COO - BH

Universal Hospital Services Inc.; Augusta (MI); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Universal Hospital Services Inc. seeks a Chief Operating Officer to lead Skywood Recovery’s inpatient operations, ensuring safe, high‑quality, patient‑centered care while driving operational excellence and regulatory compliance.

The COO partners with the CEO, coordinates department leaders, and monitors KPIs to optimize patient flow and improve outcomes across the facility. This role requires strong leadership, collaboration, and accountability in a 24/7 environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required; Master's preferred.
• 3–5 years of related work experience required; 5–8 years preferred.
• Experience in inpatient behavioral health or similar 24‑hour inpatient setting preferred.
• Strong leadership, strategic planning, and change-management capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Provides executive oversight of all inpatient hospital operations to ensure safe, efficient, patient-centered care.
• Oversee admissions, patient flow, bed management, census optimization, discharge coordination, staffing coordination, and readiness.
• Ensure readiness for Joint Commission, state licensing, and other regulatory agencies.
• Coordinate clinical, nursing, plant operations, risk management, HR, finance, and business development to improve communication and collaboration.
• Develops, monitors, and reports organizational KPIs, including census, LOS, patient satisfaction, and quality outcomes.
• Coaches and mentors department directors and drives accountability and operational excellence.

Skills

Inpatient operations leadership

Regulatory compliance

Performance improvement

Budget management

Staff coaching

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree preferred

Job description

Responsibilities

Position Summary

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) serves as the senior operational leader for Skywood Recovery and is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of inpatient operations. Working collaboratively with the CEO, the COO ensures efficient delivery of safe, high-quality, patient centered care while promoting operational excellence, regulatory compliance, employee engagement, and continuous performance improvement.

The COO provides leadership and accountability for the organization’s inpatient operational departments and is responsible for driving operational efficiency, improving patient throughput, ensuring survey readiness, monitoring organizational performance, and fostering collaboration across departments. This position serves as the operational leader of the organization by coordinating the efforts of department leaders, monitoring key performance indicators, removing operational barriers, and ensuring execution of strategic initiatives.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Provides executive oversight of all inpatient hospital operations to ensure safe, efficient, patient-centered care. Oversee operational execution across assigned departments while maintaining alignment with organizational goals. Facilitates timely decision making, removes operational barriers, and promotes collaboration among leaders. Serves as administrator on duty in the CEO's absence.
• Oversee daily hospital operations including admissions, patient flow, bed management, census optimization, discharge coordination, staffing coordination, and operational readiness. Works collaboratively with department leaders to maximize efficiency while maintaining high standards of patient care and safety.
• Ensures continuous readiness for Joint Commission, state licensing, and other regulatory agencies. Oversees implementation of action plans, regulatory audits, and organizational compliance activities. Promotes a culture of continuous survey readiness.
• Facilitate collaboration among clinical, nursing, plant operations, risk management, outpatient services, HR, finance, and business development to improve communication, eliminate operational silos, and support coordinated patient care. Chairs operational leadership meetings and ensures timely follow-up on organizational initiatives.
• Develops, monitors, and reports organizational key performance indicators, including census, admission conversion rates, average length of stay, patient satisfaction, incident trends, productivity, and quality outcomes.
• Provides coaching, mentoring, and performance oversight for assigned department directors. Establish operational expectations, monitor departmental performance, supports

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Extensive knowledge of inpatient behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment operations.
• Demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary healthcare teams within a 24-hour inpatient environment.
• Ability to analyze operational metrics including census, admissions, average length of stay, staffing productivity, labor utilization, patient satisfaction, incident trends, and quality indicators.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution skills with the ability to build strong interdisciplinary partnerships.
• Ability to lead regulatory surveys, performance improvement initiatives, and accreditation readiness activities.
• Thorough understanding of Joint Commission standards, state licensing regulations, and healthcare compliance.
• Strong knowledge of hospital operations including admissions, patient flow, detoxification services, residential treatment, discharge planning, staffing models, and capacity management.
• Proven leadership in change management, operational improvement, and organizational development.
• Strong financial acumen with experience managing operational budgets, productivity, and resource allocation.
• Demonstrated ability to coach, mentor, and develop department leaders while fostering accountability and operational excellence.

EEO Statement

All UHS subsidiaries are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and teammates. UHS subsidiaries are equal opportunity employers and as such, openly support and fully commit to recruitment, selection, placement, promotion and compensation of individuals without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), genetic information, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. We believe that diversity and inclusion among our teammates is critical to our success.

The COO assumes responsibility for inpatient operations in the absence of the CEO and serves as a key member of the leadership team.

Qualifications

Education and Experience

• Bachelor's required, Master's preferred.
• 3-5 years of related work experience required, 5-8 years preferred.