Physician - Emergency Medicine

Details

Client Name
Altoona VAMC - James E. Van Zandt

Job Type
Travel

Offering
Locums

Profession
Physician

Specialty
Emergency Medicine

Job ID
16137346


Shift Details

Scheduled Hours
24


Job Order Details

Start Date
10/06/2026

End Date
09/04/2029

Duration
152 Week(s)


Job Description

Medical Officer of the Day: The MOD Physician is responsible for evaluating, diagnosing, treating, stabilizing, admitting, or transferring patients as clinically appropriate while ensuring compliance with all VA policies, medical staff bylaws, and regulatory requirements.

Shift Hours:

• Current needs are for daytime weekend shifts 0815-2015
• Monday- Friday Daylight 0815-1615
• Monday- Friday Overnight (excluding Holidays) 1615-0815
• Saturday & Sunday (excluding Holidays) 0815-2015 & 2015-0815

Essential Functions
• Provide urgent care, inpatient, and hospitalist medical services for veterans in the UCC, inpatient units, and CLC.
• Evaluate, diagnose, treat, stabilize, admit, discharge, or transfer patients in accordance with VA clinical guidelines.
• Conduct inpatient rounds during weekends and federal holidays.
• Complete all required CPRS and EDIS documentation within required timeframes.
• Respond to medical emergencies, rapid responses, and after-hours clinical calls.
• Proof of 2 intubations in the past year - either signed off by supervising Physician or OORAM certification by VA employee (required for submittal and re-credentialing, used only for rare and extreme situations)
• Participate in quality assurance, peer review, and patient safety activities.
• Maintain compliance with all VA credentialing, privileging, HIPAA, and training requirements.

Qualifications
• MD or DO degree from an accredited institution required.
• Current unrestricted U.S. medical license required.
• Board Certification in Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, or Family Medicine required.
• Current BLS and ACLS certifications required.
• Recent urgent care or emergency room experience within the last three years required.
• DEA registration and NPI required.
• Strong proficiency using electronic health record systems including CPRS preferred.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills required.

Notes from Facility--

To clarify we have an Urgent care and not a true ED.

1. What is the ED nursing coverage (i.e. number of nurses and their shift schedules) at the Altoona VA? RNs are scheduled a variation of 8 and 12 hour shifts and there is always at least 2 RNs on duty.
2. Is there a respiratory therapist on site, and if so, what are their hours of coverage (and does RT cover both ED and the floor)? RTs are available during administrative hours and cover UCC and the floors. RNs give breathing treatments, RTs do not intubate but can assist with CPAP, BIPAP, vents (as we transfer them), ABGs. They are on call during nonadministrative hours for those services as well.
3. What airway equipment is available in the ED and on the floor? CPAP/Bipaps, we have a vent but not used as we would transfer those patients, glidescope in UCC.
4. Is there a bedside ultrasound in the ED, and if so, what model? We have one, not sure of model, but currently not using.

1. What radiology services are offered (US, XR, CT, MRI) and what are the hours for the radiology techs and the radiologist's coverage for formal reads? We have all services, although during nights, weekends, holidays may need to call tech in. MRI is limited due to one machine and does not offer STAT imaging. Radiologist is here during administrative hours. Teleradiology during off hours. We expect MODs to read xrays and not wait for TeleRadiologist during nonadministrative hours.

1. What are the hours of coverage for the nurse practitioner in the ED? 7am-3pm. 6am-6pm or 7am-7pm depending on day and NP assigned.

1. What are the hours of coverage for the nurse practitioner on the medical floor? Same as above

1. What are the hours during which the ED physician has to write admission orders and manage inpatients? The entire shift you are working. If an NP is still here, but has workload that prevents him/her from doing the admission, you are expected to do it. NPs typically manage the floor and community living center until they leave, but again, if something is preventing them from doing so, you are expected to assist. You will admit and manage from 7pm until 7am
2. What is the total inpatient bed capacity and what is the average daily census on the medical floor? We are certified for 11 beds, only 8 are open during construction, our census has been about 6-8

1. What is the general practice with patients that require a chest pain work-up (i.e. negative troponin but needs admission for serial troponins, cardiac monitoring and setup for stress test)? Are these patients advised to go to a higher acuity facility from the outset (like what many community urgent care centers do) or are they worked up in the ED and transferred (if so, what EMS service performs interfacility transfer and how does the transfer process generally work out)? I have experienced a lot of delays that negatively affected patient care when transferring to UPMC Altoona and so am curious about Altoona VA's experience with transfers. - We have high sensitivity troponins and repeat in 2 hours in the UCC, if negative, decision to send home vs admit, depending on heart score. However, this medical center can admit chest pain for serial troponins, cardiac monitoring, and cardiology consult. Stress testing is not typically done while inpatient, but can be planned. If it's let the person cannot stay here but is not having a STEMI, we would transfer to VA Pittsburgh. The process is to call and speak to their bed management, then the specialist, sometimes the hospitalist as well. We only transfer to UPMC for emergencies such as STEMI, Stroke, trauma, ICU level admissions, etc., otherwise Pitt VA for higher level of care.

Client Details

Address
2907 Pleasant Valley Boulevard

City
Altoona

State
PA

Zip Code
16602