Director of Maternal & Women's Health Services

Description

Job Description: Director of Maternal & Women’s Health Services

Position Summary

The Director of Women’s & Children’s Services provides 24/7 leadership, strategic direction, clinical oversight, and operational accountability for Women’s & Children’s Services, including Labor & Delivery, postpartum, newborn/nursery services, and associated outpatient OB-GYN services.

The Director is accountable for the delivery of safe, high-quality, evidence-based, patient- and family-centered care across the continuum of maternal and newborn services. The Director ensures alignment with current professional standards, regulatory requirements, organizational priorities, and medical staff expectations.

The Director partners closely with physicians, certified nurse midwives, advanced practice providers, nursing and clinical leaders, and hospital departments to ensure coordinated care, appropriate escalation and transfer processes, operational effectiveness, patient experience, workforce stability, and long-term service-line sustainability.

Scope of Responsibility

The Director has administrative, operational, clinical, and financial accountability for the Women’s & Children’s Services service line, including:

• Labor & Delivery and obstetric triage.
• Postpartum/mother-baby services.
• Newborn/nursery services.
• Associated outpatient OB-GYN services and clinics.
• Maternal-child health nursing operations, staffing, and clinical practice.
• Perinatal education, competency, and quality initiatives within the service line.
• Coordination of maternal and newborn care across inpatient, outpatient, emergency, diagnostic, surgical, and ancillary services.
• Development and oversight of service-line policies, procedures, standards, and performance expectations.
• Service-line workforce planning, recruitment, retention, productivity, and leadership development.
• Operating and capital budget management and resource allocation.
• Quality, patient safety, regulatory compliance, patient experience, and performance improvement.
• Strategic planning, service development, regional partnerships, and initiatives supporting access, quality, and long-term sustainability.

Patient Safety & Risk Management

• Leads a comprehensive perinatal safety program aligned with current national maternal and newborn safety standards and applicable safety bundles.
• Oversees multidisciplinary simulation, emergency preparedness, and competency activities.
• Facilitates case reviews and risk mitigation.
• Promotes a culture in which patient safety concerns are identified, escalated, and addressed transparently.
• Ensures appropriate processes for consultation and transfer of patients requiring a higher level of maternal or newborn care.

Clinical Excellence & Evidence-Based Practice

• Ensures clinical practice reflects current evidence, professional standards, regulatory requirements, and organizational policies.
• Leads development, review, implementation, and evaluation of clinical policies and procedures.
• Oversees staff education, competency validation, and ongoing professional development.
• Supports shared governance, frontline engagement, professional accountability, and continuous improvement in clinical practice.

Regulatory Compliance & Survey Readiness

• Maintains compliance with applicable CMS, state, federal, professional, and accreditation requirements.
• Ensures continuous survey readiness through routine audits, monitoring, education, and policy review.
• Oversees documentation standards related to obstetric assessment, fetal monitoring, triage, stabilization, transfers, medication administration, and newborn care.
• Ensures timely development and implementation of corrective action plans when compliance or performance gaps are identified.

Operational & Administrative Leadership

• Provides leadership and accountability for 24/7 operations across inpatient and outpatient Women’s & Children’s Services.
• Oversees patient flow, staffing, resource allocation, clinical escalations, and coordination of care.
• Partners with hospital leaders and interdisciplinary departments to coordinate operations across the continuum of maternal and newborn care.
• Maintains appropriate leadership/on-call coverage and participates in hospital incident command and emergency response activities as assigned.
• Ensures effective processes for patient access, consultation, referral, and continuity of care.
• Identifies opportunities to improve operational efficiency, quality, and service-line performance.

Medical Staff & Interdisciplinary Partnership

• Establishes effective working relationships with OB/GYN physicians, certified nurse midwives, pediatric/newborn providers, anesthesia, and other medical staff.
• Partners with medical staff leadership to support clinical standards, quality initiatives, credentialing/privileging processes, and regulatory requirements.
• Promotes a culture of mutual respect, accountability, and shared responsibility for patient outcomes.

