Physician - Service Chief/Geriatrics and Extended Care

Veterans Health Administration • Queens, NY

6d • Onsite

About The Position

The New York Harbor VA Medical Center, St. Albans Campus, is recruiting a full-time Service Chief for Geriatrics and Extended Care (CLC). The Service Chief is accountable to the Executive Chief of Staff for organizing and delivering intermediate inpatient and outpatient medical care at the Extended Care Center and its outpatient clinics. The position directs educational and performance-improvement activities at St. Albans and integrates care delivery with the facility’s mission, vision, and strategic plans.

The role oversees CLC inpatient and outpatient services, develops and maintains policies and procedures, coordinates care within and outside the CLC, and represents clinical administration and patient-care quality interests. It also provides primary care to an assigned outpatient panel and ensures comprehensive, coordinated long-term care for geriatric Veterans.

The Service Chief leads interdisciplinary education, staff competency and continuing education activities, resident and student supervision, and evaluation of teaching programs. The position encourages research related to diagnosis, treatment, and functional capacity. The position may be eligible for a sign-on bonus for highly qualified candidates.

Requirements

• Doctor of Medicine or an equivalent degree in allopathic or osteopathic medicine from an appropriately approved medical school.
• Current, full, and unrestricted license to practice medicine or surgery in a U.S. state, territory, commonwealth, or the District of Columbia.
• Completion of qualifying residency training in an accredited core specialty program leading to board-certification eligibility, or an applicable alternative training and independent-practice pathway described in the announcement.
• Proficiency in written and spoken English.
• U.S. citizenship, except that non-citizens may be appointed when qualified U.S. citizens cannot be recruited in accordance with VA policy.
• Meet applicable pre-employment requirements, including urinalysis for applicants selected for testing-designated positions, background/security investigation, and pre-employment physical evaluation.
• Participation in the VA seasonal influenza vaccination program.

Nice To Haves

• Board certification or board eligibility in Internal Medicine.
• Experience, training, or proficiency in Geriatrics, long-term care, or Palliative Care.

Responsibilities

• Ensure extended care services align with the facility’s mission, vision, and strategic plan, and provide input to strategic planning as requested.
• Integrate medical care with services and programs within and outside the CLC; develop and implement policies and procedures to coordinate care.
• Direct and supervise CLC inpatient and outpatient services.
• Ensure CLC policies are implemented, maintained, and updated as necessary.
• Attend and contribute, as appropriate, to the Director’s Staff Conference, Executive Leadership Committee, Strategic Planning Committee, Clinical Executive Board, Professional Standards and Credentialing Board, and GEC/CLC Performance Improvement Leadership Teams.
• Assess needs for, develop, implement, and evaluate the GEC performance-improvement plan.
• Represent the Executive Chief of Staff and Chief of Medical Service as the physician responsible for clinical administration and quality of care in the nursing-home units and outpatient clinics.
• Develop policies, standard operating procedures, and guidelines in cooperation with the Chief of Medical Service and the inpatient Geriatric Consultation Service at the Brooklyn Campus.
• Promote customer-service standards across the St. Albans Campus, including complaint resolution and service recovery.
• Ensure comprehensive, coordinated, timely, high-quality long-term health care for geriatric Veterans at St. Albans.
• Provide primary care to an assigned patient panel at the St. Albans outpatient clinic.
• Assign physician coverage for nursing-home units, designate alternates as needed, and maintain policies and procedures that support appropriate intermediate-bed utilization.
• Promote effective communication and working relationships between St. Albans units and VA New York Harbor’s medical-school and allied-health affiliates.
• Inform patients and their families or significant others of significant findings, diagnoses, and prognoses; collaborate on treatment, continuity-of-care, and end-of-life plans; participate in interdisciplinary patient education and documentation.
• Serve as Director of the Interdisciplinary Long Term Care Conference.
• Ensure ongoing competency assessment, service-level orientation, in-service training, and continuing education for St. Albans provider staff, with participation and evaluation documented.
• Maintain a clinical environment suitable for high-quality geriatric education and training for students in health professions.
• Be responsible for resident education at St. Albans and ensure appropriate supervision of house staff and students.
• Evaluate teaching programs for effectiveness in meeting program goals and patient-care needs.
• Encourage research that advances understanding of distinctive aspects of disease diagnosis and treatment and functional capacity.

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Annual performance bonus
• Regular salary increases
• Traditional federal pension, with five-year vesting
• Federal 401(k), with up to 5% in contributions by VA
• Federal health, vision, dental, term life, and long-term-care insurance; many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement
• Potential sign-on bonus for highly qualified candidates

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree