Job Title: Director of Air Medical Services
Work Location: Hope, AR
Division/Department: Air Med
The Director of Air Medical Services provides executive-level leadership, clinical operational oversight, and strategic direction for Pafford Medical Services' air medical division. The Director is responsible for the development, implementation, staffing, operational readiness, and continuous improvement of Pafford's air medical programs, ensuring the delivery of safe, efficient, high-quality critical care transport.
The Director leads and supports multidisciplinary flight teams, including flight paramedics, flight nurses, air medical supervisors, and other clinical personnel. This position works closely with Pafford executive leadership, Medical Directors, aviation partners, hospital and health-system partners, regulatory agencies, and other stakeholders to maintain an integrated and clinically exceptional air medical program.
The Director is responsible for clinical operational readiness, personnel development, quality improvement, safety management, regulatory and accreditation readiness, resource management, and consistent standards across Pafford's air medical operations. The Director works collaboratively with the Medical Director regarding clinical standards and medical oversight and with aviation partners regarding aviation operations while maintaining appropriate separation between clinical responsibilities and aviation operational control.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Leadership and Air Medical Operations
- Provides strategic, administrative, and operational leadership for Pafford Medical Services' air medical division.
- Directs the development, implementation, expansion, and ongoing operation of Pafford air medical bases and programs.
- Leads air medical program start-up and go-live activities, including staffing, credentialing, clinical readiness, medical equipment, aircraft medical configuration, policies and procedures, training, communications, and operational coordination.
- Develops and maintains standardized operational practices across air medical bases to promote consistency, safety, accountability, and clinical excellence.
- Evaluates operational performance, service demand, staffing requirements, resource utilization, and program needs and recommends changes necessary to improve quality, safety, efficiency, and sustainability.
- Provides leadership, mentorship, direction, and performance management for air medical supervisors and clinical personnel.
- Establishes clear performance expectations and promotes accountability, professionalism, teamwork, effective communication, and a culture of continuous improvement throughout the air medical division.
Clinical Operations and Medical Oversight
- Provides operational oversight for adult, pediatric, neonatal, and other specialty critical care transport services within the approved scope and capabilities of the air medical program.
- Collaborates with the Medical Director in the development, implementation, review, and maintenance of clinical protocols, standing orders, clinical guidelines, scope-of-practice requirements, and crew-configuration standards.
- Supports the Medical Director in ensuring clinical personnel demonstrate and maintain competencies appropriate to their scope of practice and assigned air medical responsibilities.
- Ensures air medical personnel maintain required licensure, certifications, flight-specific education, competency validation, recurrent training, and continuing education appropriate to the program's mission and scope of care.
- Ensures appropriate clinical crew configurations based on patient acuity, mission requirements, scope of practice, and applicable regulatory and accreditation standards.
- Promotes evidence-based clinical practice and works collaboratively with the Medical Director and clinical leadership to evaluate opportunities for advancement of the air medical program's clinical capabilities.
Safety Management and Aviation Coordination
- Oversees and actively participates in the air medical program's safety-management activities in collaboration with aviation partners, safety personnel, executive leadership, and other appropriate stakeholders.
- Promotes a safety-focused and just culture that encourages appropriate reporting, identification, review, and resolution of clinical and operational safety concerns.
- Participates in safety reporting, risk identification, event review, trend analysis, corrective action, emergency preparedness, and ongoing evaluation of safety performance.
- Ensures reported clinical and operational safety events are appropriately reviewed, documented, addressed, and monitored for sustained corrective action within the Director's scope of responsibility.
- Coordinates closely with aviation partners to support the safe and effective integration of clinical and aviation operations.
- Maintains clearly defined roles and responsibilities between Pafford's clinical operations and its aviation partners, including appropriate separation of clinical and administrative authority from aviation operational control.
- Recognizes and supports the independent authority and responsibilities of the pilot in command and aviation operator regarding aircraft operation, aviation safety, weather decisions, flight acceptance, and other matters reserved to aviation operational control.
- Works collaboratively with aviation partners and Pafford leadership during aircraft selection, deployment, base openings, aircraft transitions, fleet changes, and program expansion.
- Participates in emergency preparedness, disaster response, and other special operations involving Pafford air medical resources as required
Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement
- Establishes and maintains a comprehensive clinical and operational quality-assurance and performance-improvement program for the air medical division in collaboration with the Medical Director and other appropriate departments.
- Establishes and monitors clinical, operational, safety, and service-performance measures for the air medical division.
- Oversees clinical case review, patient-care documentation review, protocol compliance, clinical outcomes, medication and equipment issues, adverse events, and other quality indicators.
