Associate Medical Director

Associate Medical Director

Do you lie awake at night dreaming of changing the world and transforming dominant paradigms? Are you excited about providing trauma-informed, person-centered care to vulnerable people with substance use disorders? Have we got a job for you!! Come join an inspired, curious, innovative multidisciplinary team offering radically kind medical care and loving compassion to patients with substance use disorders.

Under the supervision of the Medical Director, the Associate Medical Director provides vision, implementation and ongoing direction for a specific medical program as assigned, while collaborating with the Director Team on leadership tasks across medical programs to ensure cross-coverage and support for essential medical department functions. Programs include 3.7 services (Medically Monitored Residential Services & Inpatient Withdrawal Management), MAT services (Medication for Addiction Treatment across levels of care, including ambulatory withdrawal management) and Physical Health Services. The Associate Medical Director is an integral part of a collaborative leadership team, which includes the Director of Psychiatric Services, Medical Operations Director and Chief Medical Officer. This team, in turn, collaborates with the Medical Dept. management team and with Fora's Clinical leadership team to support Fora Health's mission of providing excellent whole-person care for those with substance use disorders.

The Associate Medical Director will join the Medical Leadership team in nurturing a program culture that centers excellent medical care within a framework of loving kindness, harm reduction, and trauma informed care.

Expected allocation of time is approximately 50% administrative and 50% clinical.

Essential Job Duties:

• Providing direct patient care in 3.7 MMR, Withdrawal Management, and MAT services as needed
• Formulating treatment plans for those patients and communicating with nurses and case managers as necessary regarding implementation of medical orders and ongoing assessment of patients
• Collaborating with Fora Director of Access and with community partners to develop, expand and maintain efficient pathways into appropriate Fora medical services
• Reviewing medical referrals to Medically Monitored Residential Program and communicating with referents, including hospitals and outpatient settings.
• Continuing expansion of MMR program to include patients on IV antibiotics, with complex wound care needs, and those newly dependent on insulin
• Providing clinical education to nurses
• Sharing overnight phone call with Chief Medical Officer, Medical Director & Associate Medical Directors, typically one week per month.
• Supervising and mentoring medical learners throughout their rotations at Fora
• Providing education to patients about medications and treatment options.
• Collaborating with Chief Medical Officer and Medical Leadership team on development and implementation of new programs
• Collaborating with Chief Medical Officer on writing and revision of policies & procedures, creating & maintaining EMR order sets, addressing grievances & incident reports.
• Other duties as assigned

Professional and Ethical Responsibilities:

• Demonstrate ethical behaviors by adhering to established professional codes of ethics that define the professional context within which the counselor works, in order to maintain professional standards and safeguard the client.
• Adhere to Federal and State laws and agency policies and procedures regarding the treatment of substance use disorders.
• Recognize the importance of individual differences that influence client behavior and apply this understanding to clinical practice.
• Maintain (or complete) current addiction counselor certification or QMHP privileging.
• Maintains healthy boundaries with clients and their families.

Additional Job Responsibilities:

• Attend staff meetings as scheduled.
• Additional trainings to be completed as assigned in a timely manner.
• Special projects and other duties as assigned.
• Participate in ongoing supervision and consultation.
• Attend and participate in all staff meetings, including medical department and leadership meetings as assigned.
• Attend all supervision meetings as assigned.
• Maintain and strengthen good working relationships with members of other departments.
• Maintain cleanliness and safety of work environment.
• Perform related tasks as assigned.
• Complete documentation in a timely manner.
• Negotiate conflicting demands of patients, staff, available resources, and applicable policies & laws.
• Prioritize and manage the competing demands of their work effectively.
• Provide leadership to the teams in such a way that the work environment supports and encourages values of the agency: honesty, empathy, respect, inclusion, unity.
• Proactively identify barriers to effective medication administration systems and works with residential and medical staff to address them.
• Maintain quality treatment services that are responsive to client needs and reflect best practices.
• Establish a therapeutic environment in which staff works together so that clients' needs, individual circumstances, and culture determine the optimal clinical approach.
• Oversees operational aspects of clinical tasks and roles and provides strategic advice/direction to functionalize the service delivery model.

Organizational Relationships:

• The Associate Medical Director reports to the Medical Director
• The AMD works interdependently as a member of a program clinical team and works collaboratively with other agency staff.

Supervisory Functions:

This position has supervisory duties.

Requirements:

Qualification:

Education and Experience Required:

• Licensed MD, DO, NP, PA, ND
• If MD/DO must be board certified in Addiction Medicine or able to obtain within one year of hire; Fellowship training strongly preferred
• If NP must be CARN-AP certified or able to obtain within one year of hire
• Experience in prescribing buprenorphine required
• At least 3 years of direct post training patient care experience in primary care, hospital medicine. Emergency medicine or urgent care required
• Experience in withdrawal management required
• Experience in program development preferred

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Required:

• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite, specifically Outlook, Excel and Word
• Detail-oriented and organized
• 3 years of direct post training patient care experience required
• Demonstrated effectiveness in presenting ideas, transmitting information, or convey concepts to individuals or groups of people of varying educational, cultural and experiential levels.
• Ability to maintain professional boundaries with patients, the community, and other staff members.
• Ability to work collaboratively with patients, other treatment program staff, team members, and to treat everyone with respect and dignity at all times.
• Written and organizational skills to complete all required documentation.
• Communicates information effectively in writing and verbally
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail
• Displays initiative and problem-solving skills
• Basic knowledge of substance-use disorders
• Marked ability to demonstrate and utilize self-awareness
• Intermediate understanding of mental health disorders and symptom presentation

Other Requirements:

• For employees with a history of substance use disorder, Fora Health's policy requires certification of a minimum of [six months/two years] of sobriety for this position.
• Ability to pass a pre-employment or for cause drug tests.
• Ability to pass DHS criminal background
• Position will require some amount of regular connection to work via cell phone to answer questions and respond to internal and external contacts.
• Documentation of Tuberculin test and/or evaluation with negative results or evidence of non-communicability.

Working Conditions:

• Prolonged use of computer
• Position requires on-call availability to respond to emergency situations during off-duty hours including via cell phone.
• Position will require some amount of regular connection to work via cell phone to answer questions and respond to internal and external contacts.
• Position generally works in an indoor office environment with infrequent travel between sites or to special events.
• [Position requires some overtime, including evening and weekend work./Position does not consistently require overtime.] Adjustment of work schedule may be required.
• Position generally works in an indoor office environment with [frequent/occasional] travel between sites or