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Director, Behavioral Health Transfer Center
Salary Range: $89,900 – $130,000 (negotiable)
Additional Compensation: Signing bonus available
Schedule: 24/7 operational leadership (some weekends required)
Position Summary
The Director of the Behavioral Health (BH) Transfer Center provides strategic and operational leadership for a centralized, multi-facility behavioral health access and transfer operation. This role is accountable for clinical decision-making, service-level performance, regulatory compliance, and team development in a fast-paced, high-acuity environment.
Serving as the subject-matter expert for behavioral health transfer operations, the Director ensures timely, appropriate patient placement while building trusted relationships with facilities, physicians, and referral partners.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead all daily operations of the BH Transfer Center, overseeing remote RNs and non-clinical staff
- Ensure clinically appropriate, timely transfers across all age groups and levels of care
- Manage service levels in partnership with Workforce Management, Finance, and executive leadership
- Monitor and improve KPIs including response times, acceptance rates, bed utilization, and throughput
- Ensure compliance with EMTALA, CMS, Joint Commission, HIPAA, and state regulations
- Audit transfer calls, admission packets, and level-of-care determinations
- Serve as escalation point for complex or high-risk cases
- Collaborate with CEOs, Directors of Nursing, Directors of Assessment, and medical leadership
- Lead hiring, onboarding, coaching, and performance management of transfer center staff
- Identify operational gaps and drive process improvement across systems and workflows
- Partner with IT, HR, Training, and Quality teams to enhance service delivery
Qualifications
Education
- Bachelor’s degree required
- Master’s degree strongly preferred (Nursing, Social Work, Psychology, Healthcare Administration, or related)
- Licensed clinician (RN, LCSW, LPC, etc.) preferred
Experience
- 5+ years in behavioral health or hospital operations
- 3+ years in leadership or management
- Experience managing or building a behavioral health or hospital transfer/admissions center preferred
- Experience leading high-volume, telephonic clinical programs
Licensure
- Current Compact (Multistate) RN license (if RN)
Core Competencies
- Strategic leadership of centralized access and transfer operations
- Behavioral health clinical operations expertise
- Real-time triage and decision-making under pressure
- Data-driven performance management using KPIs and dashboards
- Systems thinking across EMRs, call management, and bed management tools
- Calm, effective crisis leadership
- Team development and culture building rooted in accountability and empathy