General Psychiatrist

PRIMARY ACCOUNTABILITY:

Under the direction of the Psychiatry Department Chair, the psychiatrist will provide psychiatric care within the MAHEC Center for Psychiatry and Mental Wellness and other assigned locations as needed. The Psychiatrist will also provide supervision for psychiatric residents in the outpatient setting.  

This position is primarily responsible for providing ongoing psychiatric care and patient evaluations in making determinations of appropriate diagnosis, medical necessity of services, and need for higher level of service to a full caseload of patients with mental illness in an efficient and effective manner. This includes working with a wide array of disorders with patients from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

The psychiatrist will participate in the development of medical policies and procedures as needed and provide cross coverage for other psychiatrists within MAHEC. The position also requires sharing of on-call responsibilities in coordination with psychiatric residents for our outpatient clinic.

As a faculty member of MAHEC, this individual may be expected to provide teaching and didactic instruction to MAHEC psychiatry residents and other residency or fellowship disciplines, as determined by clinic need. They will provide teaching, training and supervision of medical students, residents, fellows and/or advanced practice clinical students, as assigned.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES:

Clinical Outpatient

• Evaluate patients by interviewing patient, family, and other persons; reviewing medical history and related documents; ordering laboratory tests and evaluating results. This may involved Integrated Behavioral Health and/or Collaborative Care models.
• Develop treatment plans by determining nature and extent of cognitive, emotional, developmental, social, and behavioral disorders; establish treatment goals and methodologies.
• Treat patients by utilizing evidence based psychotherapeutic methods and medications; discuss progress toward goals with patients; provide instructions; monitor effect of medications; supervise staff provision of services.
• Maintain interdisciplinary treatment by reviewing treatment plans and progress; consult and collaborate with primary care physicians, mental health therapists, nurses, and other health care providers.
• Psychiatric Management/Treatment Direction. Direct patient care; develop treatment plans considering contributions of other professional disciplines; integrate service goals, objectives and outcomes; consult with outside physicians, ancillary professionals, agencies, family/guardians and other interested individuals.

Collaborative Care

• Assessments/Referrals/Consultation. Consult with other MAHEC physicians or nurse practitioners to ensure physical care needs are addressed and makes appropriate referrals and aftercare recommendations, as needed; provide suicide/homicide assessments.
• Provide regularly scheduled (usually weekly) caseload consultation to behavioral health care managers. Case review consultations focus primarily on patients who are new to the caseload or who are not improving as expected under their current treatment plan.
• Work with behavioral health care managers to oversee the status and population health of their assigned patient caseload. The psychiatric consultant will use a registry to track all assigned patients and prioritize patients for case review and treatment adjustment.
• Recommend any treatment adjustments through the case review process or in ad hoc consultations, including medication recommendations and other interventions, within 24 hours of consulting with a behavioral health care manager or other team members.
• Advise on treatment for patients who may need more intensive or more specialized mental health care, supporting treatment in the medical setting until patients can be engaged in specialized care as appropriate.
• Be available to provide occasional ad hoc telephone consultation to medical providers for very complex patients or challenging patient situations. Respond to telephone calls from medical providers and behavioral health care managers within one business day. Respond to urgent telephone calls within one hour, if available. Coordinate with other psychiatric consultants for vacation coverage.
• Maintains historical records by documenting treatment recommendations to the patient’s primary physician.

Administrative

• Assure quality and safe service for patients and staff by complying with policies, procedures, standards, rules, AAAHC requirements, and legal regulations; participate in utilization reviews.
• Enhance department and organization reputation by accepting ownership for accomplishing new and different requests; explore opportunities to add value to job accomplishments.
• Confer and work with staff on matters regarding proper and efficient operation of the clinical facility and program; take an active role in the development of policies and standards for patient care.
• As indicated by clinic need, may conduct or participate in research activities.
• Updates professional knowledge on a continuing basis; may be asked to prepare and present professional reports, from time to time.
• Support MAHEC’s ethical and mutually respectful work environment by:
  • performing all job-related responsibilities in a manner consistent with MAHEC’s Compliance policies and Standards of Conduct
  • completing all Compliance training in a timely manner
  • reporting any concerns or perceived Compliance violations to their supervisor and/or the Compliance Office in a timely manner

This job description is a general description of the essential job functions.  It is not intended to describe all the duties the psychiatrist may perform.

KEY COMPETENCIES:

• Communication Skills

Effectively and respectably communicate with other individuals, whether it be a colleague, patient, or patient’s family member and appropriately enumerate information in a manner easily understood by all parties. We do this to foster a culture of understanding between all parties, especially in complex and difficult situations, to ultimately provide the best care possible to our patients and their families.

