Psychiatric Services Medical Director
Job Status: Full-time | Exempt
Location: 1245 Edgewater Street NW, Salem, OR | West Salem Clinic
Position Structure: Approximately 75% clinical practice and 25% leadership and administrative responsibilities
Schedule: 5-8's or 4-10's
Lead Psychiatric Care Across an Integrated Health System
Northwest Human Services is seeking an experienced Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner to serve as our Psychiatric Services Medical Director.
This is a working clinical leadership position for someone who wants to remain closely connected to patient care while also shaping the quality, consistency, and future direction of psychiatric services.
The Psychiatric Services Medical Director maintains an active psychiatric practice and provides clinical direction, mentorship, and leadership to psychiatric providers. In partnership with the Chief Medical Officer, clinic leadership, primary care providers, behavioral health clinicians, nursing staff, and other members of the care team, this position helps ensure psychiatric services are safe, evidence-based, coordinated, and responsive to the needs of our patients.
What Success Looks Like Here
- You'll provide excellent psychiatric care. Conduct psychiatric evaluations, develop treatment plans, manage medications, assess clinical risk, and support patients with a broad range of psychiatric and behavioral health conditions.
- You'll strengthen psychiatric practice. Establish and reinforce clinical standards, treatment protocols, documentation expectations, and evidence-based approaches across psychiatric services.
- You'll support and develop providers. Offer consultation, education, mentorship, and clinical guidance that help psychiatric providers grow and navigate complex patient needs.
- You'll connect psychiatric and primary care. Build strong working relationships across medical, behavioral health, nursing, and care coordination teams so patients experience coordinated, patient-centered care.
- You'll improve quality and safety. Use clinical expertise, data, incident review, and continuous-improvement practices to strengthen access, outcomes, documentation, and patient safety.
The Clinical and Leadership Balance
This position is structured as approximately:
- 75% clinical practice and department-specific responsibilities
- 25% director-level leadership and administrative responsibilities
The Psychiatric Services Medical Director will maintain an active clinical practice while also providing leadership for psychiatric providers, clinical quality, integrated care, policies, protocols, and service improvement.
This position is best suited for a clinically experienced PMHNP who wants to continue practicing while taking on meaningful responsibility for provider development and psychiatric service quality.
Who Thrives Here
The leaders who thrive here bring calm, thoughtful judgment to complex clinical situations. They communicate clearly, build trust across disciplines, and balance accountability with compassion.
They are comfortable making difficult clinical decisions, supporting providers through challenging cases, and identifying practical ways to strengthen systems of care.
The candidate we are looking for is an experienced PMHNP who brings advanced psychiatric expertise, demonstrated leadership ability, and a collaborative approach to integrated healthcare. They understand that strong clinical leadership is not only about setting standards, but also about mentoring providers, improving workflows, supporting teams, and ensuring patients receive safe and consistent care.
What You'll Do
Psychiatric Clinical Services and Patient Care
- Maintain an active psychiatric practice, including psychiatric evaluations, treatment planning, medication management, primary care consultation, and post-hospital follow-up.
- Diagnose and treat individuals with a broad range of psychiatric and behavioral health conditions.
- Provide consultation to primary care providers regarding complex psychiatric presentations, psychopharmacology, medication management, risk assessment, and continuity of care.
- Assess and respond to psychiatric risk factors, including suicide risk, danger to others, substance-related concerns, medication complications, and behavioral health emergencies.
- Develop collaborative, measurable, and patient-centered treatment plans consistent with current standards of psychiatric practice.
- Maintain timely and accurate clinical documentation that supports patient care, regulatory compliance, and appropriate billing.
- Collaborate with care team members to support specialty referrals, case management, enabling services, and follow-up care.
- Provide clinical coverage and consultation to support psychiatric providers and interdisciplinary care teams as needed.
Psychiatric Provider Leadership and Mentorship
- Provide clinical direction, consultation, mentorship, and professional support to psychiatric provider staff.
- Promote consistent application of psychiatric standards of practice, evidence-based treatment, and quality patient care.
- Lead provider education related to psychiatric diagnosis, psychopharmacology, co-occurring disorders, medication interactions, suicide risk assessment, and patient safety.
- Support psychiatric providers in managing complex cases and clinical risk.
- Establish and reinforce expectations related to treatment protocols, quality measures, documentation, clinical performance, and patient care.
- Recruit, develop, motivate, and retain high-performing team members.
- Provide coaching, performance feedback, one-on-one meetings, training, and professional growth opportunities.
- Promote a culture of transparency, psychological safety, accountability, ethical conduct, inclusion, and continuous improvement.
Integrated Psychiatric and Primary Care
- Partner with the Chief Medical Officer, clinic leadership, medical providers, behavioral health clinicians, nursing staff, and care coordination teams to strengthen integrated care.
