Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology-CHLA

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The Keck School of Medicine (KSOM) of the University of Southern California (USC) Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine (ACCM) at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) are actively seeking a full-time board-certified physician leader for the position of Department Chair of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine at CHLA. The academic rank of the successful candidate will be as a Full Professor of Anesthesiology.

CHLA is one of the nation’s leading academic medical centers devoted to children. At the forefront of pediatric medicine, CHLA is home to renowned experts who work together across disciplines to deliver exceptional care, drive advances in pediatric medicine and help set standards of care across the nation and around the globe. Driven by a culture of innovation, the hospital’s principles of research and discovery are embedded in every aspect of care. The best and brightest come to work at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles because they are deeply dedicated to providing life-changing, lifesaving care for a truly diverse population of children—including many from underserved communities—all in a culturally sensitive and family-friendly environment.

World-Class Clinical Care
CHLA pediatric specialists deliver a level of care that is consistently recognized among the best in the world. Newsweek magazine ranks CHLA among the top five hospitals in the world specializing in pediatrics, and third in the nation. U.S. News & World Report ranks CHLA among the top 10 children’s hospitals in the country every year, including No. 1 in California and No. 1 in the Pacific U.S. region. CHLA is also one of the very few hospitals to have been continuously designated a Magnet hospital since 2008, with its latest redesignation process during the pandemic being accelerated due to the submission of such a stellar application package.

The reach of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is vast and its impact on children’s health spans more than a century. Founded in 1901, CHLA has the highest number of pediatric discharges in the state of California. The hospital and six regional specialty care centers are vital resources for children throughout the nation’s most populous county; CHLA is also a regional referral center and a care destination for children from all 50 states and more than 90 countries. CHLA’s expertise spans the entire pediatric care continuum, from everyday preventive medicine to the most complex surgical interventions such as double organ transplants, treating every child as an individual while demonstrating a commitment to contributing to overall healthier communities. The Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Care Network unifies well over 250 pediatricians in the community around a commitment to quality care delivery, advancing care in the community from well-baby visits to mental health screenings.

With more than 350 specialty programs and services, CHLA has nearly 7,500 team members and 1,000 medical staff members. Through more than 725,000 ambulatory visits and more than 18,397 inpatient discharges in fiscal year 2024, CHLA cares for a broad and clinically complex population. CHLA consistently achieves impressive patient and family experience scores, far outperforming pediatric benchmarks.

Discovery and Innovation

The brightest minds in pediatric medicine can be found at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. For generations, CHLA clinicians and researchers have made significant scientific contributions to preventing, detecting and treating children’s health issues. Physicians translate new discoveries, treatments and cures proven through the work of scientists in The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles—among the top 10 children’s hospitals for National Institutes of Health funding—to bring answers to families faster. The Saban Research Institute is home to hundreds of sponsored clinical trials, bringing discoveries from the lab to patients’ bedsides, while researchers also learn from patients themselves about which therapies are most promising. And the hospital’s diverse patient population means CHLA’s research yields better results for children everywhere.

A Leader in Training and Education
As a training ground for physicians, nurses and numerous other disciplines, CHLA has also developed thousands of leading pediatric experts—locally, nationally and internationally. The hospital is home to one of the largest training programs for pediatricians in the United States. CHLA focuses on preparing the next generation of health professionals through a wide variety of programs. The hospital currently mentors 142 clinical fellows and 111 pediatric residents in 25 ACGME accredited programs. Through 45 fellowship training programs, aspiring subspecialists are offered an exciting range of professional development opportunities, including research exposure, scholarship skills training, state-of-the-art clinical facilities and unsurpassed exposure to a large, diverse patient population.

Commitment to Community
CHLA demonstrates its commitment to fulfilling its mission, to create hope and build healthier futures, at every level of the organization. CHLA serves all children regardless of financial status or payor class. As the largest provider of care in California for children insured by Medi-Cal who require complex care, CHLA is the essential safety net provider for more than half of medically complex children receiving care in Los Angeles County.

