Physician-Section Chief Hospice & Palliative Care

Job Title

Job Description

Clinical Responsibilities

Incumbent spends 70% of time with clinical responsibilities.

• Provide medical oversight, leadership and supervision of a 15-bed Community Living Center(CLC) Hospice Palliative Care Unit. This includes supervision over the medical/provider staff who work in multi-disciplinary teams to coordinate, facilitate and provide patient care and services.
• Provide administrative (supervisor and section) and clinical oversight of all Hospice Palliative Care (HPC) programs.
• Provide supervision, as appropriate, of fellows, residents and students conducting direct clinical care.
• Deliver in-service training for medical center staff, residents, and medical students.
• Be responsible for timely completion of all clinical charting and documentation required by the Medical Center as appropriate and outcome data as appropriate.
• Perform transitional care as a consultant providing face-to-face consultation to patients under the care of the medical center's inpatient and emergency department services as appropriate.
• Educate Veterans, staff, and family about Palliative Care, Hospice, and end-of-life issues.
• Consult with medical center staff on a wide variety of patient care issues.
• Remain involved in program evaluation.
• Maintain full clinical privilege as a member of the Medical Staff.
• Abide by Medical Staff By-Laws.

Administrative Responsibilities

Incumbent spends 30% of time managing the HPC Services. This includes but is not limited to supervising a variety of positions including administrative positions, physicians, and nurse practitioners.

• Provides leadership guidance and consultation to staff.
• Has direct administrative supervision of the Hospice Palliative Care (HPC) physicians and nurse practitioners.
• Serves as a consultant to other medical center staff and trainees.
• Represents HPC on decision-making committees at the Rehabilitation and Geriatric and Extended Care Integrated Clinical Communities(REC ICC).
• Ensures the implementation and maintenance of standards for medical providers and forecast requirements necessary to maintain and increase efficiency and effectiveness of clinical care.
• Participates in establishing policies, procedures, and guidelines for the delivery of services.
• Communicates provider responsibilities and medical care policies, procedures and guidelines to all providers in HPC.
• Provides education and mentoring to other interdisciplinary teams, patients, families, and referring physicians.
• Assists the ACOS of Geriatric and Extended Care on the coordination of HPC services response in the event of critical occurrences of violence at the facility, disasters, and/or mass casualty occurrences.

Pay: Competitive salary, annual performance bonus, regular salary increases

Paid Time Off: 50-55 days of paid time off per year (26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year and possible 5 day paid absence for CME)

Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA

Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement)

Licensure: 1 full and unrestricted license from any US State or territory

CME: Possible $1,000 per year reimbursement (must be full-time with board certification)

Malpractice: Free liability protection with tail coverage provided

Contract: No Physician Employment Contract and no significant restriction on moonlighting

Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 08:00am - 04:30pm

EDRP Authorized: Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply for incentive. Contact View email address on click.appcast.io, the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance. Learn more VA offers a comprehensive total rewards package. VHA Physician Total Rewards.