Executive Director - Surgery Utilization Acute Care Alberta

Are you a visionary leader looking to make a lasting impact on surgical care for Albertans? Acute Care Alberta (ACA) is a new provincial health agency dedicated to overseeing the governance and coordination of high-quality, timely, and compassionate acute care services across the province when Albertans need it most. By bringing together specialized care providers, ACA will speed up access to high-quality care, reduce wait-times and make sure every patient’s journey through the acute care system is efficient and effective across the province. Surgical Care Alberta (SCA) is a new provincial program within ACA that serves as a provincial hub for surgical expertise, standardization, planning and innovation. In the role of Executive Director, SCA, you will be a pivotal member of the SCA senior leadership team in collaboration with a partner Executive Director and the Senior Lead. As a member of the SCA leadership team you will provide strategic oversight of the primary SCA responsibilities including reducing surgery wait times, improving accountability in delivering surgical services, setting standards, quality and innovation, increasing access, monitoring outcomes, streamlining planning and coordination, and efficiently distributing surgical procedures across Alberta to meet new performance targets. As this is a provincial program, this position’s location is negotiable and may be eligible for a remote/hybrid work arrangement. It is an exciting time to join the organization and SCA, as the province works to re-imagine and re-organize healthcare administration and delivery. This is a unique career opportunity with the ability to play a significant role in building and shaping the foundation for a new provincial surgical program.

Reporting to the Senior Lead, SCA, the Executive Director has a key role in setting surgical standards, targets and policies, driving quality and innovation, determining volumes of surgeries (consistent with existing contracts), monitoring performance, reporting on surgical performance and setting surgical priorities across the province in accordance with ACA’s mandate from the Government of Alberta. The Executive Director will work with SCA leadership to design the function and required resources within each of the SCA three pillars: (1) Clinical Standards, Quality and Innovation: Ensure high-quality, evidence-based surgical care through clinical standards, quality assurance, and system innovation; (2) Surgical Utilization, Capacity and Coordination: Monitor and determine surgical allocation and capacity across Health Service Delivery Organizations (HSDOs) to meet surgical targets; (3) Surgical Planning and System Support: Support and sustain system operations, integration, and growth. Coaching and leading the SCA team, and project/program sub-teams is an essential role of this position. The Executive Director will develop and maintain effective, positive relationships and foster a climate of cooperation with internal and external stakeholders including executive leadership, senior management, physicians, governments, public agencies, service providers, committees, and community partners. They provide leadership and subject matter expertise to operational teams in improving quality care and provide expert consultative services as a member of SCA. The Executive Director is also responsible for planning, writing and organizing high-level briefing notes, summary/progress reports, reporting including quarterly reports and presentations that may be required by ACA leadership.

A minimum of an undergraduate degree in health care management, business administration or health related care field. A minimum of seven years of progressive, diverse leadership and senior management experience in a health care or other public sector environment. Please enter information in this field. This position will be part of Acute Care Alberta effective April 1, 2025. By applying on this posting, if you are the successful candidate, you agree to and will become an employee of Acute Care Alberta.

Experience working within a public agency or health care environment. Demonstrated ability to develop organization strategy and planning, leveraging and modeling innovation and creativity in the approach. Demonstrated ability to lead strategic initiatives, manage change to achieve positive results and identify risk and effective mitigation strategies. Demonstrated leadership abilities, including comfort with decision-making and exercising sound judgement. Ability to influence, negotiate, and mediate resolutions to complex situations. Proven ability to communicate effectively with a wide variety of audiences and to foster partnerships with key stakeholders to achieve organizational goals. A proven record of engaging in ethical conduct. The incumbent must have proven clinical and strategic background that includes leading province-wide complex initiatives, excellent writing and communication skills, the ability to directly influence decision making and requires a deep understanding of the provincial, integrated system and knowledge of the working departments across the Acute Care continuum. In addition, experience in resource management including planning and budgetary accountability, proven abilities in coaching and mentorship and conflict resolution.

Masters degree, acute care operational experience and surgery clinical experience.