Senior Operations Manager – Orthopaedic Private Practice

About This Position:

Arthritis & Sports Orthopaedics is seeking an experienced Senior Operations Manager to provide strategic and day-to-day operational leadership for our high-volume, physician-owned orthopaedic practice.

This senior leadership position is responsible for ensuring efficient clinical and administrative operations, exceptional patient service, regulatory compliance, effective physician and staff support, and continued improvement across the organization.

Reporting directly to the Practice CEO, the Senior Operations Manager serves as a key liaison among physicians, advanced practice providers, clinical and administrative staff, Information Technology, NextGen EMR support, billing and revenue cycle teams, payers, vendors, and organizational leadership.

The Senior Operations Manager will oversee practice workflows, identify opportunities for operational improvement, lead process optimization, and help ensure that the systems, people, and resources of the practice support both our clinical and business objectives.

The ideal candidate is an experienced healthcare operations leader with a strong understanding of physician practice management, orthopaedic or surgical workflows, electronic medical records, revenue cycle operations, payer relationships, healthcare technology, and staff leadership.

Key Responsibilities

Practice Operations & Leadership

• Oversee the daily operations of the Orthopaedic Surgery practice, including clinic flow, scheduling, registration, check-in/check-out, referrals, authorizations, clinical support, and administrative functions.

• Develop and implement operational processes that improve patient access, provider productivity, staff efficiency, and overall patient experience.

• Serve as the primary point of escalation for patient concerns and complaints, responding with empathy, professionalism, and timely follow-through. Investigate issues, coordinate resolution with physicians and appropriate staff, document concerns and actions taken, and escalate matters as needed.

• Partner with physicians and clinical leadership to identify operational challenges and implement sustainable solutions.

• Monitor key operational metrics, including provider productivity, appointment utilization, patient wait times, access, cancellations/no-shows, staffing levels, and patient satisfaction.

• Develop staffing plans and workflows based on physician schedules, patient volumes, and organizational needs.

• Lead, coach, and develop administrative and operational staff, including recruiting, hiring, onboarding, performance management, training, professional development, and workforce planning.

• Provide hands-on assistance across practice functions when support staff are unavailable or additional coverage is needed.

• Establish and maintain standard operating procedures and ensure consistent adherence across the practice.

• Support expansion of services, new providers, new locations, and changes in clinical programs.

• Maintain individual employee attendance records and coordinate staffing coverage for absences.

• Provide hands-on assistance across practice functions when support staff are unavailable or additional coverage is needed.

• Maintain the practice calendar to accurately reflect meetings, provider and staff vacations, and other organizational events.

NextGen EMR / Practice Management System

• Serve as the operational subject-matter expert and primary practice liaison for NextGen EMR and practice management functionality.

• Partner with IT and NextGen support teams to troubleshoot system issues and optimize workflows.

• Identify opportunities to improve clinical documentation, scheduling, charge capture, orders, referrals, authorizations, messaging, patient communication, and reporting within NextGen.

• Coordinate system upgrades, configuration changes, testing, and implementation of new functionality.

• Develop and maintain appropriate workflows, templates, user access, and operational protocols.

• Train and support physicians and staff on NextGen workflows and best practices.

• Monitor data integrity and ensure that system configuration supports accurate billing, reporting, and clinical operations.

• Participate in testing and implementation of interfaces between NextGen and other clinical, billing, imaging, laboratory, or hospital systems.

• Work with IT and vendors to resolve system issues while minimizing disruption to patient care and practice operations.

IT & Technology Operations

• Serve as the primary operational contact between the Orthopaedic Surgery practice and IT.

• Identify technology needs and translate clinical and operational requirements into actionable IT projects.

• Coordinate hardware, software, workstation, printer, network, telecommunication, and application-related needs.

• Assist with implementation of new technology and workflow changes.

• Escalate and track IT issues through resolution, ensuring appropriate communication with affected staff.

• Support cybersecurity, HIPAA, access-control, downtime, and business-continuity requirements.

