Summary

The VA San Diego Health Care System (VASDHS) is recruiting a highly- qualified Physician (Chief of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine Service), located in the "America's Finest City", San Diego, California.

The Service Chief of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service (PALMS) provides administrative, clinical, and programmatic leadership for PALMS to ensure achievement of the clinical, research, and education goals and applicable performance measures.

Duties

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Major duties of this position include, but are not limited to:

• Serves as the VA Medical Facility - Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) Laboratory Director, fulfilling all responsibilities of the VA medical facility CLIA Laboratory Director.
• Oversees all laboratory testing performed at VA medical facility laboratories.
• Serves as a consultant for specialty laboratories and ensures all testing is compliant with federal regulations.
• Directs and coordinates the patient care, administration, education and research functions of the VA medical facility Pathology and Laboratory Management Service (PALMS).
• Responsible for all quality measures regarding patient services.
• Provides consultation and guidance to VA health care providers regarding matters pertaining to pathology and laboratory medicine and the medical significance of laboratory findings.
• As the CLIA Medical Director (or delegates a voting member) participates on the VA medical facility Clinical Executive Board or analogous medical staff committee and all other appropriate committees.
• Participates in applicable cross-organizational performance-improvement activities, developing and communicating to the VA medical facility Chief Of Staff (COS) objectives and coordinating efforts to integrate patient care and support services.
• Directs and coordinates the functions of the VA medical facility PALMS and outreach functions based upon the mission, special needs and size of the VA medical facility.
• Ensures that VA medical facility laboratories performing patient care testing meet requirements for hospital accreditation.
• Ensures, if the VA medical facility PALMS has a blood bank or transfusion service, it maintains current Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies (AABB) accreditation.
• Acts as a consultant for the VA medical facility when a community care provider is contracted to perform laboratory testing for VA patients. The VA medical facility Chief, PALMS must ensure that documentation is obtained to verify the contracted laboratory is appropriately CLIA certified and, if it's a non-waived laboratory, accreditation is documented.
• Ensures OPPE of VA medical facility pathology physicians and all technical and quality aspects of anatomic pathology are met.
• Ensures FPPEs are performed as appropriate.
• Oversees all PALMS-related quality reviews (e.g., OPPE, FPPE, the PLM QM Program, anatomic pathology internal quality review).
• Reviews and approves VA medical facility CLIA Laboratory Director appointments at VA medical facility specialty laboratories when the appointee is not a pathology physician.
• Establishes and implements criteria for rescreening cytopathology specimens for high-risk patients.
• In conjunction with the VA medical facility COS, ensuring an ongoing mechanism for monitoring and evaluating the usefulness and appropriateness of specialized testing requests to outside reference laboratories and ensuring the testing is appropriate for patient care.
• Equitably assigns pathology workload to pathology staff and establishes and maintains pathologist daily schedule to include on-call services.
• Participates in multi-disciplinary conferences (i.e. Tumor Board, Chest Conference, GI Conference etc.).

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. PST

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• U.S. Citizenship; non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Must pass pre-employment physical examination.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• You may be required to serve a probationary period.
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, you must meet the basic requirements as well as any additional requirements (if applicable) listed in the job announcement. Applicants pending the completion of training or license requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met. Currently employed physician(s) in VA who met the requirements for appointment under the previous qualification standard at the time of their initial appointment are deemed to have met the basic requirements of the occupation.

Basic Requirements:

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• Degree of doctor of medicine or an equivalent degree resulting from a course of education in allopathic medicine or osteopathic medicine. The degree must have been obtained from one of the schools approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs for the year in which the course of study was completed.
• Current, full and unrestricted license to practice medicine or surgery in a State, Territory, or Commonwealth of the United States, or in the District of Columbia.
• Residency Training: Physicians must have completed residency training, approved by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in an accredited core specialty training program leading to eligibility for board certification. (NOTE: VA physicians involved in academic training programs may be required to be board certified for faculty status.) Approved residencies are:
  
  • (1) Those approved by the accrediting bodies for graduate medical education, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) or American Osteopathic Association (AOA), in the list published for the year the residency, or fellowship if applicable, was completed; OR
  • (2) One year of post medical school training (internship, first year of residency, or transitional year residency) approved by ACGME or AOA followed by two years of post-training independent practice (performing under a full and unrestricted license) in the United States; OR
  • (3) Non-US residency training programs followed by a minimum of three years of verified independent practice in the United States (performing under a full and unrestricted license) performing duties related to the position they are applying for (United States fellowships would be creditable towards this requirement), which the local Medical Staff Executive Committee deems to have provided the applicant with appropriate professional training and believes has exposed the Physician to an appropriate range of patient care experiences.
  • Exceptions:
    
    • Residents currently enrolled in ACGME/AOA accredited residency training programs and who would otherwise meet the basic requirements for appointment are eligible to be appointed as "Physician Resident Providers" (PRPs). PRPs must be fully licensed physicians (i.e., not a training license) and may only be appointed on an intermittent basis. PRPs are not considered independent practitioners and will not be privileged; rather, they are to have a "scope of practice" that allows them to perform certain restricted duties under supervision. Additionally, surgery residents in gap years may also be appointed as PRPs.
    • In rare and unusual circumstances, the Facility Director can submit a memo to the VISN Director through the VISN Chief Medical Officer, who may approve requests for reasonable exceptions to the residency training requirement for Physicians whose composite record of experience, accomplishments, performance, and qualifications warrant such action.
• Proficiency in spoken and written English.

Additional Requirement:

• Board Certified in Anatomic and/or Clinical Pathology.
• Qualified candidates will be able to demonstrate a record of academic accomplishments commensurate with the rank of associate, or full professor with a track record of translational or clinical research, and will be eligible for academic appointment through the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

Preferred Experience:

• The candidate must have demonstrated significant levels of clinical expertise and publication record in pathology disciplines.
• Experience and knowledge in formulating and reporting diagnostic information.

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/.

Physical Requirements: VA Handbook 5019/1, Part II, Pre-Placement Physical Examination and Evaluation.

Education

Degree of Doctor of Medicine or an equivalent degree resulting from a course of education in allopathic medicine or osteopathic medicine. The degree must have been obtained from an institution whose accreditation was in place for the year in which the course of study was completed. Approved schools are:

1. Schools of medicine accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) for the year in which the degree was granted.
2. Schools of osteopathic medicine approved by the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation (COCA) for the year in which the degree was granted.
3. For foreign medical graduates not covered in (1) or (2) above, confirmation must be made that the medical school meets (or met) Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) eligibility requirement for year graduated.

NOTE: The Under Secretary of Health or designee in the VHA Central Office may approve the appointment under authority of 38 U.S.C. 7405 of a physician graduate of a school of medicine not covered above if the candidate is to be assigned to a research, academic, or administrative position with no patient care responsibilities. The appointment will be made only in exceptional circumstances where the candidate's credentials clearly demonstrate high professional attainment or expertise in the specialty area.

Additional information

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment.

This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status.

If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.

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Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and com