ED Operations Manager

Position Summary:

The Emergency Department operations manager, will support and report to, the Head of Medical and Emergency operations. The successful candidate will have a key focus on data and KPI performance for the Emergency Department as well as a developing a strong understanding of the new ED ORBIS system. The successful candidate will have operational responsibility for the ED admin team including hospital admissions and the out of hour’s team. The ED operations manager is a key member of the Directorate Management Team to drive an ambitious transformation agenda to take the department beyond its current performance. They will work closely with the Head of Medical and Emergency Operations to provide strong leadership to ensure the operational management and service delivery targets of the Directorate are progressed and advanced.  The post holder will work in tandem with the Clinical Director and in conjunction with Directorate Nurse Manager as required. The ED Operations Manager role is a senior management position within the organisation. They will work closely with their business manager equivalents across all directorates to improve subspecialty access for ED patients by streaming patients away from the ED service to be seen by directorate services in a scheduled care capacity.

Key Duties & Responsibilities:

1. Operations Manager / Directorate Management for the Head of Medical and Emergency Operations

The Operations Manager will support the Head of Medical and Emergency Operations and the Directorate Management team in all components of directorate business ensuring that key directorate priorities, goals and initiatives are communicated and achieved as part of the overall directorate programme. This involves representation of and responsibility for, the goals, targets and KPI’s the directorate aims to achieve in addition to the ongoing operational efficiency of the directorate. They will work closely with the Head of Medical and Emergency Operations to develop and maintain patient pathways across all directorates, to stream patients away from the ED service to be seen by directorate services in a scheduled care capacity.

The successful candidate will have a key focus on data and KPI performance for the directorate and develop a strong understanding of the ED ORBIS system. A core part of this role will be to retrospectively look at patient specific data trends on patients who breach 24 hour PET times and patients who are referred onto clinical teams and then discharged from ED. This data will be trended and brought to directorate management teams to see what additional referral avoidance pathways can be put in place. The successful candidate will have operational responsibility for the ED admin team including admissions and the out of hour’s team. This role will have responsibility for the directorate pay and non-pay budgets and will focus in on existing spend structures and improve existing processes to manage and potentially reduce ED overspends year on year. The ED business manager is a key member of the Directorate Management Team to drive an ambitious transformation agenda to take the department beyond its current performance. They will work closely with the Head of Medical and Emergency Operations to provide strong leadership to ensure the operational management and service delivery targets of the Directorate are progressed and advanced. 

The Operations manager must have the ability to tackle significant day to day operational management challenges regards KPI performance of the Department. They must have a strong understanding of ED performance data and utilising this information weekly to look at potential service redesign of appropriate patient pathways, enabling further ED efficiencies and workflows with other directorates.

2. Service Development/Strategic Planning

The Operations Manager will work closely with the Head of Medical and Emergency Operations in longer term strategic planning to deliver reductions in PET times within ED. The Operations Manager will lead out in service development initiatives within the directorate / wider hospital and work with the Directorate Management team to plan at a strategic level. They will work closely with the Head of Medical and Emergency operations to devise and communicate key organisational goals for the IPMs/ORBIS systems so they are utilised effectively and efficiently across the organisation.  Core elements strategic planning will involve:

• Develop work force plan for ED with the Head of Medical and Emergency Operations by accurately estimating the needs of the Directorate and prioritising resources appropriately.
• Review and analysis of all ED activity, provision of regular reports and understand national and local ED KPI metrics. This should include data retrieval and analysis from BI platform of ED PET monitoring metrics on a weekly basis, to be presented to wider Directorate Management team.
• Maintain daily operational running of the Directorate to ensure key KPI compliance is maintained and coordinate retrospective look back of KPI breaches on a weekly basis. Lookback is undertaken in conjunction with Directorate Management team.
• Work closely with the Business Manager team in getting access to ‘hot clinic’ slots for patients discharged from ED out of hours (to receive sub speciality access to clinics within 1 week of discharge). This is key to improving patient experience and driving culture change within the Directorate.
• ED ORBIS system allows a fully digitalised workflow within the ED environment, currently there is a significant volume of work still performed on paper within the ED department. A key focus of this role is to work with Clinical teams to improve existing ORBIS functionality and deliver a fully digital ED environment in the coming months.
• Promote the effective and efficient delivery of services to patients and hospital staff.
• Incorporate delivery of quality and standards at all levels of the process ensuring that a whole of systems approach is taken.

3. Project Management

Act as a project manager on specific Directorate projects incorporating the key principles of a proven project management methodology including:

• Project Initiation.
• Planning and Design.
• Execution.
• Risk and Issue Management.
• Monitoring and Controlling.
• Project closure ensuring benefits realisation.

