Director of Perianesthesia Care Services

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership and direction for the combined PAT, Hold & Prep, and PACU departments.
• Serve as the primary liaison between departments and executive leadership to ensure alignment with hospital goals.
• Develop and maintain standardized clinical pathways that ensure a seamless, efficient, and safe patient journey from pre-admission through to recovery.
• Coordinate the integration of pre-admission testing, preparation for surgery, anesthesia handoff, and post-operative recovery, ensuring continuity of care at every stage.
• Oversee patient flow, identifying opportunities to minimize delays, reduce bottlenecks, and improve overall perioperative efficiency.
• Ensure patient safety, optimal clinical outcomes, and high patient satisfaction levels across all three departments.
• Lead efforts to reduce handoffs and minimize communication gaps between departments, ensuring vital patient information is shared seamlessly across the care continuum.
• Implement real-time communication systems for patient updates, status changes, and team coordination.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams (e.g., surgeons, anesthesiologists, nursing staff, and allied health professionals) to improve clinical decision-making, streamline operations, and ensure timely responses to changes in patient conditions.
• Oversee cross-training initiatives for staff across the PAT, Hold & Prep, and PACU departments to enhance flexibility and improve team collaboration.
• Provide ongoing education and training to ensure staff remain up to date on best practices, policies, and technologies related to perioperative care.
• Monitor and evaluate key performance indicators (KPIs) such as patient wait times, patient satisfaction, complication rates, staff efficiency, case cancellations, and recovery times.
• Take appropriate actions to address issues and identify opportunities for system-level improvement.
• Establish a feedback loop with staff and patients to gather insights on opportunities for improvement and make data-driven decisions.
• Work closely with various stakeholders such as physician offices and inpatient care units (e.g., ICU and surgical teams) to align perioperative processes and implement collaborative improvement initiatives, such as reducing day-of-surgery cancellations, enhancing patient education, improving handoff processes, direct inpatient to operating room initiatives, optimizing PAT scheduling, and improving surgical preparation and post-op outcomes.
• Ensure adherence to all relevant regulatory standards, including but not limited to those set by The Joint Commission, OSHA, and local/state health authorities.
• Manage accreditation processes for the perioperative services departments and maintain readiness for inspections and audits.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in nursing from an accredited college or university.
• Master’s degree in nursing or a related field such as healthcare administration or its equivalent.
• Licensure as Registered Nurse in the State of Rhode Island by the Rhode Island Board of Nursing or licensure as a Registered Nurse in accordance with the Nurse Licensure Compact agreement of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing.
• American Heart Association BLS (Basic Life Support) and ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support) certifications.
• Preferred certifications: CNOR (Certified Perioperative Nurse), CPAN (Certified Post Anesthesia Nurse), and/or CAPA (Certified Ambulatory Perianesthesia Nurse).
• NE-BC (Nurse Executive – Board Certified) or CENP (Certified in Executive Nursing Practice).
• Lean Six Sigma (Green or Black Belt) for process improvement and operational efficiency.
• At least 5 years of experience in healthcare leadership, with a focus on perioperative services (Pre-Admission Testing, Hold & Prep, Procedural area, or PACU).