National Jewish Health is seeking a collaborative and detail-oriented Supervisor, Specimen Processing to lead the Pre-Analytical team in the Advanced Diagnostic Laboratories. This role oversees the efficient handling of clinical, referral, and study specimens while ensuring compliance with accreditation standards and supporting high-quality patient care. The Supervisor plays a key role in improving workflows within high-complexity testing environments and building cross-functional best practices that enhance overall laboratory operations.
Key Highlights:
- Supervise daily Pre-Analytical operations, ensuring accurate specimen management and timely turnaround times
- Lead and develop staff of 8-15 employees through hiring, training, coaching, and performance management
- Ensure compliance with safety, regulatory, and accreditation standards while maintaining quality procedures
- Oversee laboratory systems, inventory, and resources to support seamless operations
The Pre-Analytical Lab is a critical part of the patient care and diagnostic process at National Jewish Health, ensuring specimen integrity and operational excellence from intake through testing. This team supports clinical care in a highly collaborative environment focused on quality, innovation, and continuous improvement.
Position Summary
This position supervises the Pre-Analytical area and laboratory personnel in the delivery of efficient quality patient care and in compliance with laboratory accreditation requirements.
Essential Duties
- Manages and develops an effective staff: providing effective communication, leadership, guidance and resources. Determines staff qualifications and competency: recruits, interviews, selects, hires, trains, orients, mentors, evaluates, coaches, counsels, disciplines, and rewards. Establishes and monitors staff and patient safety and regulatory compliance.
- Ensures acceptable turn-around-times with respect to patient care and customer needs.
- Ensure positive patient experience with National Jewish Health.
- Supervises, maintains and documents operation of the laboratory to ensure compliance to: safety regulations; lab accreditation; federal regulations; over-all laboratory standards of operation.
- Performs competencies as identified through the departmental competency program.
- Monitors use of equipment, reagents/supplies, and orders/stocks inventory to maintain adequate levels ensuring uninterrupted service. Supervises staff in inventory maintenance procedures.
- Responsible for utilization of HIS/LIS system in department, including training staff, monitoring quality of order/reports/charging and maximizing use of system in department operation.
- Develops new procedures or optimizes old procedures as directed and approved by manager. Reviews existing procedures for validity and appropriate methodology, accuracy, completeness, and quality measures. Includes job aids and forms.
- Utilities LEAN techniques to put in place best in class processes that are robust and efficient.
Other Duties
- Performs as a back up to staff absences and vacancies, as necessary.
Competencies
- Accountability: Accepts full responsibility for self and contribution as a team member; displays honesty and truthfulness; confronts problems quickly; displays a strong commitment to organizational success and inspires others to commit to goals; demonstrates a commitment to National Jewish Health.
- Building Strategic Relationships: Identifying opportunities and taking action to build strategic relationships between one’s area and other areas, teams, departments, units, or organizations to help achieve business goals.
- Champion of Change: Facilitating the implementation and acceptance of change within the workplace. Cooperates with others to accomplish common goals; works with employees within and across his/her department to achieve shared goals; treats others with dignity and respect and maintains a friendly demeanor; values the contributions of others.
- Decision Making: Identifying and understanding issues, problems, and opportunities; comparing data from different sources to draw conclusions; using effective approaches for choosing a course of action or developing appropriate solutions; taking action that is consistent with available facts, constraints, and probable consequences.
- Informing and Communicating: Clearly conveying information and ideas through a variety of media to individuals or groups in a manner that engages the audience and helps them understand and retain the message.
- Managing Conflict: Dealing effectively with others in an antagonistic situation; using appropriate interpersonal styles and methods to reduce tension or conflict between two or more people. Addresses conflicts by focusing on the issues at hand to develop effective solutions when disputes or disagreements occur; helps others resolve conflicts by providing impartial mediation when needed.
- Managing Work and Time/Project Management: Effectively managing one’s time and resources to ensure that work is completed efficiently. Effectively manages project(s) by appropriately focusing attention on the critical few priorities; effectively creates and executes against project timelines based on priorities, resource availability, and other project requirements (i.e., budget); effectively evaluates planned approaches, determines feasibility, and makes adjustments when needed.
- Talent Management for Leaders: Clearly establishes and communicates expectations and accountabilities; monitors and evaluates performance; provides effective feedback and coaching; identifies development needs and helps employees address them to achieve optimal performance.
Supervisory or Managerial Responsibility
Supervises 8-15 employees and additional pool employees as needed.
Travel
None
Core Values
- Be available to work as scheduled and report to work on time.
- Be willing to accept supervision and work well with others.
- Be well groomed, appropriately for your role and wear ID Badge visibly.
- Be in compliance with all departmental and institutional policies, the Employee Handbook, Code of Conduct and completes NetLearning by due date annually.
- Promotes a workplace culture based on mutual respect and merit, where all individuals are treated fairly and provided with equal opportunity to contribute to the mission and goals of the institution.
- Adheres to safe working practices and at all times follows all institutional and departmental safety policies and procedures.
- Wears appropriate PPE as outlined by the infection control policies and procedures.
- Demonstrates compliance with all state, federal and all other regulatory agency requirements.
Minimum Qualifications
- Education: Bachelor’s degree required, scientific degree preferred.
- Work Experience: 2 years of Pre-Analytical, Laboratory experience, or comparable experience preferred. Supervisory or leadership experience preferred. One year of supervising direct reports required.
- Special Training, Certification or Licensure: None
Salary Range: $58,656.00 - $77,572.56
Benefits
At National Jewish Health, we recognize that our outstanding faculty and staff are the essence of our organization. For every aspect of health care, our employees are our greatest asset. With that in mind, we have designed a valuable, comprehensive benefits package to meet the needs of our employees and their families.
- Comprehensive Medical Coverage: Multiple Cigna health plans for Colorado, regional office and remote employees. Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) available to pair with some plans.
- Paid Time Off: Generous PTO accruals to use for vacation and sick days, and six paid holidays, all compliant with Colorado state sick leave regulations.
- Dental & Vision Plans: Coverage effective the first of the month after hire.
- Retirement Savings: 403(b) plan with employer contributions after two years.
- Wellness Incentives: Earn up to $200 annually for preventive health activities.
- Tuition Reimbursement: Up to $5,250 annually for full-time and part-time employees.
- Child Care Assistance: Childcare Flex Spending Account (FSA) with annual employer contribution.
- Loan Forgiveness: Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) eligible employer.
- Disability & Life Insurance: Employer-paid plans and optional buy-up choices.
- Voluntary Benefits: Full suite of coverage options such as Accident, Hospital Indemnity and Legal Plan
- Exclusive Discounts: Savings on local services, insurance, and RTD bus passes.
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