• Decision Making

Ability to make the most appropriate decision in a given situation and then taking the next steps to ensure appropriate and timely completion. This requires conflict resolution skills, critical thinking skills, confidence in your ability to make the right decision in most situations. This also includes ability to prioritize your workday appropriately to ensure the most important tasks are completed on time.

• HealthCare Knowledge

Having the drive to keep yourself abreast and up to date on the new breakthroughs in your area of expertise and communicating them to the rest of the team, as appropriate.  This also includes keeping up with your licensure and yearly training requirements within your area expertise along with MAHEC’s organizational training. Finally, the ability to apply the depth of knowledge maintained and gained through this process in real life scenarios as appropriate.

• Interpersonal Skills

Showing the ability to meet difficult situations with grace, professionalism, and understanding. Within your area of expertise, showing respect and showing empathy where appropriate with your colleagues, patients, and their family at all times, even when its most difficult to do so. This is done, in part, by effective listening, being your authentic self, showing responsibility and dependability, and being patient with others.

• Organizational Values

Adherence to MAHEC’s founding principles and incorporating them every day. This includes, among others, having integrity and accountability, reverence for other cultures and equitable practices, ability to manage change, and displaying a clear understanding of organizational dynamics. Doing these things creates a culture where people want to do the best for each other and gives personal ownership towards the goal of helping people in their time of need.

• Problem Solving

Having an analytical mind and ability to work autonomously to solve complex problems that may arise. The wherewithal to think logically through a difficult problem and come to an appropriate resolution for a given issue. This helps to drive continuous improvement by thinking through where we can improve in a novel way. Measures success by understanding where we are currently and where we want to go and then applying those new ideas to affect positive change.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES:

• Knowledge of the principles, practices, methods, techniques, literature, and new developments in the field of psychiatry including psycho-pharmacology;
• Ability to conduct and supervise psychotherapy;
• Ability to create and maintain harmonious relationships with the staff, patients, relatives/guardians of patients, and/or agencies;
• Advanced knowledge of electronic medical record (EMR) system usage preferred but training will be provided;
• Basic knowledge of all related computer and software applications such as word processing and spreadsheets

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Clinical supervision of MAHEC learners.

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE:

Minimum Qualifications.

Any combination of education and experience equivalent to:

• Graduated from an accredited medical school with Doctorate's degree in medicine (MD/DO) is required
• Licensed to practice medicine in North Carolina; AND
• Completion of four (4) years of ACGME Psychiatry training (applicants within their final six (6) months of training may be considered, proof pending of training completion by appointing authority).

OR

• Completion of five (5) years of ACGME Psychiatry and Child Psychiatry training (applicants within their final six (6) months of training may be considered, proof pending of training completion by appointing authority).
• Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Registration
• American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) eligible in Psychiatry (or Child Psychiatry) at the time of initial appointment. Certification will be required and must be obtained within time requirements recognized by the Psychiatry Board post-residency or child fellowship.
• ABPN Certification in Psychiatry (and Child Psychiatry, if applicable) shall be maintained, at all times, after date of initial certification or date by which applicant is required to obtain certification.
• Prior experience as psychiatrist in outpatient and/or inpatient setting

Preferred Qualifications.

Prior teaching experience preferred.

Additional Requirements:

As an expressed condition of employment, practitioner shall apply for, obtain and maintain membership and privileges through the Credentialing Department of MAHEC and its partners as required by contractual arrangements. Practitioner must meet membership eligibility requirements and receive an affirmative recommendation for all clinical privileges as may be necessary for practitioner's hospital practice. Practitioner must further meet Medicare/Medicaid enrollment eligibility. These eligibilities must be established prior to employment start date and maintained throughout employment. 

SCHEDULE:

Regular attendance on-site is an essential function of this position. Typical business hours are Monday – Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm (or flexed to best meet the needs of the clients and/or the Division); 40 hours per workweek; weekend, holiday, or evening coverage is occasionally required. Work hours will need to be flexible in order to respond to special work assignments, or evening activities, as requested by the team leader.

At MAHEC, we strive to equip all team members with Total Rewards (pay + benefits) to honor their service, support their health, manage their financial security, build their career, and thrive.

All MAHEC employees and learners will be required to receive the Flu vaccine or have an approved exemption.

MAHEC Talent Management is located at 121 Hendersonville Road, Asheville, NC 28803. Equal Opportunity Employer.

MAHEC is a qualifying employer for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program. Employees who meet federal requirements may be eligible to have remaining student loan balances forgiven after 10 years of qualifying payments while working full-time at MAHEC.

If you are interested in this role, and you have related experience and qualifications, we encourage you to apply or reach out to AskTalent@mahec.net for support in your job search process. You could be the talent we are seeking for this or other opportunities.