ASSOCIATE MEDICAL DIRECTOR

Hospice & Palliative Care Associate Medical Director Opportunity - BridgingLife, a LifeBridge Health Partner: Westminster, Randallstown & Baltimore MD

For more than 35 years, BridgingLife, formerly known as Carroll Hospice, has delivered nationally recognized, compassionate care to patients and their families in our community. We’ve expanded our services across the LifeBridge Health continuum of care to help serve people living with serious illness in the areas of palliative care, home hospice care, inpatient hospice care, and grief support.

We are now searching for a full-time Associate Medical Director to join our Medical Director in the care of our hospice patients. This is an excellent opportunity for a physician with advanced knowledge and skills in the specialty area of hospice and palliative care medicine. This position has the potential to work on-site at any of our BridgingLife facilities, including: Dove House, Westminster; Northwest Hospital, Randallstown; or Sinai Hospital, Baltimore.

Desired Candidate:

• Attend and actively participate in weekly Interdisciplinary Group (IDG) meetings, providing clinical leadership guidance and medical expertise to the other members of the IDG.

• Certify and recertify, as required, patient eligibility for hospice care, taking into consideration all relevant facts, including but not limited to the diagnosis of the terminal condition, other health conditions, whether related or unrelated to the terminal condition, and current clinically relevant information supporting all diagnoses, and provide expertise in the selection of data elements that are clinically relevant for the individual patient to document progression of disease.

• Complete required narrative for certificates of terminal illness.

• Prior to a patient’s third and subsequent re-certifications, ensure that clinical findings support continued eligibility for hospice care.

• Participate in the development, implementation, and ongoing revision of an initial and subsequent comprehensive plan of care (“POC”) for each patient, including interventions to manage pain and symptoms, any drugs and/or treatment necessary to meet the needs of the patient, and assist in establishing measurable outcomes for each patient based on the patient’s care plan needs and in accordance to the patient’s bill of rights. 

• Provide accurate and timely documentation of all patient care services personally provided.

• Assume responsibility for medical care of patients receiving hospice care in conjunction with the attending physician and IDG, including providing for the general medical needs of patients to the extent such needs are not met, in whole or in part, by the attending physician, including, for example, writing prescriptions (including for controlled substances) and signing death certificates.

• Review medication regimens of patients for effectiveness of drug therapy, drug side effects, actual or potential drug interactions, duplicate drug therapy, and drug therapy currently associated with laboratory monitoring, and assist the IDG to define and measure meaningful outcomes to assess effectiveness of interventions and medications.

• Participate with the medical director and other providers in an equitable share of on-call coverage. This may include overnight and weekend telephone coverage, as well as an equitable share of bedside rounding at one or more of our inpatient facilities on weekends and/or holidays.

• Confer with and advise management and staff on complex care issues or concerns involving a POC, and, as needed, contact the attending physician to resolve conflicting patient care decisions.

• Responsible for optimizing the comfort and dignity of each patient and providing care that is consistent with patient and family needs and goals.

• Assist the Medical Director in managing the inpatient and outpatient Palliative Care programs as needed.  Clinical or administrative work with the palliative care teams may be an option if desired.

• Serve as the physician designee in the absence of the Medical Director.

• Other reasonable duties as may be assigned from time to time by the Medical Director or a designee.

Benefits:

• Competitive annual salary*  
• Full benefit package
• Medical malpractice insurance
• 403(b) Plan
• CME allowance
• Professional Dues

*$220k - $280k salary range, based on experience

BridgingLife is accredited by the Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP).

CHAP accreditation publicly certifies that an organization has voluntarily met the highest standards of excellence for home and/or community-based healthcare.

 BridgingLife is a member of:

• Hospice and Palliative Care Network of Maryland
• National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization

Visit us at: https://www.lifebridgehealth.org/services/bridginglife-hospice-care