The Director of Care Management at UC San Diego Health’s Jacobs Medical Center (La Jolla, CA) offers a rare opportunity to step into a highly visible, system‑critical leadership role within one of the nation’s top academic health systems. UC San Diego Health is the region’s only academic health system and a nationally recognized leader in patient care, research, and education, consistently ranked among Vizient’s Top 10 Academic Medical Centers and #1 in San Diego by U.S. News & World Report.
The Director will oversee care management operations at Jacobs Medical Center on the La Jolla campus, a 365-licensed-bed tertiary and quaternary care hospital serving a high-acuity patient population with significant oncology and emergency department volume. This role sits at the center of patient throughput, discharge planning, and value-based performance, and reports to the system CAO, Care Management, with a team of 45 FTEs.
During the first 12–18 months, the Director is expected to make an immediate impact on patient flow, length of stay, and progression to the next level of care in a fast‑paced environment where demand consistently exceeds capacity. Current priorities include addressing emergency department boarding and inpatient access challenges, optimizing observation length of stay (LOS), and sustaining progress on inpatient LOS. The Director will play a central role in length‑of‑stay reviews, partnering with physicians, care managers, social work, utilization management, and executive leaders to identify barriers, escalate issues, and implement real‑time solutions.
Care Management at UC San Diego Health is a mature, highly Lean‑oriented function with a strong culture of standard work, data‑driven decision‑making, and continuous improvement. The Director will have meaningful autonomy to reshape workflows, refine staffing models, and advance care coordination strategies, while working within a unionized workforce. The organization emphasizes disciplined problem‑solving—defining problems with data, measuring performance, analyzing root causes, and implementing sustainable improvements rather than relying on instinct.
The Director will collaborate closely with peers in Social Work, Clinical Documentation Integrity, IT, and Finance, as well as with external post‑acute partners and payors. With stable leadership, low vacancy rates, strong frontline engagement, and robust access to Lean training and analytics resources, this role offers a highly supportive platform for an experienced Care Management leader to drive measurable operational improvement and contribute to the mission of a top-tier academic medical center.
The ideal candidate will be a clinical leader (RN, BSN, or MSN) with experience in an academic medical center and multi-site experience, and a deep understanding of care management operations. Candidates should have at least 8 years of relevant leadership experience, including 5 or more years of care management experience in an acute hospital setting. Certification in Case Management is required within 6 months of hire.
The salary range for this role is $198,000 – $252,000 with a bonus. The final hiring salary is commensurate with experience.
Please direct all applications, nominations, and inquiries to Diane Smith, RN, BSN, April Allen, and Brittany Amaral, the WittKieffer consultants assisting UC San Diego Health with this recruitment, using the WittKieffer Candidate Portal by clicking here. New users should select “Register Here” to create an account before proceeding. After logging in, navigate to “Open Positions,” then locate the role by entering the institution’s name and clicking the search wheel. All candidates must also apply through the UC San Diego Health portal by following this link: UC San Diego Health – Director, Care Management