Medical Director
About The Position
The Medical Director provides clinical, operational, and academic leadership for a high-acuity inpatient behavioral health crisis center. This role oversees psychiatric care delivery, ensures a safe and therapeutic environment, and integrates evidence-based practices into daily operations. In addition, the Medical Director serves as core faculty for psychiatry residents and medical students, with responsibility for clinical supervision, teaching, mentorship, and program development within a community-based academic model. This position blends clinical excellence, systems leadership, and academic engagement, with a focus on serving vulnerable populations and advancing training in crisis psychiatry.
Requirements
- MD or DO degree
- Board Certified in Psychiatry
- Eligible for or holding unrestricted Georgia state medical license
- Minimum 5 years of clinical experience in inpatient psychiatry or crisis settings
- Demonstrated leadership experience
- Experience working with trainees (medical students, residents)
- Clinical expertise in acute psychiatric care
- Systems thinking and operational leadership
- Strong teaching and mentorship skills
- Ability to manage high-acuity, fast-paced environments
- Collaborative, multidisciplinary leadership style
- Commitment to community psychiatry and health equity
Nice To Haves
- Experience in crisis stabilization units or psychiatric emergency services
- Experience in academic medicine and teaching
- Board Certification in Addiction Medicine
- Interest or experience in quality improvement, systems design, or population health
Responsibilities
- Provide direct psychiatric care in a high-acuity crisis stabilization setting
- Lead multidisciplinary treatment teams
- Establish and maintain standards for rapid assessment and triage, crisis stabilization and disposition planning, and medication management, including complex and high-risk cases
- Ensure adherence to evidence-based practices in acute agitation management, suicide risk assessment, and substance use and co-occurring disorders
- Support continuity of care and transitions to outpatient/community services
- Develop and implement clinical protocols to optimize patient flow and throughput, length of stay, and readmission rates
- Lead safety initiatives, including restraint and seclusion reduction strategies and staff training in de-escalation and crisis intervention
- Partner with nursing and administrative leadership on staffing models and acuity management
- Oversee quality improvement (QI) programs and performance metrics
- Ensure compliance with regulatory standards (e.g., DBHDD, CARF)
- Provide direct supervision of psychiatry residents (inpatient/crisis rotations) and medical students
- Deliver formal and informal teaching, including bedside teaching, didactic lectures, and case conferences reviews
- Evaluate learners and provide formative and summative feedback
- Participate in curriculum development for crisis psychiatry and community-based mental health care
- Serve as a mentor for residents pursuing leadership or community psychiatry tracks
- Help build and refine a community-centered crisis psychiatry model
- Collaborate with emergency departments, law enforcement and mobile crisis teams, and outpatient behavioral health providers
- Develop innovative care pathways to reduce psychiatric boarding and improve access
- Participate in grant development, program expansion, or research initiatives (optional but encouraged)
- Supervise and support attending psychiatrists and advanced practice providers
- Participate in recruitment, onboarding, and retention of clinical staff
- Lead or contribute to key committees: Quality & Safety, Utilization Review, Peer Review
- Manage scheduling and ensure adequate clinical coverage
- Collaborate with hospital/system leadership on strategic planning
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
