Gabriel Guzman, MSOT, OTR/L

• Provide acute care occupational therapy services within a 520-bed Level I Trauma Center while maintaining involvement in interdisciplinary care coordination and departmental quality initiatives.
• Evaluate and treat patients with trauma, neurological, orthopedic, cardiac, intensive care, and medically complex conditions.
• Collaborate with physicians, nursing, case management, physical therapy, speech therapy, and rehabilitation leadership to support safe discharge planning and patient progression.
• Apply prior leadership experience to support clinical consistency, documentation quality, team collaboration, and department operations.
• Continue developing acute care expertise while pursuing advancement into formal rehabilitation operations leadership.

Provided operational and workforce leadership for a multidisciplinary rehabilitation department consisting of 52 Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Speech-Language Pathology professionals.

Operations and Financial Management

• Directed daily department operations, staff deployment, clinical coverage, productivity monitoring, payroll review, and service delivery.

• Collaborated with the Director of Rehabilitation and Vice President of Operations to execute departmental priorities and support organizational objectives.

• Compiled daily productivity reports, Plus reports, labor utilization data, and staffing projections.

• Used productivity and census information to support staffing decisions, departmental projections, and budget management.

• Reconciled Kronos timekeeping records daily, investigated discrepancies, corrected payroll issues, and submitted payroll.

• Monitored overtime, staffing utilization, attendance patterns, and labor allocation to promote financial accountability.

• Partnered with rehabilitation schedulers throughout the day to optimize therapist assignments based on census, patient acuity, discharge priorities, staffing availability, and productivity expectations.

• Adjusted staffing plans and caseload distribution to balance workload, maintain patient care standards, and support departmental performance goals.

Patient Throughput and Hospital Operations

• Represented Rehabilitation Services during daily Patient Throughput meetings involving physicians, nursing leadership, case management, and hospital administration.

• Participated in interdisciplinary Length of Stay meetings focused on discharge barriers, patient progression, post-acute placement, and delayed rehabilitation evaluations.

• Worked with physicians, nurses, case managers, and therapists to prioritize evaluations needed for discharge planning.

• Supported timely rehabilitation recommendations for skilled nursing, inpatient rehabilitation, home health, outpatient care, and safe discharge home.

• Identified operational barriers affecting evaluation completion, treatment delivery, discharge planning, and patient flow.

• Helped the department consistently achieve productivity, quality, and operational performance goals.

Workforce Leadership and Human Resources

• Interviewed candidates and provided hiring recommendations based on clinical competence, communication skills, teamwork, and department needs.

• Participated in recruitment, onboarding, orientation, and integration of newly hired rehabilitation professionals.

• Conducted annual performance evaluations and provided feedback regarding clinical performance, productivity, teamwork, attendance, communication, and professional development.

• Delivered ongoing coaching to employees regarding performance expectations, documentation, productivity, behavior, communication, and departmental standards.

• Monitored employee attendance and addressed attendance concerns in accordance with hospital policy and collective bargaining requirements.

• Partnered with Human Resources on employee relations concerns, performance improvement plans, progressive discipline, and corrective action.

• Participated in union grievance meetings involving attendance, discipline, performance, and department decisions.

• Participated in union depositions and supported the defense of department decisions through documentation, policy review, and factual testimony.

• Provided leadership input regarding employee termination following progressive disciplinary processes.

• Maintained appropriate documentation involving performance concerns, coaching, attendance, discipline, and employee relations matters.

• Promoted a department culture centered on accountability, professionalism, communication, teamwork, patient care, and continuous improvement.

Quality and Performance Improvement

• Led workflow improvements designed to increase the timely completion of rehabilitation evaluations.

• Improved compliance with rehabilitation evaluations for stroke, neurological, trauma, and medically complex patients.

• Helped reduce missed treatments by strengthening scheduling processes, staff communication, workflow accountability, and follow-up procedures.

• Conducted documentation audits to support regulatory compliance, clinical accuracy, medical necessity, and department standards.

• Provided education and coaching when documentation deficiencies or compliance concerns were identified.

• Supported stroke program requirements involving rehabilitation evaluation timeliness, care coordination, and documentation.

• Collected, analyzed, and reported Total Joint Replacement Program quality measures.

• Tracked Postoperative Day 0 ambulation and identified barriers preventing same-day mobility.

• Collaborated with nursing, physicians, case management, and rehabilitation staff to improve postoperative mobility performance.

• Participated in department and hospital quality improvement initiatives involving patient safety, clinical outcomes, discharge readiness, and operational efficiency.

Employee Engagement and Communication

• Developed and distributed a monthly rehabilitation department newsletter.

• Communicated hospital initiatives, quality updates, employee accomplishments, policy reminders, operational priorities, and department goals.

• Recognized staff contributions, certifications, milestones, and achievements.

• Supported improvement in employee engagement through communication, leadership visibility, recognition, and staff involvement.

• Served as a consistent point of contact for employee questions, operational concerns, staffing challenges, and department communication.

• Directed daily rehabilitation department operations within a post-acute care environment.

• Managed staffing, scheduling, productivity, caseload distribution, documentation, and regulatory compliance.

• Supervised rehabilitation clinicians and supported onboarding, coaching, and performance expectations.

• Collaborated with nursing leadership, physicians, case management, and administration to improve rehabilitation outcomes and discharge planning.

• Monitored therapy utilization, department performance, clinical documentation, and quality measures.

• Supported department productivity while maintaining patient-centered care and regulatory compliance.

• Provided occupational therapy evaluation and treatment for trauma, neurological, orthopedic, intensive care, cardiac, surgical, and medically complex patient populations.

• Collaborated with interdisciplinary teams to establish discharge recommendations and improve patient safety, function, and independence.

• Educated patients and caregivers regarding activities of daily living, mobility, adaptive equipment, energy conservation, cognitive strategies, and home safety.

• Maintained accurate and timely documentation in accordance with hospital, payer, and regulatory requirements.

Provided operational leadership in a high-volume retail environment with responsibility for staffing, employee supervision, hiring, coaching, customer service, inventory, merchandising, financial performance, and daily store operations.

• Supervised employees across multiple departments and shifts.

• Participated in recruiting, interviewing, hiring, onboarding, coaching, and performance management.

• Managed daily staffing assignments, workflow, customer service, merchandising, inventory, and operational priorities.

• Supported payroll control, labor management, sales goals, loss prevention, and financial accountability.

• Addressed employee performance, attendance, customer concerns, and operational issues.

• Developed transferable leadership experience in workforce management, employee relations, operations, customer service, and financial stewardship.