The Director, Health Disciplines (HD) will support Mackenzie Health’s vision to create a world class health experience and its mission to relentlessly improve care for healthier communities. This role focuses directly on development and advancement of operations, practice standards and education for Social Work, Dietitians and Speech Language Pathologists and for Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Therapy Assistants in partnership with a contracted service provider organization.
The Director acts as a resource, advocate, facilitator and coordinator in matters of HD operations, practice and education. Within this role, the Director provides leadership in creating a vision and strategic plan for HD professionals, develops the above noted HD professions and their practice, establishes and maintains a collaborative intra and interprofessional practice environment, and strives to keep the health discipline professions dynamic across Mackenzie Health. The Director will also manage daily operations for the HD disciplines noted above including but not limited to, staffing models, workload and vacation requests.
The Director will have a primary reporting relationship to the Associate Vice President Continuing Care and Community Integration. The Director will play a key role in the development, implementation and evaluation of evidence-based interventions and knowledge translation and dissemination activities aligned with Mackenzie Health’s strategic directions.
The Director will, in conjunction with the Director, Professional Practice and CNIO act as the corporate HD lead for the development and adoption of a Professional Practice framework and clinical education strategies for Mackenzie Health that will establish the expectation for quality of HD care delivered across the organization and will oversee their standards of practice. This includes the ongoing evaluation and refinement of care delivery models, policies, procedures and processes and providing leadership and support for ongoing quality improvement initiatives, change and transformation support. The Director will also work collaboratively with Patient Care Managers and Professional Practice Leaders to support orientation and transition to practice of new hires as well as facilitate the student placement process.
Contribute to safe, quality care by:
In partnership with the Associate Vice President, Continuing Care and Community Integration and in collaboration with the Director, Professional Practice and CNIO, contracted providers and other organizational leaders, this position will:
- Develop effective and collaborative working relationships with the members of the leadership team, relevant internal/external stakeholders (including Patient Partners and other external advisory councils), and staff across major projects to ensure the continuity of relationships, information exchange, and sounding boards for new initiatives.
- Provide leadership in the definition of the clinical strategic direction and ensure excellence in patient care, service delivery through high reliability tools.
- Develop/maintain external linkages to facilitate strategic initiatives and leading practices.
- Lead, plan, facilitate evaluate and monitor key long-term clinical contracts and programs including but not limited to rehabilitation services and others as required.
- Direct program evaluation, goal setting, and quality improvement initiatives that support corporate objectives and continuous service enhancement.
- Oversee operational analytics, including dashboard development and performance data interpretation, to support resource planning and strategic execution.
- Facilitate and provide oversight to the development and revision of professional practice documents including clinical protocols, policy & procedures, clinical practice guidelines, medical directives and pre-printed orders.
- Oversee the development and implementation of short and long-term plans which support and advance HD practice and HD standards across Mackenzie Health.
- Identify and support educational strategies to enhance staff knowledge with respect to professional HD practices and patient care.
- Responsible for the integration of the professional practice framework across all sites and ensuring that the framework and practices are harmonized to effectively redesign clinical care delivery culture throughout the organization.
- Promote a culture of reflective practice by providing profession specific leadership and mentoring in an evidence based continuous learning and research-based practice environment
- Set corporate direction and standards for HD care delivery across Mackenzie Health.
- Investigate and evaluate hospital practices and processes to enhance efficiency and quality outcomes.
- Provide consultation on complex practice concerns and supports remediation and professional learning plans.
- Mentor Discipline Leads and co-chairs the Collaborative Practice Council.
- This role is the point of internal coordination and reporting to regulatory colleges, leading internal reporting, and investigation if an inquiry comes from a regulatory body.
- Liaise with regulatory colleges and professional networks to ensure compliance and support staff development.
- Manage recruitment, scheduling, performance evaluations, and professional development for direct reports.
- Coordination and standardization of operational oversight for decentralized roles.
- Supports opportunity for learners and optimizes student placement for the mentioned disciplines
- Drive succession planning and leadership development strategies to maintain a sustainable pipeline of talent across departments.
- Shares Hospital Administrative on-Call Responsibility and assumes responsibility for the directors of other programs and services in their absence as requested.
- Perform other duties as required.
What must you have?
- Master’s degree in a Regulated Health Care Profession or equivalent.
- Membership in good standing with the relevant regulatory body.
- Master’s degree in business/healthcare administration or equivalent preferred.
- Minimum of 5-7 years of relevant experience in an acute healthcare or equivalent environment managing dynamic teams and complex, large-scale projects. Acute care rehabilitation experience is an asset.
What else do you bring?
- Experience with development of transformation plans, change initiatives, and large-scale business and organizational change required.
- Experience in developing, implementing and maintaining practice standards and quality control measures in a health care environment.
- Competence in Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Care principles
- Deep understanding of the Regulated Health Professions Act, standards of professional practice and codes of ethics, best/ leading practice literature, health care consent and ethical implications of care delivery.
- Broad understanding of the health care system, related issues and trends, policies and legislation.
- Ability to collaborate effectively with diverse management and employee groups and individuals.
- Sound knowledge of management principles and theories.
- Superior financial and statistical management abilities, including the ability to assess, interpret and project budgetary needs.
- Enthusiastic, creative, and results-oriented leader with the ability to inspire and motivate people and a proven ability to develop and foster strong stakeholder relationships.
- Excellent change management and transformational leadership skills, with strong ability to coach and mentor team members through periods of significant change.
- Demonstrated leadership skills with experience in building consensus; ability to initiate, build and foster effective relationships.
- Demonstrated effectiveness at leading and working with high performing teams.
- Outstanding skills in building strategic and productive relationships; and developing and managing partnerships across functional departments and between organizations.
- Demonstrated ability for critical and strategic thinking.
- Superior analytical and problem-solving abilities.
- Effective interpersonal and negotiation skills, including outstanding written and verbal communications skills, is required.
- Demonstrated success with leading, managing, integrating projects processes and best practices with the ability to prioritize and meet project deadlines.
- Strong working knowledge of computer applications, especially the Microsoft Office suite.
- Ability to work across sites and travel to partner organizations within the region.
- Proven attendance record.
- Demonstrates understanding and complies with patient and staff safety policies and procedures that foster a safe and inclusive environment for all.
- Ability to perform the essential duties of the job.
- Effectively uses empathy in interactions with others.
- Demonstrates behaviours consistent with Mackenzie Health’s Commitment to Caring.
- Models behaviour that is aligned with the values of Mackenzie Health – Excellence, Leadership and Empathy.
- Commitment to providing an exceptional experience for staff and clients within a challenging and exciting health care environment.
*You may be required to work at any site of Mackenzie Health.
