Chief Clinical Officer

ZUFALL HEALTH CENTER INC•Dover, NJ

13d•$247,000 - $272,700

About The Position

Reporting to the President and Chief Executive Officer, the Chief Clinical Officer (CCO) is Zufall Health’s senior executive responsible for the strategic direction, integration, quality, safety, and effectiveness of clinical care across Medical, Nursing and Clinical Support Services, Dental, Behavioral Health, and Clinical Pharmacy. The CCO establishes enterprise clinical standards, priorities, and accountability while empowering service-line leaders to manage day-to-day clinical practice, workforce, and performance. The role partners closely with the Chief Operating Officer to align clinical capacity, provider deployment, patient access, staffing, and operational infrastructure across sites, and works with Quality leadership to assess outcomes and drive improvement. As a member of the executive leadership team, the CCO advises the CEO and Board on clinical strategy, risks, workforce needs, service development, and the quality and sustainability of patient care. The CCO maintains an active clinical practice alongside executive responsibilities. The description gives two different estimates: approximately 20% of the position, described as eight (16) hours per pay period, and approximately 10% of the position, described as approximately eight hours per pay period. The CCO provides executive oversight of clinical leaders, credentialing and privileging, clinical peer review, professional-practice standards, and clinical policies. The position promotes interdisciplinary care, patient safety, evidence-based practice, regulatory compliance, clinical workforce development, and effective clinical operations. The CCO also represents Zufall in external clinical relationships, supports strategic affiliations and training opportunities, and performs other related duties as assigned by the CEO.

Requirements

MD or DO degree from an accredited medical school and board certification in a primary care specialty appropriate to Zufall’s clinical services.
Successful completion of an accredited residency program appropriate to the services provided by Zufall Health.
Current unrestricted license, or eligibility for licensure, to practice medicine in New Jersey.
Valid DEA and CDS registration, as applicable.
Current BLS certifications.
Significant progressive experience in ambulatory healthcare, including substantial clinical practice and senior leadership responsibility for clinical services, clinical quality, provider performance, and multidisciplinary teams.
Demonstrated experience leading through other clinical leaders in a complex, multi-site healthcare environment.
Enterprise leadership philosophy grounded in collaboration, accountability, and development of other clinical leaders.
Meaningful visibility and credibility in clinical settings through executive rounding, frontline engagement, and direct clinical practice.
Executive judgment and ability to lead in complex, ambiguous, multi-site, and matrixed environments.
Exceptional interpersonal, communication, negotiation, and consensus-building skills, including effective communication with frontline staff, senior leaders, the CEO, and the Board.
Ability to build multidisciplinary teams and partnerships across clinical, operational, workforce, financial, quality, and administrative functions.
Ability to lead organizational change and translate clinical strategy and performance data into sustainable improvement.
Understanding of the contributions of Medical, Nursing and Clinical Support Services, Dental, Behavioral Health, Clinical Pharmacy, Operations, and People Operations to patient care.
Strong knowledge of Federally Qualified Health Centers, community health, safety-net care, and applicable federal healthcare programs.
Working knowledge of healthcare finance, reimbursement, budgeting, productivity, resource allocation, and strategic planning.
Knowledge of federal and New Jersey regulatory, licensure, accreditation, reimbursement, and certification requirements affecting clinical care and FQHC operations.
Ability to establish credibility and confidence with physicians and other clinical professionals while leading across multiple disciplines.
Awareness of and sensitivity to the communities and patient populations served by Zufall Health.
Commitment to the mission and values of Zufall Health and willingness to work as needed to meet executive and clinical responsibilities.
Proficiency with electronic health records, clinical information systems, and standard business technology.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Public Health, Health Care Administration, Business Administration, or a related field.
Experience in a Federally Qualified Health Center, community health center, safety-net healthcare organization, or comparable ambulatory healthcare environment.
Bilingual English/Spanish skills.

