Internal Medicine Physician

Harvard University Health Services Primary Care Physician

Provides comprehensive primary health care to the University's student, faculty/staff and retiree populations. Responsible for ambulatory medicine and on call coverage. Participates in a team with physicians, nurse practitioners and nurses to provide high quality and compassionate care and provides periodic health educational outreach. May participate in teaching residents and medical students and may practice travel medicine.

Job-Specific Responsibilities:

• Demonstrates cultural sensitivity and empathy for all patients of Harvard's diverse patient population.
• PCP will have outpatient responsibilities for acute, chronic, and preventive care as a practicing physician.
• Oversees the care of a panel of primary care patients, attending to patient needs both in the office and between visits, by reviewing care received outside HUHS, laboratory data, secure messages from HUHS care providers and from the patients themselves, and ordering tests as needed to ensure maintenance of health and appropriate management of chronic medical conditions.
• Coordinate the primary care provided to adult members of our diverse community at HUHS, including all undergraduate and graduate/professional Harvard-affiliated students, regardless of the duration of academic studies, as well as faculty, staff, retirees, and dependents. PCPs directly manage general medical problems of an acute and chronic nature, and place special emphasis on preventive health and education.
• Perform complete physical exams at a frequency appropriate to age and gender and order appropriate laboratory, x-ray, and other diagnostic and medical procedures to meet short-term health care needs, maintain health, and prevent disease.
• Plans, directs and coordinates the acute medical care, treatment of chronic disease, and health promotion of all adult HUHS patients.
• Manages the appropriate referral of patients to other health care providers for specialized needs. All referrals are made balancing patient needs and HUHS guidance for most cost-effective providers of care.
• Educates patients based on age, gender, psychosocial and cultural context, and overall health of the patient on illness or its complications, and on ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
• Advises the patient with an illness on the most clinically appropriate and cost-effective therapy, weighing and discussing the potential risks and benefits of treatment. HUHS embraces the principle of patient-centered care and shared decision making.
• Works closely with other members of their primary care team (nurse practitioner, team nurse, and health assistants). Serves as a consultant for team nurse practitioners
• Works closely with members of the care coordination team, referrals coordinators, and urgent care providers to ensure seamless handoffs to care by other providers, both inside and outside of HUHS.
• Reports safety events to Safety Reporting Team to ensure a culture of safety at HUHS.
• Participates in HUHS continuous improvement efforts by knowing and understanding HUHS strategic goals, and by participating in team huddles and projects to reach these goals.
• Understands and complies with HUHS public health initiatives.
• Participates in on-call schedule. On-call responsibilities include answering calls directed by CareNet, HUPD, the administrator on call, or from patients to MD on call.
• Participates in Continuing Medical Education activities to further medical knowledge and spreads knowledge as needed to other team members.
• Participates on HUHS committees as assigned by Chief of Medicine.
• Fosters positive working relationships and coordinates activities with other HUHS service areas.
• Complies with HUHS professional staff by-laws, policies and procedures and applicable local, state and federal accreditation regulations.
• Serves on a Smith Campus Center and/or Satellite clinic primary care team to successfully achieve Department goals in the management of the delivery system, problem-solving, and long-range planning.
• Responsible for ensuring that all lab results that he/she ordered are reported to patients in a timely fashion, with clinically important abnormal results communicated by telephone or the timeliest means, and most other laboratory results communicated by mail or secure message.
• Expected to fully document the care of their patients, utilizing the electronic medical record as they do so. PCPs must comply with all institutional policies related to the electronic medical record, including writing prescriptions electronically, reconciling medication lists at internal medicine visits, documenting telephone and email communications; reviewing and signing off on nursing visits that require physician co-signature.
• May participate in the instruction of medical students and residents.
• Collaborates with University as needed in the care of students, with the patient's permission.
• Members of primary care teams work together and exchange information in the interest of optimal patient management and continued professional development. Team members work together to coordinate the care of patients within their designated panels, develop familiarity with one another's patients, and provide mutually supportive coverage within the team. The goal of the HUHS primary care model is to optimize patient access and continuity of care.

Administrative Responsibilities:

• Prepares and maintains medical records, including but not limited to the documentation of injury reports, medical treatments, rehabilitation programs, medical referrals, and other medical records.
• Ability to carry out various administrative responsibilities needed to maintain operational procedures of a Division One Athletic Training Facility as assigned by Associate Director of Sports Medicine and/or Associate Director of Athletics for Student-Athlete Health and Performance
• Supports the education of "transition to practice" certified athletic trainers through education and mentorship of this program.
• Preceptor towards undergraduate and graduate athletic training students.
• Maintains NATABOC certification; Massachusetts State licensure; and CPR/First Aid certification.

Department of Medicine Values:

• Delivering state of the art care in a compassionate, culturally sensitive, and efficient manner is the highest priority of the PCP. Attention to the patient's perceived problems should be balanced with good medical and psychosocial care of the whole person.
• Professional and intellectual growth through continuing medical education (CME) and the ongoing pursuit of medical/academic interests is essential to maintaining the PCP's high standard of practice. The Dept. of Medicine will provide weekly on-site CME of relevance to the current scopes of service for a generalist PCP. In addition, all PCP's are afforded resources and time for extra-curricular CME activities. PCP will attend CME courses and stay abreast of medical literature.
• The effectiveness of our program is maintained through continuous improvement in quality of care. Process and outcomes should be monitored through relevant, ideally standardized clinical indicators, individual case reviews, and measures of patient and provider satisfaction.
• In a time of rising costs of health care, HUHS PCPs are committed to the intelligent management of our resources, including both internal and external services, and to providing cost effective, high quality care.

Contributes to team function and to the HUHS mission:

• Participates in team and committee efforts to solve problems, proposing ideas to improve quality of care.
• Continuous effort to satisfy the needs of patients and assist other clinicians.
• Works closely with the HUHS Patient Advocate and Chief of Medicine to address and resolve satisfactorily any specific patient-based concern or complaint.
• Promotes a positive image of HUHS by demonstrating that she/he is knowledgeable and understanding of patient needs.
• Maintains written and verbal confidentiality of all patient and department information at all times, following the HUHS Confidentiality and electronic mail policies without exception.

Compliance:

• Adheres to the expectations and professional responsibilities of the department.
• Employs the standards, practices, and procedures of the department.
• Completes and complies with HUHS training requirements including HIPAA Privacy and Security, and other required trainings.
• Reports non-compliance incidents to the supervisor, manager, and/or Compliance Officer.

Qualifications:

Basic Qualifications:

The candidate is a graduate of a U.S. based residency program; board certified or eligible in Internal Medicine or Family Medicine with current licensure in Massachusetts. Must have current BLS/ACLS certification.

Additional Qualifications and Skills:

Commitment to high quality, cost-effective health care and the principles of group practice. Experience with the full spectrum of primary care general medicine ranging from adolescent to geriatric ages. Demonstrated skills in outpatient clinical care, effective communication skills and shared decision-making.

Other Information:

New Employee Health Requirements and Clearance

All Harvard University Health Services staff and staff affiliates are considered health care workers and, as a condition of employment, must provide the following documentation:

• Letter of good health from your health care provider.
• TB skin test or blood test (IGRA -T-Spot or QuantiFERON