Director Behavioral Health Services in Schenectady, New York at Ellis Medicine

The Director of Behavioral Health Services is responsible for the coordination and management of Ellis Medicine's inpatient and outpatient behavioral health programs. The Director supports consistent operations, quality, safety, regulatory compliance, workforce effectiveness, patient experience, and financial performance across assigned programs.

The Director provides oversight to inpatient and outpatient behavioral health leaders and works collaboratively with the Chair of Psychiatry, Chief Nursing Officer, Emergency Services leadership, medical staff, and organizational support departments. The Director implements organizational priorities, identifies operational barriers, and recommends service improvements within established Ellis Medicine planning and approval processes.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENT(S):

• Master's degree in nursing, social work, healthcare administration, public health, psychology, or a related field required.
• Current New York State Registered Professional Nurse license or appropriate New York State clinical social work license with current registration required.
• Minimum of five years of progressive behavioral health management experience required; experience with both inpatient and outpatient behavioral health services preferred.
• Knowledge of New York State Office of Mental Health requirements, behavioral health quality and safety practices, budgeting, staffing, and regulatory readiness required.
• Demonstrated communication, collaboration, problem-solving, analytical, and change-management skills required.
• For social work candidates, credentials necessary to provide or oversee required professional social work supervision are required.

Direct reports may include the Inpatient Psychiatry Nurse Manager, outpatient clinic or program leaders, social work leadership, and other assigned behavioral health leaders. The Director collaborates with the Chair of Psychiatry, Chief Nursing Officer, Emergency Services leadership, Quality, Finance, Human Resources, Labor Relations, Compliance, Risk Management, and community partners.

Nursing accountability: The Inpatient Psychiatry Nurse Manager is responsible for daily nursing operations, nursing practice, staffing, scheduling, competencies, performance management, and 24-hour clinical operations of the inpatient psychiatric units. When the Director is not a registered professional nurse, the Nurse Manager maintains direct or matrixed accountability to the Chief Nursing Officer for professional nursing practice and nursing regulatory requirements.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE POSITION:

Program and Operational Management

• Manage assigned inpatient and outpatient behavioral health programs in alignment with organizational goals, approved plans, policies, and budgets.
• Provide direction and support to program leaders and monitor day-to-day operational performance.
• Coordinate work across programs to improve communication, patient transitions, access, and continuity of care.
• Identify operational issues, recommend solutions, and escalate significant risks or resource needs to the Chief Nursing Officer.
• Implement approved program changes and support evaluation of results.

Clinical Quality, Safety, and Regulatory Compliance

• Partner with medical, nursing, quality, and program leaders to support safe, patient-centered, trauma-informed, and recovery-oriented care.
• Maintain knowledge of applicable OMH, DOH, CMS, Joint Commission, Mental Hygiene Law, hospital, and professional requirements.
• Coordinate survey readiness, regulatory reviews, incident follow-up, corrective actions, and ongoing compliance activities for assigned programs.
• Monitor quality and safety indicators, including restraint and seclusion, workplace violence, patient rights, medication safety, care transitions, readmissions, and complaints.
• Ensure program leaders develop and complete improvement actions when performance does not meet expectations.

Patient Access, Flow, and Experience

• Work with inpatient, outpatient, Emergency Services, and medical leaders to improve access, patient flow, admissions, discharges, follow-up, and continuity of care.
• Support review and resolution of patient and family concerns and identify opportunities for service improvement.
• Monitor relevant access, throughput, and patient-experience measures and report barriers requiring organizational support.

Financial and Resource Management

• Develop and manage operating and capital budgets for assigned departments in collaboration with Finance and the Chief Nursing Officer.
• Monitor volume, revenue, expenses, productivity, staffing, overtime, and supply utilization and address variances within assigned authority.
• Recommend staffing and resource adjustments based on patient needs, service demand, regulatory requirements, and budget expectations.
• Prepare routine operational and financial updates and supporting information for leadership review.

Workforce and Leadership

• Recruit, orient, coach, support, and evaluate assigned program leaders.
• Partner with Human Resources, Nursing Administration, and Labor Relations on workforce planning, recruitment, retention, employee relations, and application of organizational policies and collective bargaining agreements.
• Monitor vacancies, turnover, attendance, overtime, contingent labor, engagement, competency, and other workforce indicators.
• Promote leadership visibility, teamwork, accountability, staff development, and a respectful work environment.

Collaboration and Community Relationships

• Collaborate with the Chair of Psychiatry and physician leaders regarding clinical-program priorities, quality, access, and operational needs.
• Coordinate behavioral health program expectations for psychiatric crisis services with Emergency Services leadership; Emergency Department nursing operations remain under Emergency Services leadership.
• Maintain working relationships with community providers, government agencies, advocacy organizations, schools, payers, and other partners as assigned.
• Participate in internal committees and external behavioral health workgroups as assigned.

Performance Monitoring and Reporting

• Monitor an assigned set of quality, safety, access, workforce, operational, patient-experience, and financial measures.
• Provide regular updates to the Chief Nursing Officer regarding performance, risks, barriers, corrective actions, and resource needs.
• Complete other duties as assigned.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:

The position is primarily located indoors under normal working conditions and requires travel among inpatient, outpatient, and community settings as needed. The role may require prolonged sitting, standing, walking, keyboarding, and writing. The individual must be able to push or pull up to 25 pounds, lift or move up to 15 pounds from floor to table height, perform tasks requiring hand-eye coordination, and communicate effectively in spoken and written English. Reasonable accommodation will be considered in accordance with applicable law and Ellis Medicine policy.

Ellis Medicine is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, and will prohibit, discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, sex/gender (including pregnancy), age, national origin, disability (including pregnancy-related conditions), genetic information, predisposition or carrier status, military or veteran status, prior arrest or conviction record, marital or familial status, sexual orientation, transgender status, gender identity, gender expression, reproductive health decisions, domestic violence victim status, known relationship or association with any member of a protected class, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law violates federal, state and, where applicable, local laws , reproductive health decisions or source of payment, consistent with applicable legislation and to comply with the laws pertaining thereto.

Salary Range: $54.01-$86.42 /hour Pay is based on experience, skills, and education. Exempt positions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) will be paid within the base salary equivalent of the stated hourly rates. The pay range may also vary within the stated range based on location.