Division Chief Ophthalmology Associate or Full Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology-CHLA

The Keck School of Medicine (KSOM) of the University of Southern California (USC) Department of Ophthalmology and the Department of Surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) are actively seeking a full-time board-certified physician leader for the position of Division Chief of Ophthalmology at CHLA. 

Position Description

We are seeking an experienced and dynamic individual to join our team as the Division Chief of Ophthalmology. As a pivotal departmental leader, the Chief will be responsible for leading a team of 16 physicians covering the full clinical ophthalmology service and working in collaboration with the Department of Surgery’s Surgeon-in-Chief. The position also includes supporting the academic success and professional development of our faculty and fellows.

Candidate Attributes

The ideal candidate will be a pediatric ophthalmologist with a strong orientation toward clinical operations, with an accomplished clinical research record and prior successes in developing and mentoring faculty members.

The ideal candidate will demonstrate an ability to inspire and motivate through vision and purpose, has academic credentials of merit, has effectively managed people around short and long-term objectives, understands the business of academic medicine, and is a clear and professional communicator. The ability to build high-performing teams, engage in strategic thinking and decision-making are all necessary skills.

Responsibilities

The candidate will balance a clinical patient care practice that spans the wide variety of care settings and environments available at CHLA with oversight of the practice of faculty members within the Division and supervision of non-physician team members. The individual will champion growth within the department, engage in program development activities, develop and champion innovative compensation models for approval and implementation and provide leadership and mentorship regarding education and research activities.

Specific Responsibilities and Requirements

In this leadership role, you are expected to:

• Demonstrate behaviors in concert with hospital mission, values, policies, & procedures.
• Demonstrate behaviors that support performance improvement activities
• Maintain competence and professional development.
• Maintains license, certification or registration as required.
• Perform other duties as requested.

Specific leadership responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

Clinical Oversight

• Oversee the delivery of clinical care provided throughout the division and ensure that the quality of care delivered meets or exceeds accepted standards.
• Ensure that patient access is maximized for the division. Ensures the maintenance of on-call and ambulatory schedules.
• Ensure that the divisional faculty and staff maintain positive working relationships and contact with referring physicians.
• Ensure medical directors and program directors have appropriately scoped duties and are satisfactorily fulfilling expected duties.
• Ensure compliance with appropriate medical record documentation and timely and accurate submission of charges for clinical services.
• Ensure compliance with all internal policies and procedures of the university, medical school, department, hospital, and external regulatory agencies.

Leadership

• Create a positive work environment for the division.
• Serve as a role model for effective communication.
• Establish a system for ensuring that information is transmitted in a timely manner to all faculty and staff.
• Monitor and understand the local and national forces shaping healthcare in the US and how these forces may influence the future of discipline.
• Identify opportunities for growth of the division’s clinical, research, and educational programs.
• Provide guidance and participate in implementation of growth plans, including monitoring progress and performance in achieving objectives. 
• Provide guidance and mentorship for junior faculty and trainees.

Administration oversight and accountability

• Submit an annual report to the chair on status and activities in the areas of research, education, and patient care, as well as notable awards and accomplishments of divisional faculty and staff.
• Participate in healthcare system, hospital, medical school, or department committees as requested or appropriate.
• Lead and participates in quality assurance and performance improvement activities for the division, department, and hospital.
• Regularly attend departmental divisional director and faculty meetings.
• Communicate appropriate information from the department, medical school, and hospital to division personnel in a timely and regular manner. Interacts with and responds to requests from administrative departments (e.g., finance, strategy, marketing, human resources, foundation/development, health information management, medical staff, quality, etc.) in a timely manner.
• Actively participate in departmental fundraising activities and represent the division at events.
• Address clinical, service, process and behavioral complaints regarding the division with directly with affected faculty and escalates to the department chair as needed.
• Other duties may be required for the division or department and assigned by the chair.

Financial oversight

• Develop a divisional budget in collaboration with the department chair, medical group and hospital with the objective of achieving a surplus or, at a minimum, to break even.
• Monitor the financial status of the division on an ongoing basis and develop corrective action plans to address deficit situations.
• Evaluate and establish clinical productivity standards for all clinical faculty in the division.
• Compare division and faculty productivity to appropriate benchmarks and formulate plans to maximize clinical productivity as appropriate.
• Ensure divisional faculty compliance with clinical practice billing and documentation rules and regulations.

Research oversight

• Demonstrates track record of developing a research program.
• Develops a divisional research plan integrating clinical, translational, basic science, and health services research opportunities.
• Recruit faculty whose talents and research interests are consistent with the overall divisional/departmental research program.
• Encourages cross-divisional and departmental research and training collaborations.
• Optimizes utilization of divisional research resources, including space.
• Monitors progress of divisional investigators.
• Develops a plan to deal with gaps in research funding for investigators, as well as a plan for shortfalls in research funding for funded investigators.

Teaching Oversight

• Demonstrated track record of resident and fellow education
• Ensure appropriate and engaging grand rounds for the division.
• Participate when requested by the chief residents in departmental teaching conferences for residents and medical students and ensure that division faculty are similarly responsive to these requests.
• Regularly attend grand rounds and departmental conferences.
• Participate in resident and medical student education and ensures divisional faculty participation and compliance with Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and Liaison Committee on Medical Education training requirements, to ensure successful program continuation

Requirements

• Board certification in Ophthalmology
• Experience
  • Minimum of 10 years of Pediatric Ophthalmology progressive experience, preferably at a large, complex academic children’s hospital or academic medical center, ideally in a diverse, urban and highly regulated market with a high ratio of Medicaid-insured patient population.
  • Experience should include a minimum of 3 years in a leadership role either within an academic Division or Department or in one or more enterprise positions within their home hospital or health system.
  • Successful track record leading cost management initiatives and experience with budget management preferred.
  • Must have demonstrated a commitment to professional development along with mentoring and coaching of faculty and team members.
  • Must have demonstrated experience leading faculty in professional development.
• Licensure
  • Must be licensed (or be eligible for medical licensure) in the State of California

Department of Surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

The Department of Surgery brings together special pediatric experts who are dedicated to providing family-centered care. The Department performs over 16,800 surgical procedures annually for children ranging in age from newborns to adolescents, unlike practices where procedures are routinely performed for adults and these approaches are simply adjusted to fit a child.

Surgical Care Divisions

The Department of Surgery provides care through each of its divisions. Each Division is staffed by board-certified physicians, who together represent one of the largest pediatric multispecialty medical and surgical groups in the United States dedicated to providing care for newborns through adolescents.

• Abdominal Organ Transplantation
• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Dentistry and Orthodontics
• General Pediatric Surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Ophthalmology
• Orthopedic Surgery
• Otolaryngology
• Plastic and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Urology