, and central operations teams to improve performance.

This position should have clearly defined decision rights and accountability for the assigned regional portfolio. Specific sites, service lines, budget authority, and reporting relationships should be finalized before posting.

Assigned Regional Portfolio

• Community Health Centers, School-Based Health Centers, and associated service locations within the Northshore region as assigned by AHL leadership.
• Behavioral health, dental, pharmacy, specialty, outreach, and population health services operating within the region, as applicable.
• A final list of assigned sites, managers, service lines, employee count, provider count, and annual visit volume should be attached or inserted before posting.

Essential Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and Regional Growth

• Develop and execute the Northshore regional operating and growth plan in alignment with AHL’s mission, strategic plan, and financial goals.
• Identify opportunities for service expansion, new clinic development, school-based health center growth, specialty integration, pharmacy alignment, behavioral health integration, and community partnerships.
• Lead or support feasibility assessments, community needs evaluations, market reviews, and implementation planning for new programs and locations.
• Monitor regional healthcare trends, payer developments, population health indicators, competitor activity, and community needs.
• Collaborate with executive leadership on innovation, growth, sustainability, and regional positioning.

Operations Management

• Provide regional oversight and support for daily operations of assigned Northshore CHCs, SBHCs, and associated service locations.
• Hold site leadership accountable for access, productivity, patient flow, staffing, scheduling, patient experience, quality, and financial performance targets.
• Lead operational-excellence initiatives focused on appointment access, third-next-available appointment, cycle time, provider template management, staffing optimization, and resource utilization.
• Analyze operational dashboards, financial indicators, visit volumes, productivity reports, referral patterns, and access metrics to identify improvement opportunities.
• Coordinate corrective action plans when sites or programs fail to meet expected performance standards.
• Support compliance with HRSA, FQHC, CMS, state, payer, accreditation, privacy, safety, and organizational requirements in partnership with central compliance and quality resources.

Population Health and Value-Based Care Execution

• Serve as the regional champion for population health, value-based care, chronic disease management, preventive care, risk stratification, care coordination, and health-equity strategies.
• Use clinical, claims, payer, and registry data to improve quality performance and reduce avoidable utilization.
• Drive regional performance on diabetes management, hypertension control, behavioral health integration, preventive screenings, childhood immunizations, women’s health, maternal and infant health, ED utilization, and readmission-related measures.
• Work with medical leadership, care management, quality, behavioral health, pharmacy, dental, and central operations teams to implement evidence-based models and close care gaps.
• Support achievement of UDS, HEDIS, payer quality, shared-savings, and value-based incentive opportunities.

Quality Improvement and Performance Excellence

• Lead continuous quality improvement and operational performance improvement across the region.
• Establish a culture of accountability, data-driven management, problem solving, and service excellence.
• Review regional quality metrics and coordinate action plans when performance falls below target.
• Support NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home standards, HRSA quality recognition activities, patient safety practices, and patient-experience improvement.
• Partner with Medical Affairs and Quality to improve UDS, HEDIS, and payer quality measures.

Community Engagement and External Relations

• Serve as AHL’s senior regional representative and community liaison in the Northshore region.
• Build and maintain relationships with school districts, hospitals, health systems, behavioral health organizations, community-based organizations, local government, chambers of commerce, faith-based organizations, public health agencies, and economic development entities.
• Represent AHL at community events, stakeholder meetings, coalitions, and partnership discussions.
• Identify partnerships that improve access, care coordination, community health outcomes, and regional visibility.
• Advocate for initiatives that address social drivers of health, access barriers, and regional health disparities.

Financial and Business Performance

• Collaborate with Finance and executive leadership to monitor regional operating budgets, revenue, expenses, productivity, and operating performance.
• Identify opportunities to improve financial performance while maintaining quality, access, and patient-centered care.
• Support grant-funded initiatives, sustainability planning, forecasting, and new-service business planning.
• Monitor provider productivity, staffing ratios, supply use, schedule utilization, and service-line performance.
• Clarify before posting whether this role owns regional budget variance correction and P&L accountability or supports those functions through senior leadership.

Leadership and Workforce Development

• Provide leadership, coaching, and performance accountability for assigned regional clinic managers and operational teams.
• Support recruitment, retention, succession planning, leadership development, and workforce optimization.
• Promote employee engagement, professional accountability, communication, and AHL culture.
• Work with HR and Operations leadership to address vacancies, turnover, performance concerns, and staffing risks.

Key Performance Indicators

• Access and Growth: patient growth, new-patient acquisition, third-next-available appointment, template utilization, service line expansion, SBHC utilization, and regional market development.
• Quality and Population Health: UDS measures, HEDIS performance, payer quality metrics, preventive screening rates, chronic disease outcomes, health-equity indicators, avoidable ED utilization, and readmission-related measures.
• Financial Performance: budget performance, provider productivity, revenue growth, cost management, value-based incentive revenue, and regional operating improvement.
• Patient Experience: patient satisfaction, complaint resolution, access metrics, retention, and service recovery.
• Workforce: employee engagement, staff retention, vacancy reduction, leadership development, and manager performance.
• Community and Growth: new partnerships, referral relationships, community visibility, school district relationships, and implementation of approved regional initiatives.

Decision Authority and Operating Relationships

• Authority over assigned regional operations, site performance management, and regional improvement priorities should be defined before posting.
• Budget authority, hiring authority, corrective action authority, contract/vendor authority, and approval thresholds should be specified in the final posting or internal offer documentation.
• The role should maintain structured operating relationships with Operations, Medical Affairs, Finance, Quality, Population Health, Behavioral Health, Dental, Pharmacy, HR, and Compliance.
• The position should not be held accountable for outcomes without access to the operational, financial, clinical, and personnel levers necessary to influence those outcomes.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Administration, Public Health, Business Administration, Nursing, or related field.
• Minimum of seven years of progressive healthcare leadership experience.
• Minimum of five years managing multi-site healthcare operations.
• Experience leading population health, quality improvement, value-based care, managed care, or performance improvement initiatives.
• Demonstrated success in strategic planning, operational management, community engagement, staff leadership, and performance accountability.
• Strong financial, analytical, communication, and operational-management skills.
• Valid driver’s license and ability to travel throughout the Northshore region.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Healthcare Administration, Public Health, Business Administration, Nursing, or related field.
• FQHC, community health center, integrated care, or safety-net healthcare experience.
• Experience with Medicaid managed care, value-based reimbursement, quality incentives, and payer performance metrics.
• Knowledge of HRSA, UDS, NCQA, HEDIS, FQHC operations, PPS/APM payment considerations, and healthcare quality reporting.
• Experience developing new clinics, programs, partnerships, service lines, or regional growth initiatives.

Core Competencies

• Regional leadership and operational accountability.
• Strategic planning and disciplined execution.
• Population health and value-based care transformation.
• Financial stewardship and productivity management.
• Data-driven decision making and performance improvement.
• Community partnership development and external representation.
• Quality improvement, patient experience, and access management.
• Workforce leadership, coaching, and change management.
• Cross-functional collaboration with clinical and administrative leaders.