Complex Discharge Director

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Job Description

Description

The Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH) is seeking a Complex Discharge Director. This role will serve as the central leader responsible for improving the efficiency, consistency, and accountability of the Critical Care Unit (CCU) inpatient discharge process across the DMH inpatient system. This role will focus on standardizing core processes, enhancing data visibility, and driving action-oriented coordination between hospitals, area offices, the DMH division of Children Youth and Families, and community providers.

The DMH Complex Discharge Director also serves as the program manager for the Expedited Psychiatric Inpatient Admissions (EPIA) team and manages all functions of its work. The EPIA team advocates for patients meeting the EPIA threshold to be admitted to DMH-licensed private inpatient psychiatric facilities.

• Lead the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of standardized, discharge-focused interface meetings across DMH Continuing Care Units (CCUs), ensuring clear roles, actionable decisions, assigned responsibilities, and defined timelines.
• Develop and implement policies, procedures, and operational strategies to identify, address, and resolve common and complex barriers to timely and appropriate inpatient discharge.
• Establish and maintain a centralized system for identifying, categorizing, tracking, and resolving discharge barriers, including clear action plans, responsible parties, and target resolution dates.
• Manage the Expedited Psychiatric Inpatient Admissions (EPIA) program, coordinating responses to complex, urgent, and prolonged emergency department psychiatric boarding across the Commonwealth.
• Lead and coordinate EPIA staff through daily operations, advocacy efforts, and cross-system strategies to facilitate timely access to appropriate inpatient psychiatric care.
• Collaborate with DMH leadership, state agencies, insurers, hospitals, community providers, and other stakeholders to resolve complex cases, address systemic barriers, and strengthen behavioral health care coordination.
• Collect, validate, analyze, and maintain discharge and EPIA data; develop key performance indicators, dashboards, reports, and analytical tools to monitor system performance and identify improvement opportunities.
• Use case trends, operational data, and recurring system barriers to recommend improvements to policies, business processes, information systems, discharge planning, and emergency department boarding responses.
• Provide concise, data-driven updates and strategic recommendations to DMH executive leadership regarding inpatient discharge performance, emerging risks, system trends, and opportunities for intervention.
• Recruit, onboard, supervise, and train EPIA staff, interns, and support personnel while fostering effective collaboration, accountability, continuous improvement, and achievement of statewide program objectives.

• Demonstrated experience managing complex discharge planning, patient flow, care transitions, or behavioral health operations.
• Experience working within a public-sector, hospital, behavioral health, or integrated healthcare system.
• Strong knowledge of inpatient psychiatric services, community-based behavioral health programs, and the Massachusetts behavioral health system.
• Experience developing and implementing policies, procedures, standardized workflows, and change management initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to use data, performance metrics, dashboards, and reporting tools to evaluate program effectiveness and drive operational improvements.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams and collaborating effectively with senior leaders, healthcare providers, state agencies, insurers, and community organizations.
• Demonstrated success resolving complex, time-sensitive issues involving multiple stakeholders, competing priorities, and organizational barriers.
• Exceptional communication, facilitation, negotiation, and consensus-building skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders and secure support for organizational initiatives.
• Experience supervising, developing, and mentoring professional staff while building high-performing teams focused on accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

The Department of Mental Health assures and provides access to…