ILONA LEONOVA
Schaumburg,IL
Summary
Director of Operations with 15+ years of healthcare leadership experience overseeing multi-site patient services and clinic operations across regional markets. Proven success leading dispersed teams of 200+ staff and supporting 50+ providers while driving patient experience, operational excellence, and financial performance. Skilled in workforce optimization, KPI improvement, and cross-functional collaboration with executive leadership, commercial teams, and clinical stakeholders. Recognized for building high-performing teams, improving patient access and satisfaction, and executing large-scale operational initiatives that enhance productivity, engagement, and profitability.
Overview
19
19
years of professional experience
Work History
Director of Operations
Weil Foot and Ankle Institute / Balance Health
Mount Prospect, IL
12.2021 - Current
- Direct multi-site Patient Services operations across multiple clinics, leading workforce planning, patient access strategy, and service delivery optimization to improve satisfaction, reduce wait times, and expand encounter capacity.
- Oversee and coordinate daily clinic operations to deliver consistent, efficient, and compliant healthcare services
- Monitor and optimize key operational metrics including staffing utilization, patient access, provider productivity, and service quality indicators.
- Partner with executive leadership, finance, revenue cycle, and commercial stakeholders to align Patient Services strategy with growth initiatives and financial targets.
- Own regional operational performance including staffing productivity, patient throughput, service quality, and cost management, consistently driving KPI improvement and operational efficiency.
- Resolve patient and operational issues by conducting root cause analysis and implementing effective service recovery strategies.
- Lead the development and execution of internal policies, procedures, and quality measures to support organizational goals
- Build and develop a leadership pipeline by hiring, coaching, and mentoring site leads, supervisors, and frontline staff, improving engagement, retention, and team performance.
- Lead patient experience improvement initiatives including communication workflow redesign, service recovery processes, and operational standardization across clinics.
- Led a project to standardize clinic schedules by reviewing physician templates and utilization, achieving a 15% increase in utilization rates and saving over $300k annually in staffing costs
- Implemented a regional restructuring initiative replacing area supervisors with site leads at each clinic, resulting in a $450,000 annual reduction in compensation expenses
- Led the transition from traditional classroom training to video-based training modules for new hires, significantly increasing training efficiency and reducing time-to-productivity
Practice Manager
Elterman Center for Women's and Men's Health
Skokie, IL
10.2006 - 12.2021
- Managed operations for five office locations, including staff recruitment, training, scheduling, and payroll.
- Led provider onboarding, credentialing, and ensured compliance with healthcare regulations.
- Resolved billing disputes and optimized revenue cycle processes to improve financial performance.
- Directed marketing initiatives to increase patient volume and retention.
- Transitioned billing services from outsourced to in-house, serving as direct supervisor of all RCMprocesses
- Led the project to build an in-house pathology lab, managing operations and ensuring full compliance with high complexity CLIA requirements
- Monitored physician productivity and supported clinical integration projects
- Managed budgets, vendor relationships, and ensured high standards of patient satisfaction.
Education
Master of Healthcare Administration -
National-Louis University
Chicago, IL10-2012
Master of Science - Accounting
Ural State Institute of Service
Ufa, Russia06-2002
Bachelor of Business Administration -
Ural State Institute of Service
Ufa, Russia06-2002
Skills
- Multi-site healthcare operations
- Financial performance management
- Operational excellence
- Strategic leadership
- Regulatory compliance
- Team development and mentorship
- Revenue cycle management
- Patient satisfaction and experience
- Performance metrics and KPIs
- Bilingual (English, Russian)
- Excellent interpersonal skills
Languages
Russian
Native or Bilingual
Timeline
Director of Operations
Weil Foot and Ankle Institute / Balance Health
12.2021 - Current
Practice Manager
Elterman Center for Women's and Men's Health
10.2006 - 12.2021
Master of Healthcare Administration -
National-Louis University
Master of Science - Accounting
Ural State Institute of Service
Bachelor of Business Administration -
Ural State Institute of Service