Job Description

Join Elica’s mission and become a part of a team where every day is an opportunity to make a positive impact in your community!

At Elica Health Centers, we share a common goal: provide the best possible patient care to our growing community! Our passion extends throughout Elica, from the exceptional healthcare services we provide to our underserved patients at our Community Health Clinics and state-of-the-art mobile medicine program: Health on Wheels, to our Resource Center where we empower patients and members of the community to connect with resources to help them build healthy and full lives.

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

The Dental Project Director is responsible for leading operational projects and initiatives designed to improve dental access, schedule utilization, patient volume, and overall operational efficiency across Elica Health Centers’ dental program.

A primary focus of this position is ensuring that dental provider and hygienist schedules are consistently and effectively utilized. The Dental Project Director will analyze scheduling patterns, identify unused capacity and barriers to appointment access, and work closely with Dental Operations, clinic management, the Call Center, Outreach, and other departments to develop and implement strategies that increase completed dental visits.

This position requires a highly proactive, data-driven individual who can identify operational gaps, develop practical solutions, coordinate implementation across multiple teams, and monitor results.

BENEFITS:

Elica Health Centers offers a competitive, comprehensive benefits package designed to support your health, financial well-being, and work-life balance. Highlights include:

• Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance – Choice of PPO medical plans through Anthem Blue Cross, including a Premier PPO option with $0 in-network out-of-pocket costs, plus dental and vision coverage. Health Plans include care navigation and provider support resources to help with finding care, understanding benefits, and billing questions.Coverage options are available for individual and family tiers.
• Retirement – 403(b) plan with up to 4% employer match and immediate vesting
• Paid Time Off – Up to 3 weeks of vacation in the first year, plus 7 paid holidays and 1 floating holiday
• Ancillary & Voluntary Benefits – Employer-paid life insurance, Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Flexible Spending Accounts (Health Care & Dependent Care), and optional supplemental benefits

Eligibility: Benefits are available to employees working 30+ hours per week, effective the first of the month following 30 days of employment.

Compensation Disclosure: $110,000 - $126,500

The compensation range listed reflects Elica’s good-faith estimate of the anticipated hiring range for this position in accordance with California pay transparency requirements. Final compensation will be determined based on job-related factors, including relevant experience, education, certifications, skills, and qualification.

Requirements

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

The successful candidate will be willing and able to:

Dental Schedule Optimization

• Monitor dental provider and hygienist schedules across all Elica dental locations to identify open appointments, unused capacity, scheduling gaps, and opportunities to increase patient access.
• Develop and implement strategies to maximize schedule utilization and completed dental visits.
• Establish processes for proactively filling cancellations and unexpected schedule openings.
• Monitor same-day and near-term availability and coordinate efforts to fill open appointments.
• Analyze scheduling patterns by provider, location, appointment type, day of the week, and other relevant factors.
• Identify recurring causes of underutilized schedules and develop corrective action plans.
• Review scheduling templates and appointment types to ensure available clinical capacity is being used appropriately.
• Work with operational leaders to identify opportunities to improve scheduling workflows and reduce unnecessary scheduling restrictions.

Patient Access and Outreach

• Develop strategies to increase dental appointment volume and connect patients with available dental services.
• Coordinate targeted outreach to patients who are due or overdue for dental services.
• Identify opportunities to engage existing Elica medical patients who may benefit from dental services.
• Partner with the Call Center, Outreach, Community Services, and clinic teams to promote available dental appointments.
• Develop processes for maintaining and utilizing waitlists or other patient lists to quickly fill cancellations.
• Support initiatives designed to improve continuity of dental care and completion of treatment plans.

No-Show and Cancellation Reduction

• Monitor dental no-show, cancellation, and rescheduling trends.
• Identify the primary operational and patient-related causes of missed appointments.
• Develop and test interventions designed to reduce no-shows and late cancellations.
• Evaluate appointment confirmation, reminder, and patient communication processes.
• Develop strategies to rapidly backfill appointments when cancellations occur.
• Track the effectiveness of interventions and adjust strategies based on results.

Project Management

• Lead dental operational improvement projects from identification of an opportunity through implementation and evaluation.
• Develop project plans, timelines, responsibilities, performance measures, and expected outcomes.
• Identify barriers to project implementation and escalate issues when necessary.
• Pilot new workflows when appropriate, evaluate results, and recommend broader implementation when successful.
• Work closely with the Chief Dental Officer, Dental Operations leadership, clinic managers, dental providers, hygienists, and support staff.
• Partner with the Call Center to ensure scheduling practices support maximum utilization of available dental capacity.
• Collaborate with Outreach and Community Services to increase awareness and utilization of dental services.
• Provide leadership with regular updates regarding dental access, utilization, challenges, and improvement opportunities.

