Medical Director - Medical Behavioral Unit

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About the Job

The Psychiatry Medical Director for MBU is responsible for oversight supporting inpatient clinical operations and patient care in the Medical Behavioral Unit (MBU) through direct collaboration with key partners including the Medical Director of General Pediatrics, the MBU Nurse Manager, and the APP Manager for the MBU. The Psychiatry Medical Director for MBU will work with partners to establish and implement an agenda that advances institutional goals and objectives in the delivery of safe, high-quality, and family-centered care in the MBU. The Medical Director will provide leadership in the execution of institutional initiatives at the unit level with a focus on safety, quality, operational excellence, financial stewardship, patient-family experience, physician practice and wellness, and promotion of interdisciplinary collaboration. The position will provide the director with 0.2 FTE administrative time. The Medical Director will report to the Section Director of Integrated Behavioral Medicine and the Division Chiefs of Integrated Psychiatry, Psychology, and Behavioral Health as designated by the Division Leadership. Key functions of the Medical Director role include: 1. Provide leadership and accountability for quality, safety, operational excellence, financial stewardship, patient-family experience, physician practice and wellness in the MBU. 2. Collaborate with pediatric, nursing, and DCAPBS leadership to advance a clinical leadership community and culture for a learning health system.

What you will do

• The Medical Director in alignment with relevant stakeholders shall have key responsibility for the following:
  • This position will be responsible for leadership and strategic planning, overseeing the development, implementation and program evaluation of the MBU
  • Provide direct clinical psychiatric service to all patients admitted to the Medical Behavioral Unit
  • Oversee all clinical care provided by Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner as well as all psychiatric trainees assigned to the Medical Behavioral Unit
  • Ensures Unit and Service Line Quality and Safety in alignment with Integrated Division, Department, and enterprise goals and initiatives
  • Provide oversight of operations and ongoing process improvement for behavioral health services within and related to the Medical Behavioral Unit
• Develops policy and drives accountability for organizational policies supporting efficient operations of the Medical Behavioral Unit
• Collaborates with all Integrated Division, Department, and relevant enterprise clinical and administrative leadership to align services and priorities and ensure effective integration including participation in relevant meetings and committees
• In partnership with appropriate co-leaders, guides implementation and operation of improvement activities and change that are consistent with institutional priorities and initiatives and evaluate their outcomes. Supports development of new clinical programs and refinement of existing programs to ensure optimal staffing, infrastructure, and resource use to deliver high-quality and high-value care.
• Develops and co-develops policies, pathways, and workflows supporting safe, high-value, and high-quality care on the unit
• Leads, co-leads, and attends relevant, area-specific safety and quality meetings and event reviews (such as Root Cause Analyses, Apparent Cause Analysis, Cognitive System Analysis, etc.) related to care on the unit. Participates in development and execution of corrective action plans
• Support an environment where staff are encouraged to raise safety concerns at all levels and at every point of care. Leads using behaviors consistent with error prevention and safety.
• Attends and Co-Leads Unit Operations Meeting, Executive Walk Rounds, and Patient Safety Walk Rounds. Attends and actively contributes to Unit Partners Meeting and other appropriate institutional and divisional meetings related to inpatient operations, quality and safety, and related initiatives
• Continuously scans the internal and external environment to identify opportunities to improve clinical care and operations
• Provides support for ongoing clinical programming initiatives such as PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports)

Collaboration

• Communicates regularly with Integrated Division Leadership and Section Directors to develop and implement the DCAPBS and Integrated Division strategic priorities
• Ensures collaboration with all pertinent CHOP departments maintaining working relationships with key stakeholders using the RACI framework, including by not limited to Social Work, Child Life, Creative Arts Therapy, and Hospital School Program
• Provides education to the Philadelphia Campus about the care model on the MBU to promote alignment in best utilization of MBU resources. This may include mediation with other pediatric subspecialty services in ensuring transfer or admission request that will result in optimal patient outcomes and assists with communication with unit and other clinical providers in resolving potential discrepancies
• Models, defines, and promotes effective leadership in the advancement of institutional goals and objectives particularly within the Unit Leader Partner group. These include: Patient and Employee Safety; Quality and Quality Improvement; Operational excellence, reliability, and efficiency; Breakthrough Leadership Program; Patient-Family Experience initiatives; Financial stewardship and value-based healthcare; Clinical Compliance, Performance Improvement & Effectiveness; and Strategic & Enterprise Plan Initiatives.
• Promotes sharing of information, experiences, and lessons learned between and among Unit Leader Partner members and the units they represent. Acts as a resource to evaluate psychiatric practice issues and oversees the monitoring of clinical practice in designated areas, including relevant dashboards and metrics
• Acts as a resource for escalation of clinical and operational concerns from clinical staff, collaborates with clinical, operational, and support areas to address concerns, and is accountable for resolution and/or further escalation to hospital and departmental leadership.

Performance

• Develops the strategy for data collection for strategic planning and quality improvement processes for the Medical Behavioral Unit
• Develops the strategy for performance metrics (dashboards, key indicators, etc.) for providers in the Medical Behavioral Unit
• Develops and supports ongoing quality improvement projects for the Medical Behavioral Unit with appropriate stakeholders across enterprise

Teaching

• Leads MBU fellow clinic rotation. This includes providing mentorship and oversight of child and adolescent psychiatry and post-pediatric portal fellows in their 2-week MBU rotation.
• Supports training programs and promotes this asset in mission development
• In coordination with DCAPBS training directors and program leaders, supports a quality training environment for existing and new training programs across disciplines and programs at all levels

Research

• Supports the Division Leadership and Section Chiefs in creating an environment that supports execution of research strategy
• Participates in unit wide Quality improvement research projects such as the MBU Restraint Reduction Project

Financial Officer

• Works with the Integrated Division Leadership and Section Directors to optimize unit finances
• Optimizes expense control
• Optimizes coding and billing for clinical activity

Human Resources Manager

• Effectively motivates and recruits clinical staff within the unit and resolves conflict within leadership group.

Licenses and Certifications

• Medical Board Certification - Psychiatry - General Psychiatry, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry - upon hire - Required

Education

• Doctorate Medicine or Osteopathic Medicine Required

Experience

• Completed Residency in General Psychiatry and Child & Adolescent Psychiatry - Required
• At least three (3) years of clinical CAP experience within academic healthcare institution or other large healthcare institution - Required
• At least one (1) year post-graduate clinical experience in settings that include but are not limited to: inpatient psychiatric care and/or consult and liaison psychiatry within a general pediatrics hospital - Preferred
• At least one (1) year of leadership experience within the field or hospital setting - Preferred

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Working knowledge of hospital practices and protocols as well as applicable regulations and guidelines.
• Effective even in the face of ambiguity.
• Sound judgment, strong analytical & critical thinking skills; ability to synthesize information from multiple sources and translate that into the development, implementation, and evaluation of programs in support of high-quality patient care, safety & reliability, and sound psychiatric operations.
• Developed influence and interpersonal skills; ability to work with and through others to accomplish work outside span of control.
• Ability to appreciate and collaborate with a wide range of internal & external stakeholders from diverse cultural, professional, organizational, and functional backgrounds.

To carry out its mission, CHOP is committed to supporting the health of our patients, families, workforce, and global community. As a condition of employment, professionals working onsite-at any CHOP location, for any portion of time-must be vaccinated for COVID-19. Learn more.

CHOP also requires employees who work in patient care buildings to receive an annual influenza vaccine. Employees may request exemptions for valid religious and medical reasons. Start dates may be delayed until candidates are immunized or exemption requests are reviewed.

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