Staffing, Workforce Development & Culture

• Develops and maintains staffing plans based on patient volume, patient acuity, clinical complexity, required competencies, skill mix, regulatory requirements, professional standards, and available resources.
• Continuously evaluates staffing needs in response to changes in census, acuity, patient flow, admissions, discharges, emergencies, and other operational demands.
• Uses staffing data, productivity measures, benchmarking, and operational performance indicators to evaluate staffing models and resource utilization.
• Leads recruitment, onboarding, performance management, retention, succession planning, and leadership development.
• Promotes employee engagement and a culture of safety, accountability, teamwork, and service excellence.
• Partners with Human Resources and organizational leaders regarding employee relations, workforce planning, and applicable collective bargaining agreement requirements.

Quality Improvement, Patient Experience & Data Management

• Leads Women’s & Children’s quality improvement initiatives and performance improvement activities.
• Monitors and responds to clinical, operational, patient experience, and workforce metrics.
• Oversees monitoring of appropriate maternal and newborn outcomes, including maternal morbidity, cesarean rates, newborn outcomes, breastfeeding-related measures, patient experience, and other service-line indicators.
• Uses data and benchmarking to identify opportunities for improvement and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions.
• Participates in applicable state and national perinatal quality collaboratives.
• Promotes patient- and family-centered care, service recovery, and timely response to patient concerns and grievances.

Financial & Resource Management

• Ensures appropriate stewardship of organizational resources.
• Develops, manages, and monitors operating and capital budgets for assigned services.
• Maintains accountability for labor, productivity, supplies, equipment, and other operational expenses.
• Monitors service-line financial performance, volume, utilization, revenue, and expense trends.
• Identifies opportunities to improve operational efficiency and financial sustainability.

Strategic Planning & Service-Line Development

• Leads strategic planning and performance improvement for Women’s & Children’s Services in alignment with organizational priorities.
• Evaluates and optimizes service-line needs, community needs, patient access, volume trends, referral patterns, and regional healthcare relationships.
• Partners with senior leadership and community and regional healthcare organizations to support the long-term sustainability and accessibility of maternal and newborn services.

Qualifications

• Required: Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) or equivalent nursing degree.
• Required: Current Vermont RN license; applicable advanced practice/CNM licensure as appropriate to the candidate's scope of practice.
• Preferred: MSN, MHA, or other relevant graduate degree.
• Preferred: 3–5 years of progressive leadership experience in maternal-child health, obstetrics, women's health, or a related clinical service.
• Demonstrated experience with regulatory compliance, quality improvement, patient safety, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Experience with operational and financial management preferred.
• Experience working collaboratively with physicians, advanced practice providers, and interdisciplinary teams preferred.
• EFM certification or demonstrated expertise in fetal monitoring preferred.

Professional Competencies

• Knowledge of current evidence-based maternal, newborn, and perinatal practice.
• Strong operational, financial, organizational, and strategic leadership skills.
• Demonstrated ability to lead in a high-acuity, rapidly changing environment.
• Strong communication, relationship-building, conflict resolution, and crisis management skills.
• Ability to analyze data, identify trends, and translate findings into measurable improvement.
• Demonstrated commitment to patient- and family-centered care, employee engagement, and service excellence.
• Ability to build trust and effective partnerships across clinical, operational, and medical staff teams.
• Demonstrated judgment, accountability, and ability to make timely decisions in complex situations.

Professional References

The Director is expected to maintain current knowledge and practice consistent with applicable standards and guidance, including:

• Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN)
• American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG)
• American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
• The Joint Commission and other applicable accrediting organizations
• Vermont state and federal regulatory requirements
• Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM) safety bundles
• Applicable state and national perinatal quality collaboratives
• AONL leadership competencies