Title: Director of Clinical Education and Operational Readiness

Location: Columbia, SC

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced clinical education leader to serve as our Director of Clinical Education & Operational Readiness.

This position will lead the development and delivery of standardized clinical and systems education across a multi-site healthcare organization supporting both urgent care and physical therapy services. The Director will oversee new-hire academies, clinical competency programs, electronic medical record education, patient registration training, refresher education, and the education and readiness components of new systems, services, equipment, and operational initiatives.

The ideal candidate is a clinically qualified leader who combines healthcare education expertise with strong operational judgment, project-management capability, and experience supporting employees across multiple locations and service lines.

This is a hands-on leadership position. In addition to leading the department, the Director must be prepared to support clinical programs, provide instruction, demonstrate skills, coach employees, and assist with competency validation when additional coverage is needed and the activity falls within the lawful scope of the Director's clinical credential.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the Clinical Education & Operational Readiness Department, including the Clinical Education and Systems Education teams.
• Establish the department's strategy, annual education plan, priorities, standards, performance measures, and resource requirements.
• Develop and oversee standardized new-hire academies and role-specific learning pathways for urgent care, physical therapy, registration, and other designated operational positions.
• Ensure employees meet established knowledge, skill, and competency requirements before independently performing designated responsibilities.
• Lead clinical education and competency programs supporting urgent care and physical therapy workflows, patient safety, documentation, equipment, and approved clinical practices.
• Provide direct clinical instruction, skills demonstration, coaching, and competency support when needed and within the lawful scope of the credential held.
• Ensure specialty-specific education and competency validation are performed by appropriately licensed, registered, or certified professionals.
• Oversee electronic medical record, patient registration, clinical documentation, scheduling, collections, and operational systems education.
• Lead the education and readiness components of new systems, services, equipment, workflows, and major operational initiatives.
• Establish recurring refresher education based on quality findings, audit results, operational performance, system changes, and identified knowledge gaps.
• Maintain standardized curricula, competency tools, job aids, assessments, training records, and supporting documentation.
• Evaluate education effectiveness and use performance data to improve curricula, delivery methods, remediation, and sustained operational adoption.
• Partner with Operations, Medical Leadership, Physical Therapy Leadership, Quality, Compliance, Human Resources, Revenue Cycle, and Information Technology.
• Manage department staffing, employee performance, budgets, schedules, travel, education resources, and vendor relationships.
• Provide regular department performance updates, risk assessments, and recommendations to executive leadership.

Leadership Scope

The Director will directly supervise:

• Team Lead, Clinical Education
• Team Lead, Systems Education

The Director will also provide indirect leadership and accountability for Clinical Education Specialists and Systems Education Specialists supporting urgent care and physical therapy operations across the organization.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in nursing, physical therapy, healthcare administration, education, instructional design, business administration, organizational development, or a related field.
• Current, active, and unrestricted clinical license, registration, or national certification appropriate to an ambulatory, rehabilitation, or outpatient healthcare environment.
• Sufficient recent clinical experience and demonstrated competency to assist with clinical education, skills demonstration, employee coaching, and competency assessment within the lawful scope of the credential held.
• Seven years of progressively responsible experience in healthcare education, clinical education, ambulatory or rehabilitation operations, systems training, or a related field.
• Four years of formal leadership or supervisory experience, including responsibility for employee performance, project execution, work allocation, and department outcomes.
• Experience developing and implementing standardized education, onboarding, or competency programs across multiple locations or service lines.
• Experience with adult-learning principles, curriculum development, instructional delivery, skills assessment, and education evaluation.
• Experience supporting electronic medical record education, clinical documentation, patient registration, system implementation, or healthcare technology training.
• Demonstrated project-management experience involving multiple stakeholders, deadlines, risks, and implementation activities.
• Strong leadership, communication, facilitation, analytical, organizational, and relationship-building skills.
• Ability to travel regularly throughout South Carolina and occasionally work outside normal business hours.
• Valid driver's license and ability to meet organizational requirements for operating a motor vehicle.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in nursing, physical therapy, healthcare administration, education, instructional design, business administration, organizational development, or a related field.
• Current credential as a Registered Nurse, Physical Therapist, Physical Therapist Assistant, Registered Radiologic Technologist, or another applicable clinical professional.
• Experience in urgent care, physical therapy, ambulatory care, rehabilitation services, emergency services, physician practice operations, or another multi-location healthcare environment.
• Experience developing centralized onboarding academies, clinical skills laboratories, hands-on programs, or competency-validation programs.
• Experience leading operational readiness, organizational change, process improvement, or enterprise healthcare system implementations.
• Certification in instructional design, project management, change management, process improvement, or a related discipline.

What Success Looks Like

The successful Director will build a consistent and measurable education model that:

• Prepares new employees to perform safely, competently, and confidently.
• Reduces education and workflow variation across locations and service lines.
• Strengthens clinical competency and patient safety.
• Improves electronic medical record, registration, and documentation proficiency.
• Accelerates employee readiness for independent work.
• Supports successful implementation of new systems, services, equipment, and workflows.
• Provides leaders with reliable education and competency data.
• Creates clear accountability for education quality, completion, and sustained operational adoption.
• Establishes a scalable education model that supports both urgent care and physical therapy operations.

About the Opportunity

This position offers the opportunity to design and lead an education function that directly influences employee readiness, clinical quality, patient care, operational consistency, and organizational performance across both urgent care and physical therapy services.

The Director will have the opportunity to build structured academies, strengthen clinical competency programs, improve systems education, and establish a scalable training model across a geographically distributed healthcare organization.