Medical Director, Psychiatry

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, dental, and vision benefits, life insurance and long and short-term disability, and more.

The Medical Director for Psychiatry provides direct clinical psychiatric care for SEARHC patients focusing on diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders and psychiatric medical staff supervision. Working with the VP of Behavioral Health, the Medical Director is responsible for ensuring promotion of the highest quality of clinical 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.

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

Key Essential Functions and Accountabilities of the Job

• Provides highest quality evidence based psychiatric clinical care to SEARHC patients to include psychiatric evaluations, psychotherapy, psychopharmacological therapy, psychiatric emergency triage, inpatient consultation (when indicated) and liaison, and other appropriate treatments in the outpatient setting.

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

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

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

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

• Provides clinical supervision, coaching, mentoring, teaching, and guidance to psychiatric 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 behavioral health care delivery; identify and define new, emerging, novel, and innovative strategies to achieve health system quality and financial goals.

• Supports the advancement of psychiatric residents with clinical supervision, coaching, mentoring, and teaching. 

• Uses communication strategies that align, build trust, motivate, inform, promote information exchange, and enhance teamwork within the Behavioral 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 Joint Commission, HRSA, SEARHC organizational strategic plan initiatives, etc.  

• Supports 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, e.g., interventional psychiatric modalities, integrated behavioral/primary care.

• Serves as designated medical director for youth residential services providing leadership, consultation, policy development and implementation, physician liaison and coordination of residential medical care, and clinical guidance to improve quality of care and processes.

• Performs other related duties as assigned or requested.

Education, Certifications, and Licenses Required

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

• DEA Registration.

• Ongoing board certification in psychiatry.

• 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 psychiatric techniques as they apply to patient assessment, diagnosis, and/or treatment of mentally, emotionally, and developmentally disordered patients including substance abus

• Up-to-date knowledge of psychopharmacology and use of psychiatric medications. 

• Enthusiasm and experience in the principles of providing integrated behavioral health care in a primary care setting.

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

• Demonstrated knowledge of medical staff function 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.

Travel Required

• Must be able to travel 10% of the time.

• Travel is by jet, small aircraft, or ferry.

Required Certifications:

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