Hospitalist - APP Site Director

In 2020 united in a fierce commitment to deliver the highest quality care and exceptional patient experience Virginia Mason and CHI Franciscan Health came together as natural partners to build a new health system centered around the patient: Virginia Mason Franciscan Health. Our combined system builds upon the scale and expertise of our nearly 300 sites of care including 11 hospitals and nearly 5000 physicians and providers. Together we are empowered to make an even greater impact on the health and well-being of our communities.

Virginia Mason Franciscan Health 

Hospital Medicine Site Medical Director roles and responsibilities: St. Elizabeth Hospital  

Our Hospitalist team at St Elizabeth Hospital nestled in the foothills of Mount Rainier in the quaint and beautiful city of Enumclaw WA, is looking for our next APP site leader!  We have a unique opportunity for a dynamic and collaborative individual who is interested in leading our small but mighty team of physicians and advanced practice providers through the exciting twists and turns of hospital medicine in a critical access setting.

You will benefit from being part of a robust team of site directors, each serving one of seven hospitals in our region. You will also have support and guidance from senior clinical and administrative hospital medicine leaders and will serve as a key member of the St. Elizabeth leadership team. With an active role in both clinical and administrative work, you will make a difference for your colleagues and for patients.

Are you someone who leads by example, gets excited about improving patient experience and enjoys mentoring others?  Do you hold others to the same high standard to which you hold yourself?  If you answered yes, you are someone we want to meet!  We depend on our leaders to engage and manage their teams, build relationships through communication and support and utilize their skills to build productive, engaged teams! We approach growth, innovation and quality as a collective responsibility among our teams which builds comradery and trust.  Come join our team and be part of something important that you can grow and be proud of!

Compensation Range: $158,000 to $192,000 annually depending on experience and performance with quality incentives.

Position purpose

The Hospital Medicine Site Medical Director is responsible for providing leadership to align the practice of Hospital Medicine with the strategic goals and objectives of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health. The site director is accountable for clinical quality, patient safety, and engagement of physician and APP hospitalists serving patients at their site. The site director will personify Virginia Mason Franciscan Health’s values of Compassion, Integrity, Inclusion, Excellence and Collaboration, and the behaviors outlined in the VMFH Physician and Advanced Practice Provider Compact. The Site Medical Director will help align the team to support practice changes that meet organizational needs and best patient care. 

Leadership

• Leads by example through exemplary clinical care, adherence to organizational standards, and a synthesized understanding of the clinical and business aspects of their practice
• Prioritizes our patients’ experience and patients’ needs, with continuous focus on quality, safety, service and fiscal responsibility
• Collaborates with local, divisional, and national leadership teams in alignment with the VMFH strategic plan to develop vision, innovation strategies, and short and long term goals for their site.
• Engages in continuous study and utilization of VMPS. Leads process improvement, champions tests of change, and supports implementation of new standard work. Thoughtfully assesses team readiness and capacity for change

• Coaches providers in their professional development.Encourages participation in meetings and identifies development opportunities aligned with provider interests and team needs. Promotes education, research, and teaching opportunities.
• Leads site level provider recruitment efforts including candidate screening, interviews, evaluations, and reference verification. Works in collaboration with partners to create a positive interview experience and to respond to candidate questions.
• Promotes patient safety by supporting a just culture and learning environment. Participates in patient safety activities including safety event reviews, performance of clinical care reviews, and participation in patient safety workgroups.
• Engages in service recovery including review of patient complaints, outreach to patients and/or families, and provision of constructive feedback to providers.
• Fosters a respectful workplace culture.
• Leads with a positive and constructive mindset during times of ambiguity. Supports the team through negative events. 
• Leads with professionalism, composure, and authenticity.
• Works collaboratively with other site directors and all members of the hospital medicine leadership team, seeking a single standard of care at all sites served by VMFH hospital medicine.
• Is available to back-up and support other site directors when requested.

