Director of Patient Care Services in Loma Linda, California at Loma Linda University Hospice

Schedule: Full-time

Compensation: Starting compensation range of $140,000.00 - $160,000.00 annually. Exact compensation will be determined by experience, education, licensure/certifications, and location, in accordance with applicable laws.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance package (full-time)
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Assistance with licensure renewal
• Generous PTO policy
• The opportunity to build from the ground up and put your stamp on a growth-stage organization!

Role Overview

The Director of Patient Care Services (DPCS), provides clinical leadership for the organization’s daily care delivery operations across a market census, supervising a multidisciplinary clinical team of nurses, aides, therapists and interdisciplinary team members. This role balances operational excellence with empathetic leadership ensuring each patient receives compassionate, high-quality end-of-life care while maintaining performance metrics that meet the standards of the hospital joint venture. The DPCS is accountable for clinical outcomes, workforce utilization, and compliance, driving a metrics-based culture where decisions are informed by data, not intuition.

In accordance with California Title 22, the Director of Patient Care Services also functions as the Director of Nursing (DON) and is appointed by the Governing Body (CEO). The DON/DPCS has overall responsibility for the clinical direction and supervision of patient care services and ensures compliance with applicable state and federal hospice regulations.

Key Responsibilities

Clinical Leadership & Team Oversight

• Lead, supervise, and coach an interdisciplinary clinical team, including clinical manager(s), RNs, LVNs, hospice aides, and therapists.
• Ensure consistent delivery of high-quality hospice care aligned with regulatory requirements, the organization’s standards, and joint venture performance expectations.
• Establish and enforce clear clinical standards, expectations, and workflows aligned with the organization’s policies, hospice Conditions of Participation, and joint venture partner requirements.
• Conduct regular team huddles, case reviews, and performance coaching sessions to drive accountability, clinical excellence, and professional development.
• Maintain an active leadership presence in the field and across service territories to support staff, reinforce expectations, and ensure high-quality patient and family experiences.
• Oversight of hospice services provided in home, GIP, and SNF settings
• Collaborate with Medical Director and interdisciplinary team to ensure care plans reflect patient goals, clinical appropriateness, and regulatory compliance..

Workforce Management & Staff Utilization

• Maintain full responsibility for staff scheduling, territory coverage, caseload distribution, and workforce utilization to efficiently serve all patients daily.
• Ensure nurse-to-patient ratios and productivity levels meet or exceed established organization benchmarks.
• Monitor visit volumes, time utilization, and caseload distribution to ensure equitable workloads and efficient use of clinical resources.
• Implement workforce planning strategies that proactively align staffing levels with census fluctuations and admission to maintain care continuity and prevent service gaps.
• Ensure real-time coordination between admissions, nursing, and scheduling teams to avoid service gaps.
• Ensure accuracy in payroll time sheets of clinical staff, including auditing and correcting when visits and documentation data do not match up with hours billed.
• Ensure timely and cost-effective triage process and allocation of resources.

Ultimate Accountability & Hands-On Clinical Support

• Hold ultimate accountability for clinical operations and continuity of care, regardless of staffing challenges, call-outs, or coverage gaps.
• When frontline clinical staff are unavailable, delayed, or unable to fulfill required duties, the DPCS is expected to personally step in or directly ensure execution without delay. This includes, but is not limited to:
• Completing or facilitating patient admissions
• Conducting urgent or high-priority clinical visits
• Supporting hospital-based care coordination and discharge planning
• Ensuring immediate coverage for critical patient care needs
• This is a hands-on leadership role. While the DPCS is not scheduled as routine frontline coverage, the role requires the ability and willingness to perform frontline clinical duties when operational or patient needs require it.
• Such frontline involvement is episodic, non-routine, and incidental to the Director’s primary executive and leadership responsibilities.
• Accountability for outcomes cannot be delegated, and the Director remains responsible for care delivery results at all times.