Participate in the management of and contribute to the Directorates’ key project priorities and provide project management support/ mentorship to staff within the Directorate as required. Short term and long term key projects are outlined below that the candidate will be required to support once in post.

Short team delivery of a fully digitized ED ORBIS system is a key priority for this role. This will be achieved by improving existing admin processes within ED, in addition to onsite and offsite chart retrieval processes, ensuring patient records are accurate and available for HIPE coding in a timely manner.

Beaumont ED clinical footprint redesign project is due to start build works in Q4 2026. This will deliver a new resus space, main reception, waiting area, admin office block and expand the existing ED majors clinical area. Once the successful candidate is in post they will have significant project management responsibilities to ensure all key stakeholders are working together to ensure key decisions are made in a timely manner to deliver this project on programme and budget.

This role will be key in driving long term hospital planning for the new ED department. The design phase of the new ED standalone build will continue to develop as the hospital looks to work towards identifying concrete timelines in line with the wider hospital campus development plan.

4. Change Management

The Operations Manager will support, develop and manage a culture for effective change within the Directorate ensuring that change is supported, communicated and measured. Core elements will involve:

• Definition of current state at various levels such as technology, behaviours, tools etc.
• Developing a future state ensuring that it supports enhanced workflows, optimised staff utilisation, meets appropriate standards etc.
• Management of the transition state which encompasses the journey from the current state to the future state. Involving and consulting with staff and other relevant groups within the Directorate and across other Directorates/ support services to gather their opinions and support for change / work initiatives.
• Endeavour to build bridges and remove barriers between levels and functions through multidisciplinary working.
• Identify practical opportunities to remove barriers or create new links in the interest of greater cross-disciplinary teamwork within the Directorate/Hospital.
• Encourage and empower staff to initiate effective change.
• Communicate, involve, enable and facilitate involvement from people, as early and openly and as fully as is possible.
• Utilise process improvement methodologies such as LEAN/ PDSA cycles to support changes, measure impacts and to engage with stakeholders.
• Ensure that policies and procedures governing the practices of admissions/out of hour’s teams within the IPMs/ORBIS environment are well documented and clearly understood by the wider hospital administration teams.
• As required, review, update, develop, communicate and implement policies and procedures.
  
  

5. Management of staff and staff development

The Operations Manager will form part of the Medical and Emergency Directorate reporting structure. The ED admin, Admissions and OOH teams will report directly to ED Operations manager. Within this remit the Operations Manager will ensure adequate training on ORBIS and IPMs systems and cross cover arrangements can be put in place for ED admin to ensure appropriate business continuity solutions can be explored when required. Operation manager will encourage opportunities for development, establish an understanding of admin workload across all admin staff within the directorate and ensuring that staff’s needs are met, whilst the appropriate service is being delivered. Core element of this involves:

• E-Management of staff and staff development.
• Hospital’s Personnel policies and procedure manual.
• Accountability for staff management where appropriate.
• Foster the training and professional development of all staff of the Directorate.
• Promote a culture of continuous development and learning.
• Work with individuals to identify strengths and development needs.
• Highlight learning opportunities and encourage staff to improve continuously.
• Comply with all hospital guidelines in terms of staff management.
• Ensue that Industrial Relations issues are dealt with effectively as set out in Beaumont Hospital’s Personnel policies and procedure manual.
• Support staff when required with daily operations, and identification of and resolution of operating problems using a team based approach.

6. Management of Issues and Risks

The Operations Manager will work as part of the Directorates risk/issue management team ensuring that risks/issues are identified, escalated and mitigated. Core elements of this process will involve:

• Participate in support of the Head of Medical and Emergency operations in the Directorate Clinical Governance and Risk Management framework.
• Actively work to close off identified risks.
• Foresee potential problems or competing priorities within the Directorate and will take appropriate action to ensure service standards do not suffer.
• Ensure the Directorate Risk Register is updated.
• Understand and improve overall admissions processes which should impact on overall chart retrieval processes and thus hospital KPIs and HIPE coding improvements.

7.      Budget / Funding

Work closely with the Head of Medical and Emergency Operations to provide and to support the management of the Directorates budget on an ongoing basis, including developing an understanding of Money Follows the Patient (MFTP) and service planning. Secure funding and development of value for money initiatives within the Directorate or as part of an organisational remit.

• Work closely with the Head of Medical and Emergency Operations to identify non value add activity and eliminate costs existing with the directorate.
• Participating in the monthly Budget Meeting to establish and implement effective controls to monitor, evaluate and report cost savings on Pay and Non Pay.
• Liaise with Human Resource Department to establish and implement effective controls to monitor, evaluate and report on NCHD overtime/ agency spend within the Directorate.
• Monitor key departmental financial targets most notably statutory charges collection at ED registration and ensuring medical card checks are performed appropriately at check in.
  