- Develop and support treatment protocols and educational resources for primary care providers related to psychiatric diagnosis, treatment, and medication management.
- Improve communication and coordination between psychiatric services, primary care, behavioral health, and other interdisciplinary teams.
- Provide psychiatric clinical expertise and consultation within the integrated healthcare model.
- Identify barriers affecting patient access, continuity of care, provider effectiveness, or care team collaboration and develop practical solutions.
- Support an approach to care that recognizes the connection between physical health, mental health, substance use, and social factors affecting patient outcomes.
Clinical Quality, Patient Safety, and Compliance
- Lead psychiatric quality assurance and continuous-improvement efforts.
- Establish and monitor psychiatric quality standards, outcome measures, and clinical practices.
- Provide psychiatric subject-matter expertise in the development, review, and implementation of policies, procedures, treatment protocols, and practice standards.
- Participate in critical incident reviews, risk-management activities, and the monthly Critical Incident Review Committee.
- Review psychiatric-related safety events and identify opportunities for corrective action and clinical improvement.
- Ensure psychiatric services comply with professional standards, organizational policies, payer requirements, accreditation expectations, and applicable federal and state regulations.
- Support appropriate clinical documentation, coding, billing, credentialing, and privileging practices.
- Promote culturally responsive, trauma-informed, equitable, and patient-centered care.
Strategic and Operational Leadership
- Provide strategic and operational leadership for psychiatric services in alignment with organizational priorities and standards of care.
- Develop and evaluate departmental goals, clinical initiatives, workflows, and service-improvement efforts.
- Use clinical, workforce, operational, and quality data to evaluate performance and support informed decision-making.
- Manage resources responsibly, including staffing, productivity, cost containment, and departmental priorities.
- Identify operational barriers affecting care delivery, staff effectiveness, or team collaboration and implement mitigation plans.
- Support compliance, risk, financial, workforce, and quality considerations in departmental planning.
- Build collaborative relationships with community providers, referral agencies, social service organizations, and other external partners.
- Participate in organizational meetings, committees, and leadership activities.
Required Qualifications
- Master's or doctoral degree in nursing with Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner preparation.
- Active, unrestricted Oregon Nurse Practitioner license.
- Current PMHNP-BC national board certification through the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).
- Current Drug Enforcement Administration registration (DEA) registration with authority to prescribe controlled substances, including Schedules II-V.
- Minimum of three years of director-level experience, or five years of clinical practice with other demonstrated leadership experience.
- Demonstrated experience providing psychiatric evaluation, diagnosis, treatment planning, medication management, and care for individuals with a broad range of psychiatric and behavioral health conditions.
- Demonstrated ability to provide clinical leadership, consultation, education, and mentorship to psychiatric providers and interdisciplinary healthcare teams.
- Advanced knowledge of psychiatric standards of practice, psychopharmacology, co-occurring disorders, suicide risk assessment, patient safety, and evidence-based treatment.
- Experience managing complex psychiatric presentations, behavioral health emergencies, medication-related concerns, and clinical risk.
- Strong clinical judgment, communication, leadership, coaching, collaboration, and decision-making skills.
- Current Basic Life Support for Healthcare Providers certification consistent with American Heart Association guidelines.
- Valid Oregon Driver's License and proof of automobile insurance.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience working in an integrated healthcare setting, Federally Qualified Health Center, community health center, community mental health program, safety-net organization, or outpatient behavioral health setting.
- Experience integrating psychiatric services into primary care or other interdisciplinary healthcare environments.
- Experience developing clinical protocols, provider education, psychiatric practice standards, or training programs.
- Experience leading quality-improvement, patient-safety, access-improvement, or psychiatric service-development initiatives.
- Experience using clinical, quality, operational, or electronic health record data to support performance improvement.
- Experience with value-based care, population health, care coordination, or integrated service-delivery models.
- Experience participating in incident review, risk-management, or corrective-action processes.
- Bilingual or multilingual skills relevant to the communities served.
Please note: This posting is intended to provide a high-level overview of the role and is not the full, all-inclusive job description
SUMMARY OF BENEFITS: Our Agency strives to provide a benefits program that is comprehensive and competitive within our industry.
- Healthcare insurance plans: Medical, Dental, Vision
- Group Life: Short-Term & Long-Term Disability 100% paid by employer
- 403(b) retirement plan with 2% of employer contribution and up to 3% employer match
- Flex Spending Account
- PTO - 10 hours a month for FT positions 40 hrs./wk. up to 20 hours monthly as your tenure grows
- 7½ Paid Holidays a year + 2 paid floating holidays for full-time positions
- Continuing Education & Training Benefits
- Employee Healthy Living Program - Gym Membership & Smoking Cessation