Responsibilities

Develop and implement enterprise clinical strategy, priorities, standards, and expectations across clinical disciplines and sites.
Provide executive leadership and oversight to senior leaders responsible for Medical Services, Dental Services, Behavioral Health, Nursing and Clinical Support Services, and Clinical Pharmacy.
Hold senior clinical leaders accountable for clinical practice, workforce, performance, access, and outcomes; delegate individual provider supervision, routine scheduling, and day-to-day clinical management through service-line leadership.
Provide executive clinical oversight of credentialing and privileging standards and processes in partnership with clinical leaders, People Operations, and administrative resources.
Promote collaboration and integration among clinical disciplines and external clinical partners to strengthen care coordination, continuity, and whole-person care.
Maintain an active clinical practice consistent with licensure, credentials, privileges, organizational policies, and standards of practice.
Support senior clinical leaders in addressing significant provider performance, professional conduct, competency, or clinical-practice concerns requiring executive involvement.
Coach and develop senior clinical leaders and support a strong clinical leadership pipeline; partner on workforce planning, recruitment, retention, succession planning, provider performance, and leadership development.
Partner with the COO and senior clinical leaders on enterprise clinical capacity, provider deployment, and staffing; hold service-line leaders accountable for appropriate coverage and provider scheduling.
Hold senior clinical leaders accountable for the quality, safety, effectiveness, accessibility, productivity, and consistency of care in their service lines.
Partner with Quality leadership to review performance data, identify trends and risks, set improvement priorities, and ensure appropriate clinical responses to performance concerns.
Provide executive oversight of clinical peer review and ensure systems exist in each discipline to evaluate professional practice and clinical performance.
Promote continuous improvement, evidence-based practice, transparency, accountability, and patient safety; provide executive leadership in reviewing significant adverse clinical events while preserving the appropriate independence of investigation and risk-management functions.
Collaborate with Quality, Compliance, Safety, Risk Management, People Operations, and Operations leaders to support compliance with applicable requirements, accreditation standards, FQHC requirements, and professional standards.
Serve as a senior clinical resource during regulatory reviews, surveys, significant clinical investigations, emergency response, and other circumstances requiring executive clinical leadership.
Ensure appropriate enterprise clinical policies, standards, protocols, and professional-practice expectations, including those for scope of practice, competency, privileging, peer review, and professional conduct.
Participate in executive leadership and organization-wide strategy, budgeting, resource allocation, organizational development, and decision-making.
Represent the clinical perspective in organizational decisions and promote interdisciplinary collaboration across clinical and operational functions.
Partner with the COO to translate clinical standards and care-delivery requirements into operational processes while distinguishing clinical decision-making from operational execution.
Work with Operations and senior clinical leaders to address mismatches among clinical capacity, patient demand, staffing, space, support staffing, and other resources.
Ensure provider deployment and clinical coverage decisions consider access, continuity, competency, service-line needs, site capacity, support staffing, productivity, and organizational priorities.
Support increasingly coordinated and centralized provider scheduling and capacity management as systems and infrastructure evolve.
Collaborate with Nursing and Clinical Support Services leadership to ensure support models, competencies, workflows, and staffing effectively support providers and patient care.
Identify organizational barriers to effective clinical care and work across departments to develop sustainable solutions.
Provide executive clinical leadership on standards of care, clinical competency, scope of practice, and significant patient-safety concerns.
Ensure appropriate clinical leadership participation in committees and governance structures related to quality, patient safety, pharmacy, infection prevention, clinical practice, and related matters.
Advise the CEO and executive leadership on clinical strategy, workforce needs, emerging care models, regulatory developments, and opportunities to improve or expand clinical services.
Provide clinical information, recommendations, and reports to the CEO and Board as appropriate.
Provide appropriate clinical leadership and oversight for Zufall’s participation in the 340B Drug Pricing Program in collaboration with operational, financial, compliance, and pharmacy leadership.
Evaluate clinical implications of proposed programs, partnerships, locations, technologies, and service expansions, and participate in strategic planning.
Represent Zufall on clinical matters with hospitals, health systems, academic institutions, professional organizations, community partners, government agencies, and other stakeholders.
Support strategic clinical affiliations, referral relationships, academic partnerships, residency and training opportunities, and other relationships that strengthen clinical programs and workforce.
Serve as an executive clinical spokesperson when appropriate and support community and professional initiatives aligned with Zufall’s mission and clinical strategy.
Perform other related duties as assigned by the Chief Executive Officer.