System Medical Director, Behavioral Health
Job at a glance
Job description
The System Medical and Service Line Director of Behavioral Health serves as the senior physician leader responsible for the clinical strategy, quality, growth, integration, and development of behavioral health services across Mountains Health.
The Medical Director will simultaneously serve as Medical Director of Mountains Behavioral Health, a 49-bed inpatient psychiatric facility located in Indiana, Pennsylvania, providing direct physician leadership to the inpatient psychiatric program.
This position is intended to be substantially broader than the traditional role of an inpatient psychiatric medical director. The successful candidate will be charged with developing an integrated regional behavioral health delivery system serving rural communities throughout western Pennsylvania.
The Medical Director will provide physician leadership across the behavioral health continuum, including inpatient psychiatry, outpatient psychiatry, emergency and crisis services, telepsychiatry, collaborative care, intensive community-based treatment, rapid-access psychiatry, intensive outpatient services, step-down programs, geriatric behavioral health, substance use disorder treatment and detoxification, and other services developed in response to regional community needs.
The position will provide leadership and oversight to the physician leader responsible for outpatient psychiatric services and will work closely with hospital, medical group, nursing, behavioral health, emergency medicine, primary care, community, payer, and administrative leaders to create a coordinated behavioral health system rather than a collection of independent programs.
Pennsylvania's Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS) regulates multiple portions of this continuum under different regulatory frameworks, including psychiatric outpatient clinics, partial hospitalization, intensive behavioral health services, private psychiatric hospitals, and other behavioral health programs.
Job Responsibilities
Serve as the principal physician executive for behavioral health services throughout Mountains Health.
2. Mountains Behavioral Health Inpatient Medical Directorship
Serve concurrently as the physician medical director for the 49-bed Mountains Behavioral Health inpatient psychiatric facility.
3. Adult and Adolescent Behavioral Health Strategy
Provide clinical leadership for the development of an integrated behavioral health strategy addressing both adult and adolescent populations.
4. Outpatient Psychiatry Leadership
Provide executive physician oversight to the Outpatient Psychiatric Service Line and Medical Director.
5. Behavioral Health Continuum Development
A major responsibility of this position will be to move Mountains Health toward a true continuum-of-care model.
6. Telepsychiatry and Digital Behavioral Health
Develop telepsychiatry as a core component of Mountains Health's rural behavioral health strategy rather than simply as an emergency staffing solution.
7. Geriatric Behavioral Health
Develop a regional strategy for the growing behavioral health needs of older adults.
8. Emergency and Crisis Psychiatry
Develop a coordinated psychiatric emergency response strategy across Mountains Health facilities.
9. Psychiatric Residency and Graduate Medical Education
Evaluate and, if approved by Mountains Health leadership, lead the development of a psychiatry residency program.
10. Clinical practice
Maintain a meaningful clinical practice appropriate to the scope of the executive medical director responsibilities.
Qualifications
Education
• Doctor of Medicine (MD) or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) from an appropriately accredited medical school.
• Completion of an accredited psychiatry residency program.
Licensure and Certification
• Eligible for unrestricted physician licensure in Pennsylvania.
• Eligible for appropriate medical staff appointment and clinical privileges.
• Board certification in Psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) or appropriate American Osteopathic Association-recognized specialty board strongly preferred.
• Current DEA registration as required for clinical responsibilities.
Where a particular certification, credential or experience is required by the facility's license, accreditation status, medical staff bylaws or payer agreements, those requirements will apply.
Preferred Qualifications:
The strongest candidate will have:
• 7–10+ years of progressive psychiatric clinical and leadership experience.
• Significant medical director experience.
• Inpatient psychiatric leadership experience.
• Experience overseeing both inpatient and outpatient behavioral health.
• Demonstrated program-development experience.
• Experience building behavioral health programs rather than solely administering established programs.
• Rural or underserved-market experience.
• Telepsychiatry experience.
• Collaborative Care Model experience.
• Experience developing crisis and rapid-access psychiatric services.
• IOP/partial hospitalization/step-down experience.
• Child or adolescent behavioral health program-development experience.
• Geriatric behavioral health experience.
• Substance use disorder and detoxification program experience.
• Physician and APP workforce-development experience.
• Demonstrated grant-development or rural behavioral health funding experience.
• Experience developing partnerships with community organizations, counties, payers and academic institutions.
• Experience developing or operating a psychiatry residency.
Highly preferred: prior experience serving as a founding Program Director, Associate Program Director, DIO, department chair, medical director or senior physician leader involved in successfully launching a psychiatry residency program.