Medical Director of Specialty Services

The Medical Director for Specialty provides direct clinical care for SEARHC patients focusing on diagnosis and treatment of specialty care services at 0.5 FTE and the remaining 0.5 FTE as the medical staff supervisor of specialty services. Working with the CMO, the Medical Director is responsible for ensuring promotion of the highest quality of specialty care, continuous improvement in the patient experience, advancement of efficient clinical workflow processes fixed upon quality, fiscal responsibility, and alignment of the health systems operational and business strategies. The Medical Director becomes a Dyad partner with the Specialty clinic operations leaders to ensure a healthy and efficient patient experience for all specialty consults.

Responsibilities also include championing consistency of clinical processes, balanced advocacy for medical staff and health system leadership, advancing division strategic goals, evaluating new, emerging, and novel medication and/or treatment approaches and fundamentally promoting access to Specialty health care across the region.

SEARHC is a non-profit health consortium which serves the health interests of the residents of Southeast Alaska. We see our employees as our strongest assets. It is our priority to further their development and our organization by aiding in their professional advancement.

Working at SEARHC is more than a job, it’s a fulfilling career. We offer generous benefits, including retirement, paid time off, paid parental leave, health insurance, dental, and vision benefits, life insurance and long and short-term disability, and more.

Shift Details

• 8am-5pm and on call as needed.

Key Essential Functions and Accountabilities of the Job

• Oversee the highest quality evidence-based specialty clinical care to SEARHC patients and other appropriate treatments in the outpatient setting.

• Provides consultation and guidance to non-physician medical staff providers and, when necessary, provides supervision and practice plan oversight. 

• Provides consultation and clinical advice for SEARHC medical staff colleagues.

• Documents all patient services in the medical record per SEARHC medical staff rules and regulations.

• Participate in ongoing medical education to maintain licensure and board certification.

• Provides clinical supervision, coaching, mentoring, teaching, and guidance to specialty and primary care medical staff and other team members/leaders as appropriate. Reviews the quality of medical provider records and actions. 

• Keeps current on emerging models and directions in specialty and primary care health care delivery; identify and define new, emerging, novel, and innovative strategies to achieve health system quality and financial goals.

• Uses communication strategies that align, build trust, motivate, inform, promote information exchange, and enhance teamwork within the Specialty Health Division and across the consortium.

• Serves as a champion and change agent to promote clinical quality improvement, optimization of services, improved access to care, fiscal responsibility, excellent customer service, and value throughout all SEARHC communities with special attention paid to the unique challenges for those living and working in smaller remote towns and villages.

• Assists with development of quality measures and leads efforts to improve clinical measures of performance for the DNV, the Joint Commission, HRSA, SEARHC organizational strategic plan initiatives, etc.  

• Supports DNV or the Joint Commission (TJC) and HRSA accreditation requirements and maintains standards for ongoing clinical compliance.

• Assists to update medical provider recruitment plans and participates in medical provider recruitment and interviewing as indicated.

• Fosters teamwork and collaborative efforts within clinics and within other departments that promote integration of clinic services.

• Builds and maintains healthy clinical working relationships with outside agencies, clinics, and hospitals to improve care for SEARHC patients.  

• Supports and fulfills the activities and committees of the MEC as appropriate, including annual reviews, case reviews, clinical standards expectations. 

• Provides clinical advice, input, and direction for new and/or emerging treatments and services.

• Performs other related duties as assigned or requested.

Other Functions

• Work with specialty consultants on developing peer review pathways from external vendors when needed (Swedish, VMMC, UW) to have proper review of specialty care by similar specialists.

Supervisory Responsibilities

• Supervise all Specialists who are directly employed by SEARHC and work with external vendors and their medical directors (ANMC, Swedish, VMMC, etc.) to improve and review care when needed.

Education, Certifications, and Licenses Required

• Current unrestricted license to practice medicine in the State of Alaska.

• DEA Registration.

• Ongoing board certification in primary care or chosen specialty.

• Ongoing current certification for clinical practice (e.g., BLS, PALS, ACLS as required by practice location).

Experience Required

• At least 5 years’ post-residency direct patient care clinical experience.

• At least 2 years’ experience as a medical director or in a progressive medical leadership role.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Demonstrated knowledge of current best practice clinical techniques as they apply to patient assessment, diagnosis, and/or treatment of primary care and specialty patients.

• Up-to-date knowledge of primary care and specialty medications.

• Demonstrated knowledge and experience and application of current theories, literature, recent developments, and best practices in the field of primary care and specialty care to maintain excellent standards of care throughout the primary care and specialty health division.

• Demonstrated knowledge of medical staff functions including areas such as bylaws, clinical services policies and/procedures, and ethical standards.

• Ability to remain flexible and open-minded to change and new ways providing effective and efficient health care services.

• Ability to communicate in an open, transparent, inspiring, helpful, supportive, cooperative, and collaborative manner.

• Ability to effectively challenge the status quo in a manner that encourages and motivates others to make change and improve the delivery of care.

• Ability to effectively balance multiple and sometimes competing perspectives and objectives.

• Maintain the utmost patience and organizational confidentiality.

• Ability to demonstrate empathic understanding and respect towards staff, patients, and community to create a positive working relationship.

• Ability to demonstrate scientific, professional, and personal integrity to apply the highest ethical principles and guidelines to interactions with patients and staff. 

• Open and emotionally even handed to demonstrate full communicative accessibility for staff in the process of sharing ideas and demonstrating professional bearing when under pressure and during conflict.

• Solve problems timely and execute initiatives.

• Comfortable with occasional business travel to SEARHC communities or other leadership forums.

Safety and Risk Management Responsibilities: 

• Employees are responsible for complying with safe work rules; reporting all accidents and injuries immediately; cooperating in all accident and injury investigations; reporting defective equipment and unsafe conditions.

Physical Demands: 

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear.  The employee is frequently required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle or feel and reach with hands and arms.

• The employee is occasionally required to climb or balance; stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl.  The employee must lift and/or move 50 lbs.

Required Certifications:

If you like wild growth and working with happy, enthusiastic over-achievers, you'll enjoy your career with us!