Metrics & Performance Management

• Lead clinical operations using a metrics-driven management approach, relying on objective data to guide decisions, performance improvement, and corrective actions.
• Ensure achievement of the following accountability metrics:
• Patient Satisfaction: 5-Stars for CAHPS Hospice
• Staff Retention: = 85% annual retention
• Visit Documentation Completion: 100% within 24 hours
• Nurse Productivity: Meet or exceed established utilization benchmarks
• Monitor, analyze visit data, patient outcomes, and operational KPIs, including visit frequency, timeliness, overtime utilization, and documentation compliance to identify trends and corrective opportunities.
• Conduct monthly performance reviews and implement corrective action plans as needed to address underperformance.
• Present clinical performance dashboards and metrics summaries to the executive leadership and joint venture partners as part of routine reporting.
• Prepare and present clinical and operational performance reports to operational and joint venture leadership as required.
• Effective use of the EHR system is a core leadership competency and is directly tied to performance evaluation, documentation compliance, productivity management, and quality outcomes

Clinical Systems & EHR Proficiency

• Achieve independent, operational proficiency in the organization’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) system within 60 days of role start.
• Demonstrate the ability to independently navigate patient records, review and audit clinical documentation, monitor compliance, analyze visit data, and run standard operational and quality reports.
• Develop sufficient system expertise to coach, support, and retrain clinical staff on EHR workflows, documentation standards, and compliance expectations as needed.
• Utilize available onboarding resources, reference materials, and formal training when provided; however, the Director of Nursing remains responsible for achieving and maintaining EHR proficiency regardless of training modality.
• Use EHR data proactively to identify documentation gaps, workflow inefficiencies, and performance trends, and translate insights into corrective action and staff education.

Clinical Quality Governance & QAPI Leadership

• Provide clinical leadership for the organization’s Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI) program, in partnership with the Compliance and Quality teams.
• Lead the clinical review, prioritization, and response to quality findings, adverse events, performance trends, and identified risks.
• Ensure quality findings translate into measurable clinical improvement, including staff education, workflow redesign, and sustained practice change.
• Chair or co-chair interdisciplinary quality review meetings as appropriate, ensuring accountability and follow-through on action plans.
• Serve as the primary clinical owner of quality outcomes, while Compliance retains responsibility for regulatory interpretation, audit execution, and survey management.
• Report clinical quality trends, improvement initiatives, and outcomes to executive leadership and joint venture partners.

Quality, Compliance & Regulatory Execution

• Maintain accountability for clinical quality and regulatory compliance across hospice operations, in partnership with the Compliance team.
• Review findings from internal audits, external reviews, and regulatory surveys and ensure timely clinical response and corrective action execution.
• Lead the clinical implementation of corrective actions resulting from quality findings, compliance reviews, or survey outcomes, ensuring changes are embedded into daily practice.
• Oversee infection control practices, medication safety, patient safety initiatives, and emergency preparedness from a clinical operations perspective.
• Ensure clinical documentation is accurate, timely, and complete to support quality care delivery, regulatory readiness, and reimbursement integrity.

Joint Venture Partnership Obligations

• Uphold and communicate the organization’s operational, clinical, and quality standards in alignment with joint venture partner quality and performance expectations.
• Collaborate with partner health system representatives on care coordination, hospital integration workflows, and quality improvement initiatives.
• Ensure internal clinical operations remain aligned with health system governance standards and reporting requirements.

Work Location, Schedule & Availability

• This is a full-time leadership role requiring consistent presence during core business hours, with additional availability as needed to support clinical operations, hospital coordination, admissions, and urgent patient care matters.
• The Director of Patient Care Service is expected to maintain a full-time on-site leadership presence, during standard business days, serving as the primary visible clinical leader within the hospice office, in the field, and at the joint venture partner hospital as operational needs require.
• Due to the operational and partnership requirements of the role, the Director of Nursing must reside within a 60-minute travel radius of the joint venture partner hospital. This requirement is a bona fide business necessity to ensure timely in-person response to hospital-based needs or urgent clinical matters.
• This role includes after-hours availability for urgent clinical or operational matters; however, it is not a shift-based or hourly on-call position. Compensation reflects the leadership responsibility and availability expectations of the role,

Collaboration & Cross-Functional Alignment

• Works closely with Executive Director to support JV performance targets.
• Coordinates with Medical Director on escalations and care plans.
• Maintains strong communication with health system case management and nursing partners.

