Chief Clinical Officer

The Chief Clinical Officer (CCO) VCU Health System serves as the senior executive leader responsible for leading the organizations clinical strategy, overseeing advancement of clinical excellence, patient safety, and quality of care. This role integrates clinical operations with the institution’s academic mission, ensuring alignment between patient care, education, and research. The CCO partners with executive leadership, faculty, and clinical staff to foster innovation, evidence‐based practice, and continuous improvement in clinical outcomes.

Essential Job Statements: Provides strategic oversight of all clinical services, ensuring delivery of high‐quality, patient‐centered care. Sets the clinical vision, develops new programs and aligns clinical operations with organizational goals. Leads system‐wide initiatives to improve patient safety, clinical effectiveness including standardization of clinical care across the entire enterprise, and regulatory compliance. Establishes metrics and accountability structures for continuous improvement. Collaborates with deans, department chairs, and faculty to champion the tripartite mission aligning clinical operations with teaching and research. Promotes scholarly activities to advance innovations in quality improvement and patient care. Partners with Senior Leadership to optimize clinical workflows, resource utilization, and financial stewardship. Builds strong relationships with Nursing, Allied Health, and Administrative Leadership to promote integrated patient care delivery. Champions adoption of new technologies and evidence‐based practices to enhance patient outcomes and system efficiency. Ensures compliance with accreditation standards (e.g., Joint Commission), federal and state regulations (e.g., HIPAA, CMS), and professional guidelines.

Employment Qualifications

Education Required: Medical degree (MD, DO, or equivalent) with board certification in a medical or surgical specialty.

Education Preferred: Clinical leadership training. MHA, MPH, MSHA, MBA or a related graduate degree.

Licensure Required: Current license to practice medicine in the Commonwealth or Virginia (MD or DO).

Minimum Qualifications: Years and Type of Experience Required – 12 years of progressive leadership experience in an academic health system or large integrated healthcare organization.

Preferred – 15 years of related leadership experience to include executive level experience in an academic health system or large integrated healthcare organization.

Other Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Required

Demonstrated success in clinical operations, quality improvement, and patient safety initiatives. Strong record of collaboration with academic leaders and experience supporting medical education and research. Exceptional communication, strategic thinking, and change management skills. Strong business skills, including executive presentation skills and healthcare financial acumen. Academic group practice prior experience as a practicing clinician. Working knowledge of population health strategies. Expertise in funds flow design and execution. Prior experience leading teams to improve processes. Familiarity with performance improvement processes and change management concepts. Experience in implementing standardization of clinical practice. Excellent communication skills with the ability to interface with all levels and departments effectively on a formal, informal, written, and verbal basis.

Other Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Preferred

Academic medical center experience. Strong metrics and analytics experience.

Working Conditions

Periods of high stress and fluctuating workloads may occur. General office environment. Required to car travel to off‑site locations, occasionally in adverse weather conditions.

Physical Requirements

Physical Demands: Lifting/Carrying (0-50 lbs.), Push/Pull (0-50 lbs.), Stoop, Kneel, Squat, Balance, Bending. Work Position: Sitting, Walking, Standing.

Additional Physical Requirements/Hazards: Manual dexterity (eye/hand coordination), Hear alarms/telephone/tape recorder, Repetitive arm/hand movements.

Hazards: Mental/Sensory – Emotional. Mental / Sensory: Strong Recall, Reasoning, Problem Solving, Hearing, Speak Clearly, Write Legibly, Reading, Logical Thinking. Emotional: Fast‑paced environment, Able to Handle Multiple Priorities, Able to Adapt to Frequent Change.

Salary range: $726,000 - $1,088,000. Actual salary offers will be based on several key factors, including relevant work experience, credentials, and qualifications.

EEO Employer/Disabled/Protected Veteran

Who We Are – Inventing better care, day by day by discovery. Sound outrageous? It absolutely is. Sound impossible? That’s never stopped us before. Sound like hard work, intense research, collaboration with experts around the world, sheer brainpower meets unrelenting willpower? That’s. Exactly. Right. We’ll do whatever it takes to offer the best in care and empower the best in quality of life. And it’s an approach that works – whether it’s a patient who undergoes a new, life‐saving procedure or a clinical researcher who finds promise in a new cancer treatment, exciting new medicine is happening at VCU Health.

We have it all:

• One college and four health sciences schools
• An academic medical center
• A Level I trauma center
• One of only two NCI‑designated cancer centers in Virginia
• The region’s only full‑service children’s hospital
• More than 800 physicians in 200 specialties
• With a community health center, dedicated research teams, facilities and valued partners in every field

Our medical teams are top notch. And we’re not too shy to boast of internationally known physicians, some recognized as the best in the country, top‑ranked local specialists and all‑around all‑stars at every level. From our very first years to our most recent advancements, we are driven to learn more, dig deeper, teach passionately and never rest in order to be a true leader in discovering what’s possible in health and recovery. We are a comprehensive system of care and a pioneer of health. Read VCU Health Year In Review for more about our accomplishments.