• Evaluate technology solutions that can improve efficiency, patient communication, documentation, scheduling, and revenue cycle performance.

Billing & Revenue Cycle Management

• Partner closely with billing and revenue cycle teams to ensure accurate and timely charge capture, coding, claims submission, payment posting, and follow-up.

• Monitor accounts receivable, denials, claim submission issues, underpayments, outstanding balances, and other revenue cycle indicators.

• Identify operational causes of denials and develop corrective action plans.

• Work with physicians, coders, billers, and clinical staff to improve documentation and coding accuracy.

• Ensure that scheduling, registration, insurance verification, authorizations, referrals, and demographic information support clean claims.

• Collaborate with revenue cycle leadership to resolve payer-specific issues and recurring billing problems.

• Assist patients, families, referring physicians, and insurance carriers in resolving patient-related billing, coverage, and administrative concerns.

• Maintain working knowledge of medical insurance plans and explain coverage and administrative requirements to patients and staff, coordinating with billing and payer representatives as needed.

• Support implementation of changes to reimbursement methodologies, coding requirements, and payer policies.

Payer Contracting & Credentialing

• Work collaboratively with leadership, contracting teams, payers, and physicians regarding payer agreements and reimbursement issues.

• Support analysis of payer contracts, fee schedules, reimbursement rates, and operational requirements.

• Assist with identifying contract-related issues affecting physician or practice revenue.

• Coordinate information required for payer negotiations, amendments, renewals, and implementation.

• Partner with credentialing teams to ensure timely provider enrollment, recredentialing, and maintenance of payer participation.

• Monitor payer changes and communicate relevant operational impacts to physicians and staff.

Orthopaedic-Specific Operations

• Develop efficient workflows for common orthopaedic services, including new patient evaluations, follow-up visits, surgical planning, pre-operative coordination, post-operative care, injections, imaging, durable medical equipment, and referrals.

• Coordinate closely with surgery schedulers, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, anesthesia providers, physical therapy, imaging facilities, and other external partners.

• Ensure appropriate authorization and documentation workflows for procedures, imaging, injections, surgery, and other services.

• Support efficient coordination between office-based and surgical care.

• Monitor physician schedules and surgical/clinical capacity to maximize appropriate utilization.

• Help identify opportunities to improve patient throughput from initial consultation through treatment and follow-up.

Compliance & Quality

• Ensure practice operations comply with applicable healthcare regulations, organizational policies, payer requirements, and HIPAA standards.

• Support compliance with documentation, coding, billing, OSHA, safety, and accreditation requirements.

• Participate in internal audits and corrective action initiatives.

• Develop and maintain appropriate policies, procedures, and operational controls.

• Serve as the practice’s HIPAA Compliance Officer, overseeing the development, implementation, and ongoing maintenance of privacy policies and procedures in accordance with applicable federal and state laws.

• Train and guide employees on HIPAA requirements, practice compliance policies, and procedures manuals.

• Maintain the confidentiality of patient, employee, financial, and other sensitive practice information.

• Monitor quality and patient experience metrics and implement improvement initiatives.

Financial & Business Management

• Assist with development and management of departmental budgets.

• Monitor expenses, staffing costs, supplies, equipment, and vendor expenditures; oversee office supply inventory and approve supply purchases within established budget and purchasing authority.

• Use spreadsheets, databases, and reporting tools to assemble, validate, analyze, and present operational data, identifying trends and opportunities for improvement.

• Participate in strategic planning, business development, and practice growth initiatives.

• Evaluate vendor relationships and negotiate operational terms in collaboration with organizational leadership.

Physician Relations

• Establish strong working relationships with orthopedic surgeons, advanced practice providers, nurses, medical assistants, front-desk personnel, billing staff, IT, finance, and executive leadership.

• Act as a trusted operational resource for physicians.

• Facilitate communication between clinical and administrative teams.

• Serve as a point of escalation for patient and family concerns, coordinate timely resolution with the appropriate teams, and connect patients with appropriate resources.

• Lead regular operational meetings and follow through on action items.