- Identifies trends, opportunities for improvement, and areas of clinical or operational risk and ensures appropriate corrective and preventive actions are developed and implemented.
- Ensures identified deficiencies are appropriately investigated, documented, corrected, and monitored to determine sustained compliance and effectiveness.
- Provides appropriate quality and performance information to the Medical Director, executive leadership, clinical committees, and other stakeholders.
Utilization and Transport Appropriateness
- Monitors air medical utilization and transport patterns to support appropriate use of air medical resources.
- Reviews mission requests, acceptance patterns, cancellations, aborted missions, transports, patient acuity, clinical appropriateness, outcomes, and other utilization indicators in collaboration with the Medical Director and executive leadership.
- Identifies utilization trends and opportunities to improve appropriate deployment and use of air medical resources.
- Works with Medical Directors, referring agencies, hospitals, communications personnel, and other partners to promote appropriate air medical utilization consistent with patient needs, clinical capabilities, and applicable standards.
- Supports development and ongoing evaluation of mission-acceptance and clinical triage guidelines within the appropriate clinical and operational authority structure.
Personnel, Credentialing, and Education
- Directs recruitment, selection, hiring, onboarding, orientation, and ongoing development of flight paramedics, flight nurses, air medical supervisors, and other assigned personnel.
- Partners with Human Resources to develop staffing plans, recruitment strategies, hiring events, and retention initiatives necessary to maintain appropriate air medical staffing.
- Develops staffing models and scheduling practices necessary to maintain appropriate 24-hour operational readiness.
- Ensures flight personnel meet applicable licensing, certification, credentialing, clinical experience, orientation, continuing education, and competency requirements before independent assignment.
- Ensures initial and recurrent education addresses clinical care, flight physiology, aircraft and transport safety, specialty patient populations, equipment, emergency procedures, and other competencies appropriate to assigned responsibilities.
- Maintains systems for tracking required licenses, certifications, credentials, competencies, continuing education, and other personnel requirements.
- Works collaboratively with Human Resources regarding employee relations, performance management, corrective action, and other personnel matters affecting the air medical division.
Regulatory and Accreditation Compliance
- Ensures the air medical program maintains readiness for applicable regulatory, licensing, accreditation, and inspection requirements.
- Maintains working knowledge of applicable state EMS requirements, federal requirements, and recognized air medical accreditation standards, including CAMTS standards as applicable.
- Coordinates with appropriate Pafford departments to ensure required state licenses, certifications, permits, credentials, and other regulatory requirements are maintained for air medical personnel and clinical operations.
- Participates in regulatory, accreditation, safety, and quality reviews and surveys and coordinates appropriate responses to identified findings.
- Develops and implements corrective-action plans when deficiencies are identified and monitors completion and sustained compliance.
- Develops, reviews, and maintains air medical policies and procedures in coordination with the Medical Director, aviation partners, executive leadership, and other appropriate departments.
- Maintains strict compliance with all Pafford policies and procedures and applicable state and federal requirements.
Equipment, Medications, and Clinical Readiness
- Ensures aircraft medical configurations, clinical equipment, medications, controlled substances, supplies, and other medical resources are appropriate for the program's approved mission profile.
- Establishes processes for inspection, inventory, maintenance, replacement, and readiness of medical equipment and supplies.
- Ensures controlled substances are managed, secured, inventoried, documented, and reconciled in accordance with applicable Pafford policies and regulatory requirements.
- Coordinates with clinical, supply, maintenance, aviation, and other departments to ensure medical equipment can be safely integrated with aircraft operations.
- Ensures each air medical base maintains appropriate clinical readiness for its designated scope of service.
Partner and Stakeholder Relations
- Serves as a primary operational liaison between Pafford Medical Services and hospital systems, healthcare partners, Medical Directors, aviation partners, EMS agencies, and other organizations associated with air medical services.
- Develops and maintains strong working relationships with referring and receiving hospitals, healthcare systems, EMS agencies, public-safety organizations, and other partners served by the air medical program.
- Works collaboratively with hospital physicians, nursing leadership, EMS leadership, and other clinical partners to ensure air medical services appropriately support patient-care needs.
- Represents Pafford at air medical implementation meetings, clinical committees, partner meetings, regulatory meetings, community events, and other professional functions.
- Provides regular operational, clinical, staffing, quality, safety, and implementation reports to Pafford executive leadership.
Financial and Resource Management
- Develops and manages air medical budgets, staffing plans, resource allocation, equipment needs, and operational expenditures in coordination with executive leadership and Finance.
