Director, Telecom

EHS Overview:

Episcopal Health Services Inc. (EHS) is a health system located on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, New York. EHS provides inpatient, outpatient, and emergency care to the diverse populations of the Rockaways, Five Towns, South Nassau, and beyond. The system offers comprehensive preventive, diagnostic, and rehabilitative services to people of all faiths.

St. John's Episcopal Hospital is accredited by The Joint Commission's Health Facilities Accreditation Program and is approved by the New York State Department of Health. The hospital is a recipient of the Gold-Plus Get with the Guidelines-Stroke Quality Achievement Award and the Gold-Plus Get with the Guidelines-Heart Failure Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association. Additionally, St. John's is proud to be redesignated as a Baby-Friendly Hospital by Baby-Friendly USA - the accrediting body and national authority for the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) in the United States.

Come Grow With Us!

Type: Full-Time (75 hours biweekly)

Shift: Days

Hours: Varies

Pay: $135,000 -$145,000

Job Summary:

The Director of Hospital Telecommunications leads the strategic planning, engineering, maintenance, and 24/7 operational execution of the health system's telecommunications infrastructure and call center operations. This role oversees critical communication systems - including phone networks, emergency mass notification systems, nurse call integrations, cellular/in-building wireless (DAS), paging networks, and the centralized hospital switchboard operators. The ideal candidate balances high-availability engineering relatability with a compassionate, patient-experience approach to emergency dispatch and customer service routing.

Responsibilities:

• Strategic Telecommunications Infrastructure & Engineering

• Direct the operational maintenance and modernization of high-availability communication systems across all hospital campuses and outpatient clinics.

• Manage in-building wireless coverage, Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS), emergency two-way radio networks and overhead/paging infrastructure.

• Oversee integration of telecommunications systems with clinical workflows, including Nurse Call systems, mobile communication apps, and physician on-call scheduling software.

• Emergency Preparedness & Code Response Systems

• Maintain 100% operational readiness for critical hospital code dispatch systems (Code Blue, Code Red, Rapid Response, Mass Casualty).

• Direct the integration of emergency mass notification systems for crisis communication during sever weather, system outages, or disaster events.

• Ensure redundant, secondary power and failover routing for all core communications infrastructure to guarantee uninterrupted service during power grid or network failures.

• Switchboard Operations & Patient Experience (PX)

• Manage daily switchboard operator staff, call center managers and dispatchers serving the primary hospital switchboard.

• Transform operator workflows from basic call transfer to a compassionate "First Responders for Empathy" service model, ensuring fast, polite, and accurate assistance for anxious patients and families.

• Enforce warm-transfer protocols and HIPAA privacy compliance regarding patient room routing and directory requests.

• Financial & Vendor Management

• Develop and manage the annual telecommunications capital and operational budgets.

• Oversee relationships, service level agreements (SLAs) and contract negotiations with Telcom carriers, internet service providers (ISPs) and equipment vendors.

• Conduct quarterly audits of carrier billing, circuit inventory, and truck utilization to optimize costs.

• Regulatory Compliance and Governance

• Ensure all telecommunications infrastructure complies with the Joint Commission (TJC) standards, NFPA 99 (Health Care Facilities Code), FCC regulations, and HIPAA security requirements.

• Maintain rigors disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity plans (BCP) for voice, data, and emergency paging channels.

Requirements:

• Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Telecommunications, Computer Science, Information Technology, Systems Engineering, or a related filed required. Master's degree preferred.

• Experience:

• Minimum of 7-10 years of progressive telecommunications experience, with at least 3-5 years in a senior healthcare leadership role.

• Proven track record of managing enterprise level healthcare communications systems Cisco Unified Communications, Ascom, Vocera.