CHLA team members are a special type of health professional. Bringing science-driven care to the bedside and serving historically underserved populations, CHLA is essential for the health of California’s children. The hospital provides world-class treatment and ensures all children are able to receive the care they need. CHLA believes that nothing should get in the way of a child’s well-being. The hospital aims to improve the health of the most vulnerable children because healthier families are the bedrock of strong communities—and because every child deserves a chance at a healthier future.

Department of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine (ACCM)

The Department of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine (ACCM) is one of five academic and clinical departments (with the others being Pediatrics, Radiology and Imaging, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Surgery) overseeing the delivery of pediatric care, pursuing research and training health professionals of the future at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. It is one of the oldest pediatric anesthesia programs in North America with a uniquely broad and holistic approach to the delivery of care for children as well as through signature approaches to training.

The Department’s history is one of a unique alignment of care that bridges anesthesiology, critical care, pain medicine and palliative care medical interventions, education and research in a single departmental structure, one that is unique among its peers. This structure provides our faculty with a large department of 410 team members and rotating trainees, broken down into the following categories:

• 79 Board-certified or Board-eligible Faculty
• 38 Fellows
• 65 Rotating Pediatric Residents (in FY 21)
• 79 Rotating Anesthesiology Residents (in FY 21)
• 61 Student Registered Nurse Anesthetists (in FY21)
• 25 Advanced Practice Providers
• 7 Psychosocial Practitioners

ACCM’s role extends outside the operating room setting to include pain management, remote anesthesiology, imaging services, clinical consultation and critical care services in both a cardiac and general medical-surgical pediatric ICUs. Together, the department’s clinical impact is far-reaching with annual case rates of:

• 23,000 anesthesia cases
  (includes main operating room, cardiac interventions, ambulatory surgery center, radiology and interventional radiology with 30% of MRIs and 60% of IR cases under general anesthesia)
  
• 2,700 intensive care unit admissions
  (includes pediatric critical care, pediatric cardiac critical care and pediatric neurocritical care)
  
• 12,300 pain medicine patient encounters
  (includes care for acute pain, chronic pain—which is unique in southern California, and innovative therapies that include psychotherapy, biofeedback, acupuncture, virtual reality and massage)
  
• 3,600 palliative care patient encounters
  (includes support of patients and families with complex, critical and/or life-threatening disease, incorporates collaboration with every major medical and surgical service, assures complex coordination with hospice and home health agencies and recently implemented telehealth)

Through the Laura P. and Leland K. Whittier Virtual Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, the Department extends critical information science and data science services to the international community of critical care givers. The department is also home to a nascent but growing Center for Pediatric Bioethics.

Clinical Divisions

Within the department, academic and clinical efforts are organized in the following divisions:

• Critical Care Medicine
  • Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit
  • Pediatric Intensive Care Unit
• Clinical Anesthesiology
• Pain Medicine
• Palliative Care

Research
The Department has contributed significantly to anesthesia literature over the past several decades, furthering the understanding and growth of this specialty. Currently, our physician-researchers are actively involved in leading-edge anesthesiology and critical care medicine research with special strengths in the following lines of research:

• Informatics and Data Science
• Integrative Medicine
• Multi-center clinical trials in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine
  • Leaders in research networks: CPCCRN and PALISI
• New models of pain and palliative care management
• Outcomes following critical illness
• Respiratory Failure and Mechanical Ventilation
• Translational science in sepsis
• Virtual reality

The core pillars of research strength in ACCM currently are in respiratory physiology, informatics, outcomes and participation in multicenter clinical trials. The department operates the largest training program at CHLA, teaching nearly 250 trainees per year, including residents, student registered nurse anesthetists (SRNA), and anesthesia technicians who rotate from other schools (University of Southern California, University of California Los Angeles, Kaiser Permanente, and others). Programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) include:

• Critical care (15 fellows)
• Pediatric anesthesiology (10 to 12 fellows)
• Palliative care (1 fellow)

• Non-ACGME-accredited programs include:
• Cardiac critical care (2 fellows)
• Pain management (1 to 2 fellows)
• Cardiac anesthesia (1 to 2 fellows)

For more information, please visit: https://www.chla.org/anesthesiology-critical-care.