Management

• Holds providers accountable to clinical standards of care to ensure that the highest quality of care is delivered, and team experience is optimized.
• Holds other leaders and team members accountable for delivering on commitments.
• Assures mutual alignment and compliance with the Physician and APP Compact 
• Works in collaboration with admin partners and HR business partners to address and document provider performance issues.
• Assures that performance improvement plans are in place when needed, consistent with HR policy. Leads performance improvement sessions for hospitalists.
• Supports successful onboarding of new providers
• Works in collaboration with admin partners to ensure providers meet all FTE requirements on an annual basis.
• Knows all team members. Ensures time away is sufficient to promote healthy work life balance.
• Supports each hospitalist. Understands and appreciates each hospitalists’ contribution to team success.
• Strives to maximize the professional growth and engagement of each team member and ensures everyone’s full contribution. 
• Encourages input from each hospitalist.  Coaches team members to make contributions that improve care processes and clinical operations. 
• Ensures adoption of recognized standard work within the team.
• Monitors quality, patient experience, and provider business metrics. Ensures the team is meeting or progressing toward goals.
• Along with care management, ensures team ownership of key throughput metrics and improvement efforts.
• Ensures a robust partnership with local Clinical Documentation Improvement and Integrity resources. Ensures hospitalists know and follow best clinical documentation practices.
• Provides written evaluations and verbal feedback to all physicians and APPs assigned to their site annually.
• Provides recognition to hospitalists for their positive contributions to the group and hospital.
• Promotes group participation in medical staff engagement surveys.  Reviews survey results and partners with the CMO on action planning for group improvement where needed.
• Advises and assists Hospital to ensure full compliance with all requirements of The Joint Commission, all State licensing requirements, and all other relevant requirements promulgated by any federal, state, or local agency.

Communication

• Chairs regular site hospital medicine staff meetings, focusing agendas to promote high performance of the team.  
• Participates in leadership meetings. Keeps the team informed regarding organizational updates and initiatives.
• Articulates organizational goals, strategies, and priorities. Explains connections to hospitalist work.
• Formally meets with team members regularly.  Solicits input and provides feedback to leadership.

• Facilitates communication within the site and with other parts of the organization. Acts as a liaison between their team and other provider groups.
• In collaboration with administrative colleagues, provides team members with quality, service, and business metric performance. Works with team members on action plans to improve metrics. Provides regular updates on clinical goals.
• Engages in broader (divisional and national) committees and activities. 
• Conducts ad-hoc one on one meetings with providers as needed.
• Maintains a regular presence in clinical areas and hospital medicine work spaces. 
• Encourages open and honest communication between team members.
• Ensures prompt resolution of interpersonal conflict.

Key Relationships 

• Connects with peers throughout the organization to work together on best practices.
• Ensures productive clinical relationships that foster excellent care.
• Assures the hospitalist group has a strong, professional relationship with community physicians and advanced practice providers.
• Establishes processes to ensure that care transitions are safe and patient centric.
• Strives to build a hospital environment that promotes trust and collegiality through healthy working relations with the hospital’s medical staff, nursing, clinical documentation specialists, and ancillary services.
• Partners with other specialties on care processes and co-management agreements.
• Reports to the MEC at their request.  
• Participates in CommonSpirit Health National Hospital Medicine Meetings and initiatives.
• Works with facility CMO to ensure that the program’s objectives and hospital’s clinical objectives are aligned.

Other Responsibilities

• Perform such other reasonable duties as may be assigned.

Structure

• The site director is responsible to ensure their individual clinical productivity and clinical duty hours meet their assigned clinical FTE.
• Administrative time equivalent to 0.25 FTE is dedicated to this role. The site director is responsible for spending 10 hours per week on average in the execution of these duties.
• This position reports to the Market Director for Hospital Medicine

Qualification Requirements

• Established record of excellence in the clinical practice of hospital medicine.
• Outstanding interpersonal relations with peers and administration.
• Commitment to patient and team centered medicine.
• Demonstrated commitment to the Physician and APP Compact.
• Demonstrated commitment to Virginia Mason Franciscan Health and CommonSpirit Health.
• Knowledge of how to apply the Virginia Mason Production System (VMPS) to improving the practice of hospital medicine.
• Extremely flexible and adaptable
• Current and unrestricted Washington State License, DEA and NPI

Depending on the position offered, CommonSpirit Health offers a generous benefit package, including but not limited to medical, prescription drug, dental, vision plans, life insurance, paid time off (full-time benefit eligible employees may receive a minimum of 14 paid time off days, including holidays annually), tuition reimbursement, retirement plan benefit(s) including, but not limited to, 401(k), 403(b), and other defined benefits offerings, as may be amended from time to time. For more information, please visit https://www.commonspirit.careers/benefits.

Unless directed by a Collective Bargaining Agreement, applications for this position will be considered on a rolling basis. CommonSpirit Health cannot anticipate the date by which a successful candidate may be identified.