Physician - Primary Care

The Primary Care Staff Physician provides direct patient care to the Veteran population full time and works as a member of a Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT). A PACT Team is Veteran centered, interdisciplinary in nature, and is responsible for the longitudinal management of the Veteran.

Education Debt Reduction Program (Student Loan Repayment): APPROVED! Learn more.

Duties include but are not limited to:

• Responsible for providing Primary Care to new and established patients who are assigned to their designated panel.
• Monitors grids for full slot scheduling and utilization. Uses templated tools to communicate with the providers supervisor, MSA, and MSA Lead/Supervisor when slots are not scheduled fully with the goal of improvement in utilization and Veteran access to care.
• Provides comprehensive interdisciplinary team care in coordination with extended PACT support to include a Clinical Pharmacist, PACT Social Worker, Outpatient Dietitian, Primary Care Mental Health Integration Psychologist, and the other services.
• Utilizes referral resources efficiently and appropriately to ensure all Veterans have access to specialty care services.
• Responsible for ongoing continuous care of assigned panel of Veterans.
• Working with the PACT Team, utilizes all available tools, such as population health registries, to enable effective and efficient identification and intervention of for individual patients and cohorts to improve health outcomes.
• Ensures appropriate evaluation, examination, testing, diagnosis, complex of care development is provided to patients assigned to the patient panel.
• Ensures access to primary care provider is maintained by efficient use of all available resources.
• Provides health care commensurate to the PCP's licensure and clinical privileges or scope of practice.
• Manages communication and facilitating safe transitions with the RN assistance of patients between the PACT's site of care and other health care setting, using informal and formal communication, as appropriate.
• Uses formal and informal communications that are respectful, effective, timely, and bidirectional with all team members (including the patient and personal support persons) to convey significant, clinically relevant information for the care of the patient.
• Provides health education and health coaching on wellness, disease prevention, chronic care management, and self-management skills to patients and personal support persons.
• Engages with patients in using health care, including whole health, encouraging patients to engage in personal support persons, receiving input from patients and personal support persons regarding VA care.
• Collaborates with informatics technology staff to develop and implement systematized, electronically supported, standardized, tools to support PACT care delivery processes.
• Ensures that patient's care plan contains medical recommendations for clinically indicated care.
• Offers clinically indicated health care services to patients assigned to the PACT, and providing or arranging for care to which patients consent.
• Provides leadership to the team including shared delegation of appropriate care and care processes to appropriate team members.
• Ensures the patient has same-day access for face-to-face and virtual care visits during regular clinic hours.
• Collaborates with PACT staff to develop personal health plans and incorporate care management and care coordination appropriate to the patients' needs.
• Communicates with facility leadership regarding the resources needed by the PACT for optimal function.

VA offers a comprehensive total rewards package. VHA Physician Total Rewards.

Education Debt Reduction Program (Student Loan Repayment) Authorized: This position is eligible for the Education Debt Reduction Program (EDRP), a student loan payment reimbursement program. You must meet specific eligibility requirements per VHA policy and submit your EDRP application within four months of appointment. Program Approval, award amount (up to $200,000) & eligibility period (one to five years) are determined by the VHA Education Loan Repayment Services program office after review of the EDRP application. Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply. Learn more.
EDRP: Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply for incentive. Contact VHA.ELRSProgramSupport@va.gov, the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance

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

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm

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 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 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), b) OR
  [(2) Those approved by the American Osteopathic Association (AOA),OR
  (3) Other residencies (non-US residency training programs followed by a minimum of five years of verified practice in the United States), 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.
  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 or fee-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.
• Proficiency in spoken and written English.

Preferred Experience: Three(3) to five(5) years of Outpatient Primary Care Experience

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

Physical Requirements: Light lifting, under 15 pounds; Light carrying, under 15 pounds; Pushing (5 hours); Reaching above shoulder; Use of fingers; Both hands required; Walking (5 hours); Standing (5 hours); Both legs required; Ability for rapid mental and muscular coordination simultaneously; Near vision correctable at 13" to 16" to Jaeger 1 to 4; Depth perception; Ability to distinguish basic colors; Hearing (aid may be permitted).

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, or
2. Schools of osteopathic medicine approved by the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation of the American Osteopathic Association for the year in which the degree was granted.
3. For foreign medical graduates not covered in (1) or (2) above, facility officials must verify with the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) that the applicant has met requirements for certification, and must obtain a copy of the ECFMG certificate, if claimed by the applicant. [If the applicant does not claim an ECFMG certificate, facility officials must still confirm that the medical school meets (or met) ECFMG eligibility requirements for the year the candidate 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.