Sr. Director, Respiratory Care

Department Overview

The Sr. Director of Respiratory Care provides enterprise leadership for respiratory therapy services across OHSU Health, ensuring consistent, high-quality, safe, and patient-centered care across inpatient, procedural, and ambulatory settings. This role establishes and advances system-wide respiratory care strategy, clinical practice standards, care delivery models, staffing frameworks, and competency pathways, aligning clinical excellence with operational and financial performance. The Sr. Director serves as the senior respiratory leader, accountable for standardization, integration, and performance across all respiratory services, including adult, pediatric, and diagnostic programs.

The Sr. Director partners with physician, nursing, and executive leadership to drive clinical innovation, care model transformation, and system performance improvement, including access, throughput, utilization, quality outcomes, and cost stewardship. The role chairs or co-chairs respiratory governance structures, establishes decision rights, and ensures consistent execution across sites and service lines. This position represents respiratory care in enterprise forums and contributes to health system strategy, capital planning, and clinical program development, strengthening OHSU Health’s regional and national leadership in respiratory care.

Function/Duties of Position

Enterprise Leadership, Governance, Strategy

• Provide system-wide leadership for respiratory care services across all care settings
• Establish and lead respiratory governance structures, including councils and leadership forums
• Define clinical, operational, and workforce strategy aligned with OHSU Health priorities
• Serve as a senior escalation point, clarifying decision rights and resolving cross-site issuesRepresent respiratory care in enterprise and executive leadership forums

System Operations and Financial Performance 

• Lead respiratory service line performance, including productivity, utilization, cost per case, and throughput
• Plan, develop, submit and oversee $90M+ budget, including operating and capital planning
• Drive labor optimization strategies, including staffing models, skill mix, and deployment
• Partner with finance, operations, and physician leaders on performance improvement initiatives

Quality, Safety and Practice 

• Establish system-wide respiratory clinical practice standards
• Lead respiratory quality, safety, patient experience and regulatory readiness
• Define and monitor clinical performance metrics (e.g., ventilator management, VAP, LOS)
• Advance evidence-based practice and clinical innovation

Care Model Innovation and System Integration 

• Lead development of integrated respiratory care models across the continuum
• Partner with nursing, medicine, and ancillary services to optimize team-based care delivery
• Support digital, informatics, and workflow transformation

People Leadership and Workforce Strategy

• Lead and develop respiratory team, including staff and leadership team 
• Drive succession planning, leadership development, and workforce engagement
• Establish system approaches to competency validation and onboarding
• Promote a culture of professional accountability and continuous improvement

Strategy, Growth and External Engagement

• Contribute to service line growth strategy and market positioning
• Partner with strategy and physician leadership on program expansion and innovation
• Represent OHSU in regional and national respiratory forums

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree required (or evidence of  Master’s degree in progress) in Healthcare Administration, Business, or related field.
• Minimum of seven (7) years of relevant experience is required, with at least three (3) years in a leadership role
• Demonstrated experience with: 
  • multi-site or system-level leadership
  • large-scale financial management 
  • leading leaders (manager/, supervisor, and/or director-level reports)
  • clinical program development and service line performance
  • physician partnership in a matrixed environment
• Must be able to perform the essential functions of the position with or without accommodation

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in academic medical center or integrated delivery system
• Experience leading within a unionized organization 
• Experience leading cross-continuum respiratory services (ICU, procedural, ambulatory)

Additional Details

Full-time Monday-Friday position, with occasional remote work schedule and overtime and call as required. Occasional travel required.

This position works in a busy environment with a lot of interruptions, multiple demands and people interactions that, at times, may be stressful. This position must deal with situations on a daily basis with a high degree of intensity. Exposure to human tissue/fluids.

Why apply to OHSU?

We are Oregon's only public academic health center. In addition to caring for patients, we lead groundbreaking research. We also train the next generation of health care professionals. As Portland's largest employer, we give you opportunities to learn and advance in a system of hospitals and clinics across Oregon and Southwest Washington. All are welcome. OHSU welcomes people of all ages, ethnicities, genders, national origins, religions and sexual orientations. We are striving to build an anti-racist, multicultural institution and encourage people with diverse backgrounds to apply. To request reasonable accommodation, contact [email protected]