What does a unit director do?
A unit director is a management professional who is responsible for directing and managing a group of medical professionals in an organization. This director must manage the daily clinical and administrative duties for those professionals involved in the mental health hospitalization programs. The director must assist in recruiting healthcare professionals to maximize the branch and margin profits of the medical establishment. This director should also attend meetings with the OCFS program to discuss the performance and outcome measures of the program.
Unit director responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real unit director resumes:
- Prepare and manage payroll and purchasing, which include balancing of accounts within budgetary limits; establish daily interaction with clients.
- Manage operational organizing of stock and equipment, order supplies and oversee building maintenance, cleanliness and security.
- Provide case management services to residents in the Alzheimer's unit.
- Migrate all operations to a new ERP and retail system with a successful implementation.
- Develop and implement a program which assure quality of life for mid- stage Alzheimer's residents.
- Oversee labor, as well as, payroll, purchases, complete work orders, and operating supplies.
- Include oversight of home accessibility adaptation projects.
- Monitor cleanliness and appropriate staff to resident interactions.
- Consolidate operations to reduce operating and logistics costs.
- Provide administrative oversight of charitable care medication program and purchasing of hospital days with other providers.
- Provide direction and supervision of nursing functions and activities of medical/surgical, telemetry, and pediatric patients.
- Supervise and administer unit that attempt to stabilize patients discharge from psychiatric hospitals before they are released to the community
- Participate in preparation and successful rehabilitation specialty certification initiative.
- Develop training documents and PowerPoint presentations that support call center operations.
- Participate in preparation and successful rehabilitation specialty certification initiative.
Unit director skills and personality traits
We calculated that 23% of Unit Directors are proficient in Patients, Patient Care, and Customer Service. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Detail oriented, and Interpersonal skills.
We break down the percentage of Unit Directors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 23%
Supervised and administered unit that attempted to stabilize patients discharged from psychiatric hospitals before they were released to the community
- Patient Care, 21%
Prepared quarterly reports regarding nursing documentation of patient care requirements to ensure completion and effectiveness.
- Customer Service, 14%
Provide a cost effective customer service support program; establishing business objectives for each functional department and provides supervision and coaching.
- Cleanliness, 7%
Managed operational organizing of stock and equipment, ordered supplies and oversaw building maintenance, cleanliness and security.
- Staff Development, 6%
Hire staff members and provide/coordinate training and staff development for all personnel within club site.
- Customer Satisfaction, 5%
Spearheaded performance improvement meetings with staff to monitor progress and resolution of customer issues and to ensure customer satisfaction.
Common skills that a unit director uses to do their job include "patients," "patient care," and "customer service." You can find details on the most important unit director responsibilities below.
Analytical skills. One of the key soft skills for a unit director to have is analytical skills. You can see how this relates to what unit directors do because "medical and health services managers review and evaluate healthcare metrics for ways to improve efficiency and meet goals." Additionally, a unit director resume shows how unit directors use analytical skills: "worked in conjunction with new account/rfp request survey team, utilizing food cost analysis/quality. "
Detail oriented. Another essential skill to perform unit director duties is detail oriented. Unit directors responsibilities require that "medical and health services managers must pay attention to detail." Unit directors also use detail oriented in their role according to a real resume snippet: "maintained detailed records regarding the health and welfare of all patients. "
Technical skills. unit director responsibilities often require "technical skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "medical and health services managers must stay up to date with advances in healthcare technology, such as the coding and electronic health record (ehr) systems their facility adopts." This resume example shows what unit directors do with technical skills on a typical day: "perform technical and patient care duties as appropriate . "
Communication skills. A commonly-found skill in unit director job descriptions, "communication skills" is essential to what unit directors do. Unit director responsibilities rely on this skill because "medical and health services managers must convey information to their staff, other healthcare workers, and, sometimes, patients and insurance agents." You can also see how unit director duties rely on communication skills in this resume example: "develop a outpatient dialysis form to assure communication of patient care. "
Leadership skills. Lastly, "leadership skills" is an important element of what a unit director does. Unit director responsibilities require this skill because "medical and health services managers hire, train, and direct staff." This resume example highlights how unit director duties rely on this skill: "provided direct patient care and clinical expertise/resource/leadership. "
The three companies that hire the most unit directors are:
- Compass Group USA61 unit directors jobs
- Cornerstone37 unit directors jobs
- UPMC26 unit directors jobs
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Compare different unit directors
Unit director vs. Director of professional services
