Provincial Executive Director, Perinatal Services BC

Job Summary:
Reporting to the President/CEO of the PHSA and working with the Provincial Oversight Council, the Provincial Executive Director Perinatal Services is accountable for overall leadership and coordination of Perinatal services for the province of BC. The Provincial Executive Director’s responsibilities include: strategic planning for delivery of hospital based Perinatal care, developing protocols/service delivery guidelines, financial accountability for out of country transfer, managing data to project growth, monitor performance and outcomes for all births in the province, monitor operational effectiveness and efficiency of antenatal, perinatal and maternity services.

Duties/Accountabilities:
Planning

• Establishing a strategic vision and priority areas of focus for provincial perinatal services.
• Promoting the alignment of current capacity and resources for high risk maternity and neonatal intensive care and making recommendations to health authorities to address gaps in care.
• Continuing with implementation of the provincial plan for increasing level 2 and level 3 neonatal intensive care beds and linking these to parallel requirements for obstetrical / maternity beds.
• Planning for and strengthening service delivery relationships within the continuum of care for perinatal services.
• Coordinating contingency planning and decision making for bed closures, new facility closures, start-ups, and consolidation.
• Coordinating development of a provincial HR plan and for coordinated recruitment strategies for nurses, physicians, and other specialized staff.
• Coordinating medical human resources planning and the creation of provincial divisions of neonatology and maternal fetal medicine (perinatology).

Service

• Establishing a standardized model of care and finalizing criteria for categorizing levels of care required by moms and/or babies at risk.
• Developing provincial guidelines and decision criteria for patient transfer and transport.
• Standardizing case management models and supporting / monitoring their implementation.
• Tracking and reporting on inter-regional and out-of-country patient movement and the associated costs to the perinatal health system.
• Providing advisory and consultative support to health authorities.
• Supporting health authorities in the delivery of perinatal services in an economic climate of competing priorities.
• Participating in strategies to optimize the use of BC Bedline, the provincial perinatal database and other coordination mechanisms.
• Making final decisions (in consultation with MOHS, health authorities, BCAS and BC Bedline) to transfer mothers or their babies out of region or out-of-country as required.
• Facilitating intra and inter regional communications.
• Liaising with health authority perinatal leads on a routine basis through the use of a dual accountability/matrix reporting structure.

Quality Assurance/Improvement

• Developing and/or supporting implementation of clinical protocols and guidelines for prenatal and perinatal care.
• Supporting ongoing education initiatives/knowledge transfer and the local implementation of provincial standards and performance targets. Includes both maternity and newborn care and related training (e.g. Neonatal Resuscitation Program).
• Supporting the implementation of quality and accountability metrics at local site, health authority and provincial levels and framing these as part of contractual agreements with the various participating parties.
• Managing the provincial perinatal database and providing routine analysis and summary reports on patient outcomes, system utilization, unwarranted medical practice, variations/patterns of practice and performance against national and provincial targets.
• Enabling information systems development to capture and support best practices and evidence-based decision making at local, regional and provincial levels.
• Implementing mechanisms to partner with provincial networks, professional bodies, and research organizations to facilitate education and knowledge sharing.
• Facilitating bi-directional internal and external communications.
• Monitoring overall perinatal system performance.

Qualifications:
A level of education, training, and experience equivalent to an undergraduate degree with postgraduate training and qualifications in health administration to include Masters of Health Administration, MBA and combined with more than 15 years of progressively senior perinatal experience with responsibilities for the development, implementation and evaluation of operational and strategic plans.

Leadership Capabilities in the areas of leading self, engaging others, achieving results, developing coalitions, and system transformation are required.