  

8. Business Intelligence / Data Analysis

• Review and analysis of all ED activity, provide regular reports and understand national and local ED KPI metrics.
• Data retrieval and analysis from BI platform of ED PET monitoring metrics on a weekly basis to be presented to wider Directorate Management team.
• Capability to interpret data from various sources in order to establish, capacity, demand, trends, anomalies, forecasting etc on a weekly, bimonthly and monthly basis.

• Ability to interrogate and validate current hospital or regional data, and contextualise same, utilising current data sources available.
• Work with management information and IT in order to progress improvements in data capture, reporting, data accuracy, real time portals/ dashboards etc. when required, to ensure appropriate use of technology, to advance the quality and efficiency of service delivery within the Directorate.
• Maintain daily operational running of the Directorate to ensure key KPI compliance is actively managed and coordinate retrospective look back of KPI breaches on a weekly basis.

9.      Performance Management

• To monitor, control and report on department activity working with, and reporting directly, to the Head of Medical and Emergency Operations.
• Implement and maintain weekly / monthly reports to the Directorate to aid compliance of the relevant KPI’s.
• Be accountable for the effective use of resources, alerting the Head of Medical and Emergency Operations in respect of imminent matters which may impinge on effective running of the department.
• Work collaboratively with the Head of Medical and Emergency Operations to lead initiatives in strategic planning, development and redesign of services.

The job description is an outline of the post as it is currently perceived by the hospital and will be subject to review and amendment. This job description will therefore be subject to change in light of the various strategies for the hospital and the development of the Clinical Directorate model and any future developments that arise and will evolve and change over time.

Selection Criteria: 

Selection criteria outline the qualifications, skills, knowledge and/or experience that the successful candidate would need to demonstrate for successful discharge of the responsibilities of the post. 

Applications will be assessed on the basis of how well candidates satisfy these criteria.

Mandatory:

Qualifications:

• Educated to degree level or equivalent experience

or

• Demonstrated experience in a similar role
• Career progression through continuing professional development

Experience:

• Experience of 4 years of middle/senior management in a complex Healthcare organisation
• Highly developed specialist knowledge of managing multi-professional teams
• Successful operational management in a multi-professional environment
• Day-to-day people management including, recruitment and retention, performance management, etc
• Budgetary management
• Operational planning and implementation including strategic planning and options appraisal

Special Knowledge:

• Sound knowledge of the working of the wider healthcare system in Ireland and internationally
• Sound understanding of the HSE National agenda
• Comprehensive knowledge and practical understanding of financial and commissioning frameworks
• Workforce and capacity planning, managing waiting lists and developing business cases.
• Knowledge and application of key policies and procedures to include access to services, Health and Safety, HR Guidance and Governance etc.
• Strong negotiation and influencing skills and diplomacy

Behaviours:

• Effective team leader and team player with the ability to work flexibly in a diverse and highly demanding team
• Working well under pressure of time and resources
• Fair, honest and consistent in approach
• Self-management, demonstrating resilience

Practical Skills

• Excellent change management skills including major service reconfiguration
• Analytical skills, literacy and numeracy. Ability to analyse highly complex data and formulate reports
• Project Management Skills
• Able to develop effective working partnership skills within and beyond employing organisation
• Excellent presentation skills using a variety of options and mechanisms
• Mange clinical and business risks developing action plans to improve performance

Aptitude

• Intellectual capacity to provide vision and direction to the Directorate to seize service opportunities and develop services
• Self-management in order to achieve appropriate work life balance

Desirable:

• Masters Level in a related field
• Health Services management experience
• Senior Management on call experience
• Knowledge of social services and voluntary organisations

If an appointee has previously been employed in the Civil or Public Service and that appointee is entitled to or in receipt of a pension from the Civil or Public Service or where a Civil/ Public Service pension comes into payment during the appointee’s re-employment that pension will be subject to abatement in accordance with Section 52 of the Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and other Provisions) Act 2012.

Please note: In applying for this position you are acknowledging that you understand that the abatement provisions, where relevant, will apply. It is not envisaged that the employing Department/ Office/ Body will support an application for an abatement waiver in respect of appointments to this position.

Please be aware that Beaumont Hospital will never ask candidates to pay money at any stage of the recruitment process. Any requests for payment, bank details, or financial information in connection with a job application should be treated as fraudulent. If you receive such a request claiming to be from Beaumont Hospital, please do not respond and report to the recruitment department immediately

Informal Enquiries ONLY to: (Please note NO APPLICATIONS will be accepted via the Informal Email)