Physician - Geriatrics and Extended Care Chief

Summary

The Marion, IL VA Medical Center is seeking a Physician to serve as the Chief of Geriatrics and Extended Care Service!

Duties

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Duties include but are not limited to the following:

• Performs palliative and hospice clinical care of older patients with multiple complex health problems in a long-term care setting or OP clinic.
• Ensures that comprehensive, coordinated, and timely, long term health care of excellent quality is provided for every geriatric Veteran.
• Works collaboratively with other physicians, Nurse Practitioners, physician assistants, and nurses.
• Will supervise/teach geriatric or palliative fellows, medical residents, and trainees in other health related disciplines.
• Collaborates with the Medical Director in maintaining quality assurance and administrative needs in the nursing home care setting.
• Communicates and treats customers (veterans, their representatives, visitors, and all VA staff) in a courteous, tactful, and respectful manner.
• Provides the customer with consistent information according to established policies and procedures.
• Handles conflict and problems in dealing with the customer constructively and appropriately.
• Assigns physician coverage for the nursing home units, designating alternates as necessary to promote appropriate intermediate bed utilization.
• Protects printed and electronic files containing sensitive data in accordance with the provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974 and other applicable laws, Federal regulations, VA statutes and policy, and VHA policy.
• Uses the Veterans Health Information and Technology Architecture (VistA) to access information in the Medical Center Computer System.
• Demonstrates infection control practices for disease prevention.
• Apprises patients and their families and/or significant others of significant findings, diagnoses and prognoses and collaborates with them on treatment and continuity of care plans and end-of-life planning; participates in interdisciplinary patient education delivery and documentation.

Administrative Responsibilities:

• The Chief is responsible for oversight of CLC, HBPC, HPC programs and other services that could be developed, such as Geriatric clinic or GeriPACT.
• Ensures that extended care services are aligned with the facility's mission, vision and strategic plan. Provides input as requested to the strategic plan.
• Provides for the integration of medical care with other services and programs within and outside Extended Care. Develops and implements appropriate policies and procedures to provide guidance in and ensure coordination of care.
• Directs and supervises the Section Chiefs for all programs in Extended Care, the HPC providers, and the Extended Care support staff of AO and/or PSA. The ECS Chief is ultimately responsible for the overall care and quality provided in the department.
• Ensures that all CLC, HBPC, HPC policies are effectively implemented and maintained and are updated as necessary.
• Attends and provides input into, as appropriate, the Executive Leadership Committee, the Strategic Planning Committee, the Clinical Executive Board, the Professional Standards and Credentialing Board, Peer Review Committee and all QM/GEC performance improvement projects.
• Assesses needs for, develops, implements, and evaluates the GEC performance improvement plan.
• Participates in wide-ranging and higher-level management functions for GEC through participation and planning in operational boards, councils, and committees within the Marion VA HCS, the VISN and VHA.
• Manages all personnel management of GEC, including credentialing and privileging, defining scope of practice/privileges for medicine personnel, focused and ongoing professional practice evaluations, ongoing performance evaluations and assures the maintenance of continuing education for staff physicians.
• Oversees competencies for direct report staff, along with the development and completion of performance standards and appraisals.
• Responsible for successful external reviews, including TJC, CLC oversight reviews and implementation of approved recommendations.

Work Schedule: Mon- Fri, 7:30am to 4:00pm. Incumbent may be expected to respond to events or emergencies on weekends, evenings, and holidays.

Pay: Competitive salary, annual performance bonus, regular salary increases

Paid Time Off: 50-55 days of paid time off per year (26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year and possible 5 day paid absence for CME)

Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA

Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement)

Licensure: 1 full and unrestricted license from any US State or territory

CME: Possible $1,000 per year reimbursement (must be full-time with board certification)

Malpractice: Free liability protection with tail coverage provided

Contract: No Physician Employment Contract and no significant restriction on moonlighting

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 evaluation.
• 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.

Preferred Experience: Previous leadership experience. Preference will be given to candidates with long term care, hospice, and home based care experience. Preference will be given to those with supervisory and administrative experience.

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

Physical Requirements: Position requires a pre-employment evaluation. See VA Handbook and Directive 5019 for more information.

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 committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

Benefits

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Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.