Senior Manager, Sterile Processing

Job Summary:

Manages the collection, decontamination, assembly, sterilization, and disinfection of instruments and equipment across the department and/or multiple sites. Monitors preparation of surgical trays and case carts, implementing procedures for optimization and standardization. Refines sterile processing policies and procedures and recommends audits of sterile processing performance, leading the design of improvement strategies. Oversees and provides guidance on the management of inventory across multiple sites. Identifies opportunities to prevent waste and reduce costs. Identifies training needs and establishes and maintains education and training programs on sterile processing activities. Serves as an expert resource across multiple sites on sterile processing activities. Develops partnerships with leaders across departments to ensure efficient, safe, and effective instrument and equipment availability. Serves as a resource for maintaining compliance with applicable regulations and requirements. Drives audits and analyzes results to assess compliance with relevant regulations and policies, developing solutions and overseeing the implementation of corrective action plans for compliance concerns.

Essential Responsibilities:

• Creates and advocates for developmental opportunities for others; builds collaborative, cross-functional relationships. Solicits and acts on performance feedback; works with leaders and employees to set goals and provide open feedback and coaching to drive performance improvement. Pursues professional growth; hires, trains, and develops talent for growth opportunities; strategically evaluates talent for succession planning; sets performance management guidelines and expectations across teams / units. Oversees implementation, adapts, and stays up to date with organizational change, challenges, feedback, best practices, processes, and industry trends; shares best practices within and across teams. Fosters open dialogue amongst team members, engages, motivates, and promotes collaboration within and across teams; motivates teams to meet business objectives. Delegates tasks and decisions as appropriate; provides appropriate support, guidance and scope; encourages development and consideration of options in decision making; fosters access to stakeholders.
• Manages designated units or teams by translating business plans into tactical action items; oversees the completion of work assignments and identifies opportunities for improvement; ensures all policies and procedures are followed; partners with key stakeholders and business leaders to ensure products and/or services meet requirements and expectations while aligning with departmental strategies. Aligns team efforts; builds accountability for and measuring progress in achieving results; assumes responsibility for decision making; fosters direct reports to resolve escalated issues as appropriate. Communicates goals and objectives; incorporates resources, costs, and forecasts into team and unit plans; ensures matrixed resources are fulfilling service or performance requirements across reporting lines. Removes obstacles that impact performance; identifies and addresses improvement opportunities; guides performance and develops contingency plans accordingly; influences teams and units to operate in alignment with operational and business objectives.
• Leads sterile processing knowledge development by: identifying training needs and developing and implementing staff trainings on sterile processing techniques and procedures across multiple sites, ensuring staff receive appropriate training; establishing and maintaining education and training programs across multiple sites on sterile processing activities; and serving as an expert resource across multiple sites for sterile processing activities.
• Leads the management of equipment inventory by: overseeing the management of inventory levels to ensure adequate supplies across multiple sites, providing guidance on inventory management strategies and standards; identifying opportunities and solutions to prevent wasted supplies/resources and reduce costs across multiple sites; and working with leaders to establish and review department budgets, purchasing and/or approving purchases of additional supplies as needed to maintain inventory.
• Oversees the sterilization and processing of equipment by: managing the safe and efficient collection, decontamination, assembly, sterilization, and disinfection of all instruments and equipment across the department and/or multiple sites; monitoring the consistent preparation of surgical trays and case carts with appropriate instruments and equipment across multiple sites and implementing procedures for optimization, standardization, and improving KPIs; refining sterile processing policies and procedures to meet organizational needs in collaboration with departmental leaders; and recommending audits to identify gaps between sterile processing performance standards and actual performance, analyzing highly complex audit results and leading the design of corrective action plans to improve processes.
• Reviews regulatory compliance by: serving as a resource across multiple sites for maintaining compliance with regulations and requirements; driving the execution of regular audits and analyzing the results of audits to assess compliance with relevant regulations and policies; developing solutions to identified problems of non-compliance and overseeing the implementation of corrective action plans; and developing reports on departmental compliance with regulations to provide to leadership.