Director of Support Services

Thundermist's Mission:
To improve the health of our patients and communities by delivering exceptional health care, removing barriers to that care, and advancing healthy lifestyles.

Title:
Director of Support Services

Reports To: Senior Director of Patient Access and Support Services

Department: Support Services

Job Grade: 13

Employment Status: Exempt

Date: January 2025

The Director of Support Services will provide strategic and operational leadership for the Contact Center, Document Management, Referrals, and Registration & Intake teams to ensure timely access, service excellence, and regulatory compliance. Drive performance against KPIs (e.g., service levels, abandonment rate, first contact resolution, turnaround times, clean registration rates, referral completion time). Champion patient experience, staff engagement, and continuous improvement across all functions.

Align resources, technology, and workflows to support organizational goals, provider satisfaction, and care team coordination. Maintain strong cross-functional partnerships with Clinical Operations, IT, Quality, Compliance, Finance, and Practice Leadership. Develop leaders and cultivate a culture of accountability, coaching, equity, and professional growth.

• Set vision, goals, and performance standards for Support Services; translate strategy into measurable plans.
• Oversee daily operations across teams ensuring coverage, quality, productivity, and adherence to SOPs.
• Implement continuous improvement using Lean/Six Sigma methods; lead throughput and error-reduction initiatives.
• Manage service disruptions (e.g., closures, tech outages) and coordinate communications and contingency workflows.

• Own KPI performance: service level, ASA, abandonment, AHT, FCR, schedule adherence, quality assurance scores.
• Optimize workforce management (forecasting, scheduling, intraday management) and IVR/call routing strategies.
• Ensure accurate scripting, knowledge base upkeep, escalation pathways, and clinical triage coordination.

• Ensure timely intake, indexing, and routing of clinical and administrative documents within EMR standards.
• Reduce defects (misfiles, delays) and standardize naming, metadata, and routing protocols.
• Oversee release of information workflows in alignment with privacy and security requirements.

• Standardize referral intake, authorization, scheduling coordination, and closed-loop follow-up.
• Monitor turnaround times, denial prevention, payer requirements, and documentation completeness.
• Partner with care teams to remove barriers to specialty care and improve referral completion rates.

• Ensure accurate demographic, insurance, eligibility, and pre-registration processes to support clean claims.
• Improve point-of-service collections, insurance verification, and patient education on financial responsibility.
• Reduce registration errors impacting revenue cycle and patient experience.

• Lead, coach, and develop managers/supervisors; establish clear expectations, feedback, and development plans.
• Promote engagement, recognition, and retention, address performance with fairness and timeliness.
• Oversee recruitment, onboarding, cross-training, and succession planning.

• Maintain compliance with HIPAA, OSHA, CMS, NCQA/PCMH, state and payer regulations, and organizational policies.
• Conduct audits, monitor QA metrics, and implement corrective action plans.
• Maintain up-to-date SOPs, job aids, and training materials.

• Partner with IT on EMR, telephony (e.g., WFM, QM, analytics), document management, and referral tools.
• Leverage dashboards and reports to drive decisions; lead data integrity initiatives.
• Evaluate and implement tools that automate workflows and enhance patient/staff experience.

• Provide regular operational updates to leadership; elevate risks and propose solutions.
• Collaborate with clinical leaders and practice managers to align access, templates, and provider preferences.
• Communicate service changes, closures, and…