Relationship to DPCS Designee

The DPCS works in partnership with the DPCS Designee to ensure continuity of clinical leadership and authority. When the DPCS is not available, the DPCS Designee assumes the same responsibilities and obligations as defined by policy.

Required Competencies

• Data-Driven Leadership: Interprets performance dashboards and uses data to inform staffing, training, and workflow optimization decisions.
• Clinical Systems & Data Fluency: Advanced ability to use the EHR and related analytics to monitor compliance, productivity, and care quality and to train staff effectively.
• Operational Management: Demonstrates strong organizational and analytical ability to manage a clinical org regardless of the number of FTEs and number of patients
• Empathetic Leadership: Models compassion, emotional intelligence, and patient-centered decision-making in all team interactions.
• Performance Accountability: Holds staff to measurable standards with fairness, consistency, and follow-through.
• Communication: Communicates clearly and constructively with staff, leadership, patients, and joint venture partners.
• Partnership Management: Builds and maintains productive relationships with the health system’s clinical and administrative leaders.
• Community Management: Builds and maintains productive relationships with facilities, physicians, and other stakeholders in the community with whom we have joint patients
• Regulatory Expertise: Deep understanding of hospice regulations, documentation standards, and Conditions of Participation.

• Active Registered Nurse (RN) license in state(s) of operation; BSN required, MSN preferred.
• Minimum 5–7 years of hospice or home health leadership experience, with at least 3 years in a Director-level or senior management role overseeing a multidisciplinary team.
• Proven success managing teams of 20+ clinical staff and patient populations exceeding 100 active census.
• Demonstrated ability to use EMR systems and analytics tools to drive data-based performance improvement.
• Strong knowledge of hospice regulations, quality reporting, and compliance frameworks.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and conflict-resolution skills.
• Regular local travel
• Reliable transportation, valid license, active insurance
• Ability to lift 25–30 lbs and navigate patient environments

Work Environment & Physical Requirements:

• Ability to perform job duties across a variety of settings, including patient homes, assisted living communities, skilled nursing facilities, and inpatient environments.
• Regular standing, walking, and driving between patient visits or work locations.
• Frequent bending, stooping, kneeling, and reaching while providing care or completing assessments.
• Ability to lift or assist with moving patients and equipment up to 50 pounds, with or without reasonable accommodation; additional support or equipment may be used for heavier transfers.
• Sufficient hand dexterity to complete clinical tasks such as administering medications, documenting in electronic systems, and using medical equipment.
• Visual and hearing ability to safely assess patients and communicate clearly with patients, families, and team members.
• Ability to respond appropriately in urgent or emergency situations, including performing CPR if required.
• Comfort working in a range of home environments, including exposure to pets, smoke, and varying indoor/outdoor conditions.
• Regular use of computers, tablets, and mobile devices for documentation, communication, and virtual meetings; ability to sit for extended periods while completing electronic charting and administrative tasks.
• Reliable transportation and ability to travel within the service area.
• Ability to manage the physical and emotional aspects of working in end-of-life care.

Loma Linda University Hospice is dedicated to a patient-first mission, ensuring compassionate, high-quality care that supports patients and families through every stage of need. Loma Linda University Hospice’s culture is defined by data-driven excellence, operational transparency, and a steadfast commitment to its core values of Dignity, Integrity, Compassion, Excellence and Partnership. Loma Linda University Hospice was created in 2026 through a joint venture between Loma Linda University Health and Kara Health.

Loma Linda University Hospice is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to a policy of equal employment opportunity for all employees and applicants. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected status in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. All employment decisions are based on job requirements, individual merit, and business needs.