Position Description

We are seeking an experienced and dynamic individual to join our team as the Chair. As a pivotal enterprise leader, the Chair will be responsible for providing oversight for faculty activities and the delivery of medical care in each of the critical environments covered.

The position also includes supporting the academic success and professional development of our faculty, fellows and team members.

Candidate Attributes

The ideal candidate will be a pediatric anesthesiologist who is also board-certified in critical care medicine with a strong orientation toward department 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, have academic credentials of merit, have effectively managed people around short and long-term objectives, have an understanding of the business of academic medicine, and be 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 decision-making across the wide variety of care settings and environments available at CHLA with oversight of the division chiefs and vice chairs as well as supervision of non-physician administrative 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 with regard to education and research activities.

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

• Providing leadership and input at the Enterprise, Department and Hospital level along with leadership and strategic direction to division chiefs and department vice chairs.
• Collaborating with an interdisciplinary team to deliver high-quality clinical services to patients, their families, and medical staff.
• Creating a positive work environment.
• Providing guidance and mentorship for physicians and trainees to support a culture of professionalism and effective communication within the division and department.
• Building a strong partnership with other division leaders, both internal and external to ACCM, to collaborate with physician leaders on clinical activities.
• Demonstrating expertise in anesthesiology, monitoring and understanding the local and national forces shaping healthcare in the US and ideating regarding how these forces may influence the future of the discipline.
• Identifying and championing opportunities for growth of the department’s and division’s clinical, research, and educational programs.
• Providing guidance and participating in implementation of growth plans, including monitoring progress and performance in achieving objectives. 
• Actively participating in departmental and division fundraising activities and representing the division at events. Addressing clinical, service, process and behavioral complaints directly with other department chairs and affected chiefs and their faculty. Ensuring divisional faculty compliance with clinical practice billing and documentation rules and regulations.
• Overseeing division budget in collaboration with academic leaders as well as administrative leaders from the hospital and the CHLA Medical Group; developing and participating in annual departmental budgeting efforts in collaboration with the Department Chair, department management team, medical group and hospital.
• Effectively operationalizing financial strategic plan goals and priorities of department.
• Coordinating educational activities for anesthesiology (in collaboration with education/fellowship services of the department).
• Developing and conducting cooperative research programs for the department.
• Leading and participating in quality assurance and performance improvement activities for the division in partnership with our QA/QI teams.
• Delivering thoughtful, accurate and timely academic and performance evaluations for division faculty in accordance with required procedures and timelines.
• Leading recruitment for division chief positions; approving faculty appointment, reappointment and academic promotions.
• Assisting (as appropriate) with recruitment of key faculty for other departments, hospital, and medical group staff.
• Ensuring the provision of clinical care that meets the needs of the Departments with clinical quality and productivity levels that meet or exceed accepted standards.
• Partnering successfully with leadership across the enterprise to maximize the impact of CHLA’s clinical care delivery and operations.

Requirements:

Board certification in Anesthesiology and Pediatric Anesthesiology

Primary board certification in Anesthesiology. Training in Critical Care Medicine and Pediatrics would be of benefit.

Experience

Minimum of 5 years of division leadership 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.

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.

COMPENSATION CONSIDERATIONS

CHLA/KSOM values the contribution each Team Member brings to the organization. Final determination of a successful candidate’s starting pay will vary based on several factors, including, but not limited to education and experience within the job or the industry. Compensation information listed for this position is generally for candidates that meet the specified qualifications and requirements listed on the specific job description. Additional pay may be determined for those candidates that exceed these specified qualifications and requirements. CHLA/KSOM provides a competitive compensation package that recognizes an individual’s unique experience, credentials, and education alongside a robust benefits program.

SALARY RANGE:  $650,000 - $775,000

If interested, please apply using the link above. For further inquiries, please contact:

Rosie Zesati, MAM, C-TAGME

Administrator, Medical Education and Professional Development

Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine

Phone 323-361-5591 | rzesati@chla.usc.edu

Academic appointment through USC Keck School of Medicine will be commensurate with training and experience. USC is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. CHLA and USC greatly values diversity and is committed to building a vibrant and culturally diverse community of faculty that best reflects the patients and families that we serve. Individuals from underrepresented groups in medicine are especially encouraged to apply.