- Monitors program utilization, staffing efficiency, overtime, equipment expenditures, supply utilization, and other operational indicators affecting financial performance.
- Participates in strategic planning for new bases, aircraft resources, service expansion, equipment acquisition, and other air medical investments.
- Balances operational and financial stewardship with patient safety, clinical quality, regulatory compliance, and contractual obligations.
Organizational Responsibilities
- Supports and promotes the Pafford EMS culture and serves as a steward of the company brand in all interactions with employees, healthcare partners, aviation partners, patients, EMS agencies, and the public.
- Maintains confidentiality and handles clinical, personnel, operational, and business information appropriately.
- Maintains strict compliance with all Pafford policies and procedures.
- Maintains strict compliance with applicable state and federal laws, regulations, licensing requirements, and accreditation standards.
- Performs other related duties or tasks as assigned.
Requirements
Education and/or Work Experience Requirements
- Bachelor's Degree in Nursing, Emergency Health Sciences, Healthcare Administration, Business Administration, or a related field preferred. Equivalent clinical licensure combined with substantial air medical experience and progressive leadership experience may be considered.
- Current, unrestricted licensure as a Paramedic or Registered Nurse required. Must obtain and maintain licensure or appropriate reciprocity in all states required by Pafford's air medical operations.
- Minimum of five (5) years of air medical and/or critical care transport experience, including significant direct air medical experience, with at least three (3) years of progressively responsible supervisory or leadership experience within an air medical or critical care transport program.
- Prior management or leadership experience within an air medical transport program strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated knowledge of air medical operations, flight crew configuration, clinical quality management, safety principles, personnel credentialing, and air medical program development.
- Demonstrated experience developing, implementing, expanding, or managing an air medical transport service strongly preferred.
- Flight or critical care certification strongly preferred:
- Paramedics: FP-C and/or CCP-C.
- Registered Nurses: CFRN, CCRN, CTRN, or other applicable specialty certification.
- Must possess and maintain BLS, ACLS, and PALS certification.
- NRP and specialty neonatal/pediatric transport education or credentials preferred when applicable to program scope.
- ICS 100, 200, 700, and 800 certification preferred.
- Working knowledge of CAMTS standards and applicable state and federal EMS and air medical requirements preferred.
- Demonstrated understanding of clinical quality assurance, performance improvement, patient safety, risk management, and safety-management principles within an air medical environment.
- Demonstrated ability to work effectively with aviation operators while understanding the distinction between clinical/administrative responsibilities and aviation operational control.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to communicate effectively with executive leadership, Medical Directors, aviation partners, healthcare-system leadership, physicians, nurses, EMS agencies, regulatory representatives, and employees.
- Ability to develop and author policies, clinical and operational procedures, implementation plans, corrective-action plans, reports, presentations, and other professional documents.
- Excellent computer proficiency, including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Experience with ePCR, scheduling, quality-management, safety-reporting, and other healthcare or EMS technology platforms preferred.
- Demonstrated ability to lead multidisciplinary teams, manage complex operations, make sound decisions under pressure, and manage competing priorities while maintaining professionalism and exemplary customer service.
- Ability to travel as necessary to support air medical bases, implementation activities, meetings, training, inspections, and operational needs.
- Must possess and maintain an unrestricted state driver's license.
- Ability to work independently and carry assignments through completion within established policies, procedures, timelines, and organizational expectations.
Physical Requirements
- Ability to safely and successfully perform the essential functions of the position consistent with the ADA, FMLA, and other applicable federal, state, and local standards.
- Ability to maintain regular and punctual attendance consistent with applicable federal, state, and local requirements.
- Must be able to lift and carry up to 100 lbs. and assist, when necessary and consistent with training and physical capability, with patient movement, loading, and handling of air medical equipment.
- Work may require prolonged sitting or standing, walking, bending, stooping, reaching, pushing, pulling, lifting, and other physical activity associated with clinical and air medical operations.
- Must be able to communicate clearly in person, by telephone, through electronic communication systems, and by two-way radio.
- Must possess sufficient visual acuity to review clinical records and operational data, use computer systems, inspect equipment, and safely perform assigned duties in and around air medical operations.
- Must be able to work in and around aircraft and air medical environments, including confined spaces, elevated noise levels, rotor wash, varying temperatures, inclement weather, and other conditions associated with air medical operations.
- Must be able to travel between air medical bases and other Pafford locations and participate in operational activities outside normal business hours when necessary.
- Must be able to function effectively during extended operational periods, emergency situations, program implementations, and other circumstances requiring flexibility in work hours.
NOTE: The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by the person assigned to this job. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, skills and physical demands required of personnel so classified.