• Translate physician concerns and priorities into actionable operational initiatives.

• Promote accountability, teamwork, professionalism, and a patient-centered “PATIENT FIRST” culture; model courteous interactions with patients, families, employees, physicians, visitors, and external partners, and communicate respectfully about colleagues and providers.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Healthcare Administration, Business Administration, Health Management, or related field; equivalent healthcare management experience may be considered.

• 5+ years of healthcare operations or physician practice management experience, preferably in a specialty or surgical practice.

• Demonstrated experience managing or optimizing electronic medical record/practice management systems, preferably NextGen.

• Strong understanding of physician practice operations and revenue cycle management.

• Experience working with billing, coding, payer requirements, credentialing, and insurance authorization processes.

• Experience partnering with IT teams and third-party technology vendors.

• Strong analytical, organizational, problem-solving, and project management skills.

• Demonstrated ability to lead teams and manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced healthcare environment.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Demonstrated conflict resolution, customer service, and diplomacy skills when addressing concerns involving patients, staff, physicians, and external partners.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in orthopaedic surgery, sports medicine, spine, joint replacement, or another surgical specialty.

• Experience with NextGen EMR/PM implementation, optimization, or workflow redesign.

• Experience with payer contracting and reimbursement analysis.

• Experience managing multi-site physician practices.

• Knowledge of orthopedic surgical scheduling and hospital/ASC relationships.

• Master's degree in Healthcare Administration, Business Administration, or related field.

• Professional certification such as CMPE, FACMPE, or CPHQ.

What We’re Looking For

We’re looking for a healthcare operations leader who can move comfortably between high-level strategy and the realities of daily practice operations.

The successful candidate will be:

• A visible, approachable, and accountable leader.

• Comfortable working closely with physician owners and senior leadership.

• Proactive in identifying problems and implementing solutions.

• Skilled at managing multiple priorities without losing sight of follow-through.

• Confident addressing difficult employee, patient, and operational situations.

• Analytical and comfortable using data to guide decisions.

• Able to connect clinical workflows, technology, staffing, patient experience, and financial performance.

• Committed to building strong teams and a professional, collaborative workplace.

• Willing to step in and provide hands-on support when operational needs require it.

How Success Will Be Measured

Success in this position may be evaluated through measures including:

• Physician productivity and schedule utilization

• Patient access and appointment availability

• Patient throughput and wait times

• Patient satisfaction

• Revenue cycle performance and days in accounts receivable

• Clean claim and denial rates

• Charge capture accuracy

• Staff productivity, retention, and engagement

• NextGen utilization and workflow efficiency

• Operational expense management

• Provider onboarding and credentialing timeliness

• Successful completion of strategic, operational, and technology initiatives

Reporting Relationships

Reports to: Practice CEO

Direct Reports: Administrative, scheduling, front-office, clinical, and/or other practice operations staff as assigned.

The Senior Operations Manager works extensively with orthopaedic physicians, advanced practice providers, physical therapists, clinical operations, IT, NextGen support, billing/revenue cycle, finance, Human Resources, compliance, credentialing, marketing, and executive leadership, as well as external payers, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, technology vendors, billing vendors, and other healthcare partners.

About Arthritis & Sports Orthopaedics

Founded in 1998, Arthritis & Sports Orthopaedics, Physical Therapy & Wellness is a physician-owned orthopaedic and sports medicine practice serving Northern Virginia.

Our multidisciplinary team provides comprehensive musculoskeletal care through orthopaedic surgery, sports medicine, pediatric orthopaedics, foot and ankle care, physical therapy, occupational and hand therapy, diagnostic imaging, and wellness services.

Across every department, our mission is simple: Patients First. Improve Lives.

We are looking for an experienced healthcare operations leader who shares that philosophy and wants to play a meaningful role in the continued growth, improvement, and success of our practice.

Apply for the Senior Operations Manager Position

If you are an experienced healthcare operations leader with a strong background in physician practice management, staff leadership, healthcare technology, revenue cycle operations, process improvement, and patient experience, we encourage you to apply.