Vice President, Chief Medical Officer - Palisades Medical Center

Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, Palisades Medical Center

Our team members are the heart of what makes us better.

At Hackensack Meridian Health we help our patients live better, healthier lives and we help one another to succeed. With a culture rooted in connection and collaboration, our employees are team members. Here, competitive benefits are just the beginning. It's also about how we support one another and how we show up for our community.

Together, we keep getting better - advancing our mission to transform healthcare and serve as a leader of positive change.

The Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, Palisades Medical Center, is a key part of Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH) leadership, serves as the site's senior physician executive, responsible for clinical leadership, quality improvement, patient safety, and medical staff engagement. This role focuses on high-quality, cost-effective, patient-centered care, and ensuring that HMH's Palisades Medical Center aligns with the network's broader mission of transforming healthcare and making care more accessible and efficient at the local level. The CMO plays a crucial role in enhancing patient outcomes, balancing financial sustainability, operational efficiency, medical excellence and ensuring regulatory compliance, while fostering strong relationships with medical staff, hospital leadership, and the local community. This role requires a hands-on, collaborative leader dedicated to enhancing healthcare access, patient safety, and physician engagement. The CMO will work closely with hospital leadership, medical staff, community stakeholders and HMH executives to improve clinical outcomes, operational performance, and enhance physician alignment while addressing the unique healthcare needs of the local population and ensure that Palisades Medical Center provides high-quality, accessible, and cost-effective healthcare to the surrounding community. The VP, CMO Palisades Medical Center is also responsible to contribute to Network initiatives by participating in and/or leading network projects, and by collaborating with all other HMH sites and services in order to advance HMH's strategic priorities, ensure Network-wide standardization and integration of services in order to ensure that patients consistently receive high quality, safe and person-centered care across the entire HMH Network. The VP, CMO Palisades Medical Center reports directly (Primary) to the Site President / Chief Hospital Executive (CHE) and secondary (dotted) to the EVP, Chief Quality Officer as a delegate of the Network Chief Physician Executive.

Hackensack Meridian Health's Palisades Medical Center is one of 18 hospitals in the Hackensack Meridian Health Network. Located on the Hudson River waterfront in North Bergen, N.J., Hackensack Meridian Health's Palisades Medical Center has and continues to meet the changing healthcare needs of Hudson and Southern Bergen counties, serving a population of more than 450,000. The 197-bed not-for-profit medical center focuses on providing quality expert care in a safe environment. The hospital recently earned an "A" Hospital Safety Grade from the Leapfrog Group's most recent review.

Responsibilities

A day in the life of a Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, Palisades Medical Center at Hackensack Meridian Health includes:

Clinical Leadership & Strategy

• Develop and execute a clinical vision and strategies that aligns with HMH's broader goals to improve patient care and hospital performance and enhances quality, safety, and efficiency within HMH's hospitals.
• Oversee clinical programs, ensuring they meet the needs of the local community and align clinical objectives with evidence-based best practices, financial sustainability and operational goals.
• Foster collaboration between physicians, nurses, operation and hospital leaders, to improve patient flow, care coordination, and service line integration while driving high quality and patient-centered care.
• Support the expansion of key service lines to meet the evolving healthcare needs of the community in alignment with Network strategy.
• Ensure alignment between hospital operations and HMH's overall strategic goals.
• Oversees physician leadership of clinical departments (chairs), medical directors and employed/contracted physicians (e.g. hospitalists).
• Strategic planning for services to the community and community service plan.
• Oversees recruitment of contracted physicians.
• Change Management, enforce team work, accountability and professionalism.
• Acts as a role model for all medical center standards of behavior and managerial competencies.

Quality, Safety, Patient Care and Clinical Excellence

• Lead hospital-wide quality improvement initiatives (in alignment with HMH Network's strategic direction and the site's specific opportunities) to enhance clinical outcomes, establish and monitor quality metrics, patient safety protocols, and performance improvement initiatives.
• Ensure compliance with state and federal healthcare regulations, including CMS, Joint Commission, Leapfrog, and New Jersey Department of Health standards.
• Lead and promote a culture of High Reliability and Patient Safety across the entire hospital in collaboration with clinical and non-clinical departments.
• Lead and oversee implementation of best practices in patient safety, infection prevention, and care standardization to reduce hospital-acquired infections, readmission rates, and medical errors.
• Improve patient satisfaction and engagement through enhanced communication and service delivery.
• Drive value-based care initiatives, improving efficiency while maintaining the highest clinical standards. plement and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) for patient outcomes, operational efficiency, and hospital rankings.
• Monitor quality metrics, patient experience scores, and clinical efficiency, identifying opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Oversee peer review programs, patient safety initiatives, and performance improvement efforts.
• Promote evidence-based medicine and best practices in patient care.
• Work closely with department heads to improve clinical workflows and treatment protocols.
• Address patient complaints and ensure the highest level of patient experience.
• Directs functions of the medical staff office and all medical support services (utilization review, discharge planning, social services, and case management).
• Leads clinical transformation efforts including process improvement, elimination of waste, clinical redesign, care transitions, and evidence-based clinical protocols.
• Responsible for integration and coordination of clinical practice across all service line as well as the development and deployment of process improvement methods designed to enhance and improve clinical quality and patient experience while reducing healthcare costs.

Medical Staff Management & Physician Engagement

• Serve as the primary liaison between hospital administration and the medical staff, ensuring open communication, transparency, engagement and collaboration.
• Supports the organized medical staff in governance, leadership, medical education and quality improvement activities.
• Develops and maintains written policies, procedures and bylaws that govern medical staff operations. Assures compliance with federal, state, and local standards, guidelines and regulations.
• Address physician concerns, enhance collaboration, and foster a positive medical staff culture.
• Facilitates professional and leadership development concerning medical staff governance.
• Oversee and support the Medical Staff in credentialing, peer review processes (including OPPE and FPPE),delineation of clinical privileges, performance improvement and continuing medical education (CME) programs ensuring high-quality care delivery.
• Partners with the Physician Enterprise on Employed Physician recruitment and contracts (initial and renewals).
• Partners with the Physician Enterprise and the Medical Staff on recruitment and retention of chairs section chiefs and program directors.
• Foster a collaborative environment between physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals.
• Lead initiatives to enhance physician engagement, reduce burnout, and improve job satisfaction.
• Collaborates with the President of the Physician Enterprise and other hospital leaders to recruit and strengthen the medical staff.
• Fosters a culture of professionalism and engagement, and leads efforts to attain the highest physician satisfaction scores.
• Develops and maintains written policies and procedures that govern medical staff operations.
• Evaluates and recommends medical directors physician salaries and medical staff positions stipends.
• Supports and advises the medical staff in governance, leadership, medical education and quality improvement activities.
• Works in Adjudicates and responds to issues of conflicts of interest applicable to physicians; collaborates with the Director of Medical Affairs and applicable HMH resources on same.
• Addresses disruptive physician behavior, physician performance and productivity.
• Facilitates professional and leadership development concerning medical staff governance; collaborates with Medical Affairs on same.
• Supports and advises the medical staff in credentialing, peer review (including OPPE and FPPS), medical staff citizenship and delineation of clinical privileges. Collaborates with Medical Affairs on the same.
• Directs functions of the medical staff office and all medical support services (utilization review, discharge planning, social services, and case management).
• Work closely with the medical staff leadership to advise on issues related to credentials, policy and procedures, governance (bylaws and departmental rules and regulations), professional behavior and medical staff management. Assist Chief of Staff, Chairman of Credentials Committee, and clinical department chairpersons in the oversight of medical staff credentialing and re-credential

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