External Referral Oversight and Audit

• Conduct ongoing, detailed audits of all external dental referrals to ensure referrals are appropriate and medically necessary.
• Review the reasons patients are referred outside Elica and identify services that could potentially be provided internally.
• Identify referral patterns by provider, location, procedure/service type, and external organization.

Key Performance Indicators

Success in this position will be measured primarily through demonstrated improvement in:

• Dental schedule fill rate and utilization
• Completed dental visits
• Reduction in unused appointment capacity
• Reduction in no-shows and late cancellations
• Effectiveness and speed of cancellation backfilling
• New patient access
• Provider and hygienist productivity
• Patient access to timely dental appointments
• Successful implementation and measurable outcomes of assigned dental projects

Qualifications, Experience and Essential Skills Requirements:

Education and Experience

? Education: Bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Administration, Business Administration, Public

Health, Project Management, or a related field required. Equivalent combination of relevant

education and progressively responsible healthcare operations experience may be considered.

? Experience: Minimum three (3) years of progressively responsible experience in healthcare

operations, dental operations, practice management, patient access, project management, or a

related area. Experience managing operational improvement projects and implementing new

workflows. Dental operations or dental practice management experience strongly preferred.

Experience working with Medi-Cal/Denti-Cal patient populations preferred.

? Knowledge of: Dental clinic operations and patient flow, patient appointment scheduling,

schedule optimization, and capacity management, dental provider and hygienist productivity

and schedule utilization, patient access, no-show reduction, cancellation management, and

schedule backfilling strategies, internal and external dental referral processes.

Essential Skills/Abilities:

• Strong analytical and critical-thinking skills with the ability to identify operational trends, gaps, and improvement opportunities.
• Ability to translate data into practical operational solutions and measurable action plans.
• Strong project management, organization, prioritization, and follow-through skills.
• Ability to independently manage multiple projects and priorities simultaneously.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to identify root causes rather than only addressing individual incidents.
• Ability to work effectively across departments and influence operational change without direct supervisory authority.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to communicate effectively with executive leadership, dental providers, managers, and frontline staff.
• Strong attention to detail, particularly when auditing schedules, referrals, workflows, and operational data.
• Ability to develop, implement, monitor, and evaluate new workflows and improvement initiatives.
• Strong proficiency with Microsoft Excel and/or Google Sheets, including the ability to analyze operational data and create reports.
• Ability to work with dashboards, scheduling reports, referral reports, and other healthcare operational data and quickly learn new healthcare technology platforms and reporting tools.

Additional Requirements

? Must have a current and valid California driver’s license and the ability to provide proof of personal auto insurance on the

vehicle driven during working hours.

? Ability to travel between Elica Health Centers locations as operational needs require.

Potential Scheduled Hours

? Full-time position, 40 hours per week.

? Primarily Monday through Friday, with flexibility to adjust schedule based on operational and project needs.

? Occasional early morning, evening, or Saturday availability may be required to observe clinic operations or support specific

projects.

Travel

? Regular local travel between Elica Health Centers dental locations and other organizational sites.

? Approximately 10–25% local travel may be required depending on project needs.

• If selected for an employment opportunity with Elica Health Centers, external hires must provide proof of immunizations (Hepatitis B, MMR, Varicella & Tetanus), tuberculosis clearance, and proof of COVID-19 vaccination status* prior to their scheduled start date. Please be advised that this position is subject to criminal background investigation and drug screen.

Physical Requirements and Work Environment

The work environment is characteristic of normal office conditions. The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit; use hands to handle or lift. The employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; and reach with hands and arms. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 20 pounds. Specific vision abilities

required by this job include close vision, distance vision and ability to adjust focus. The employee must also possess hearing and speech to communicate in person and over the phone. The noise level in the work environment is usually quiet.

The employee may be required to run agency related errands and attend off-site meetings; the employee must be able to operate, maneuver and/or control a motor vehicle. In performing the driving responsibilities, the driver may sit for long periods. This requires intense concentration, particularly in poor driving conditions.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

*Elica Health Centers is a healthcare facility that adheres to the mandates issued by the California Department of Public Health including the recent orders regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. Medical and religious exemptions will be considered.