Director, Emergency Department

As the Director of Emergency Department, you will report to the Chief Nursing Officer and play a key leadership role in shaping clinical operations and patient care delivery. You’ll work closely with nursing and physician leadership to ensure the Emergency Department operates efficiently while delivering high-quality, patient-centered care. In this role, you’ll oversee resources, drive operational improvements, and lead initiatives focused on capacity management, patient throughput, reducing boarding hours, and enhancing the overall patient experience. Your scope will include oversight of the Emergency Department within a community, close to home hospital setting.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead a Healthy Workforce: You’ll build strong, collaborative relationships across teams by promoting open communication, trust, and accountability. Through mentoring and leading by example, you’ll create an inclusive environment that values diverse perspectives and fosters engagement.
• Drive Professional Practice: You’ll champion a culture of caring grounded in Relationship-Based Care, ensuring patient-centered decision-making. You’ll guide clinical teams to practice within their scope, support professional development, and strengthen satisfaction among patients, caregivers, and physicians. You’ll also contribute to budget planning and maintain oversight of staffing, expenses, and capital resources.
• Advance Quality & Innovation: You’ll identify opportunities to improve quality, safety, and cost of care by analyzing clinical and operational performance. Through data-driven decision-making, you’ll lead initiatives that reduce variation, implement evidence-based practices, and support continuous improvement across the department.
• Promote Structural Empowerment: You’ll establish and uphold professional, ethical, and regulatory standards while supporting shared governance and staff involvement in decision-making. You’ll coach and mentor leaders and staff, encouraging professional growth and fostering a culture of accountability and continuous learning.
• Demonstrate Transformational Leadership: You’ll create and communicate a clear vision for Emergency Services, using clinical, financial, and operational data to guide strategic planning. By identifying strengths, opportunities, and risks, you’ll proactively address complex challenges and lead cross-functional efforts to drive meaningful change and support UPMC’s broader strategic goals.
• Operational Oversight: You’ll ensure the Emergency Department is properly staffed and resourced to meet patient care demands, while continuously evaluating systems and processes to improve efficiency, throughput, and patient outcomes.

• BSN required at time of hire or transfer into position. 
• Masters degree in Nursing or related health care field required, either at time of hire/transfer, or must be enrolled in a program within one year of hire/transfer date and completed within three years of enrollment. (i.e. public health, informational technology, administration, etc.)
• Knowledge of clinical practice human resource management normally gained through a minimum of five years of progressively responsible experience in health care including supervision and leadership.
• Analytical ability necessary to evaluate staff, address and improve clinical and programmatic issues and devise solutions to complex problems.
• Leadership ability to develop staff, establish and maintain standards of performance within a national context for professional nursing practice and comply with administrative requirements.
• Superior interpersonal and communication skills sufficient to effectively create relationships to support a healing environment with patients, families, staff, physicians and hospital personnel including senior management in both written and verbal communication.

Licensure, Certifications, and Clearances:

• Registered Nurse (RN)
• Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)
• Basic Life Support (BLS) OR Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)

• NIH Stroke Scale (NIH)

• Act 31 Child Abuse Reporting with renewal
• Act 33 with renewal
• Act 34 with renewal
• Act 73 FBI Clearance with renewal

*Current licensure either in the state where the facility is located or, if the facility is in a state covered by the multistate Nursing Licensure Compact (NLC) agreement, a multistate license issued by a participating NLC state. Hires and current employees working on an out-of-state NLC license who later change their residency to the state where the facility is also located will have 60 days upon changing their residency to apply for licensure within that state.

UPMC is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Disability/Veteran