A director of professional services is responsible for evaluating and improving the professional services offered by the firm. Directors of professional services assess the operational processes and systems to ensure high-quality outputs and deliverables. They review contracts for project requirements and specifications and design strategic techniques to achieve goals and objectives within the budget limitations and agreed timetables. A director of professional services must have excellent communication and leadership skills, especially in directing the project team for project solutions.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a unit director are more likely to require skills like "customer service," "cleanliness," "direct supervision," and "facilitates achievement." On the other hand, a job as a director of professional services requires skills like "healthcare," "client facing," "software development," and "business development." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Directors of professional services tend to make the most money working in the technology industry, where they earn an average salary of $143,973. In contrast, unit directors make the biggest average salary, $76,469, in the manufacturing industry.The education levels that directors of professional services earn slightly differ from unit directors. In particular, directors of professional services are 2.3% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a unit director. Additionally, they're 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Unit director vs. Director of clinical operations
A director of clinical operations is responsible for monitoring the overall operations of a clinic facility, ensuring the efficiency of staff performance in providing the best quality care services for the patients. Directors of clinical operations enforce safety guidelines and security procedures during operations for everyone's strict compliance to prevent hazards and unforeseen circumstances within the premises. They also assist in clinical trials, as well as reviewing medical procedures, recommending strategic plans to improve medical approaches. A director of clinical operations handles the clinic budget, allocates adequate resources for every department's needs, and tracks medical inventory reports.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, unit director responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "cleanliness," "customer satisfaction," "oversight," and "direct supervision." Meanwhile, a director of clinical operations has duties that require skills in areas such as "clinical operations," "healthcare," "gcp," and "project management." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Directors of clinical operations may earn a higher salary than unit directors, but directors of clinical operations earn the most pay in the pharmaceutical industry with an average salary of $139,321. On the other hand, unit directors receive higher pay in the manufacturing industry, where they earn an average salary of $76,469.directors of clinical operations earn higher levels of education than unit directors in general. They're 7.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Unit director vs. Director of staff development
Directors of Staff Development schedule and publicize staff development activities as per the established guidelines to promote professional development. They perform personnel functions to achieve budget objectives, enhance personnel productivity, and maintain adequate staffing. Furthermore, these professionals research crucial information to develop new programs matching staff training needs. Also, Directors of Staff Development monitor professional development services to achieve performance results as per the department and budget objectives. They develop plans and programs for the effective utilization of company resources.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, unit directors are more likely to have skills like "patient care," "customer service," "cleanliness," and "staff development." But a director of staff development is more likely to have skills like "cpr," "home health," "resident care," and "in-service training."
Directors of staff development earn the best pay in the health care industry, where they command an average salary of $80,467. Unit directors earn the highest pay from the manufacturing industry, with an average salary of $76,469.directors of staff development typically earn similar educational levels compared to unit directors. Specifically, they're 2.7% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.6% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Unit director vs. Director, network operations
As a network operations director, you will be responsible for overseeing the availability and overall performance of a company's network. You will perform varied tasks that include analyzing the network and recommending changes or upgrades, ensuring compliance to best practices, promoting continuous information operations, and overseeing other technical resources. A network operations director is expected to provide expertise in networking and operating system and project management. You are responsible for managing all vendor-related support contracts for software, hardware, and connectivity.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between unit directors and directors, network operations, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a unit director might have more use for skills like "patients," "patient care," "cleanliness," and "staff development." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of directors, network operations require skills like "network management," "network development," "san," and "ipa. "
The hospitality industry tends to pay the highest salaries for directors, network operations, with average annual pay of $150,612. Comparatively, the highest unit director annual salary comes from the manufacturing industry.In general, directors, network operations hold higher degree levels compared to unit directors. Directors, network operations are 6.6% more likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.0% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of unit director
Updated January 8, 2025
