Assistant Medical Director/Nocturnist - Glendale/Burbank

We are looking for an Assistant Medical Director / Nocturnist (7pm-7am )  to help support our Inpatient Case Management team. This role will cover the Burbank/Glendale and surrounding areas.  

 

Position Summary:

 

Hospitalists will accept RMG patients that are admitted through the emergency department, directly admitted from a physician’s office or transferred from another facility 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year during their coverage period. RMG will ensure that patients being transferred from another facility are medically stable for transfer.  Should a physician escort be required, as determined by the medical director, one will be made available.

The hospitalist will ensure that mentoring responsibilities (i.e., clinical residents, nurse practitioners, etc) do not delay the management and discharge of RMG patients.

 

Essential duties and responsibilities include the following:

 

RESPONSE TIME

• Hospitalists shall return RMG radio pages or cell phone calls within 20 minutes. In the rare instance the hospitalist is unable to do so due to emergent patient care issues, the hospitalist will ask support staff to call back to inform RMG of the delay.  RMG’s commitment is to engage the Hospitalist for less than two (2) minutes on such page requests.

PATIENT ROUNDS

• All RMG inpatients shall be seen daily by 11:30 a.m., including weekends and national holidays, to facilitate care and prevent delays in management and discharge.
• Hospitalists shall evaluate and write management orders on all newly admitted RMG patients within 1-2 hours of admission. For established inpatients, Hospitalists will write orders on the chart by 9:30 a.m. each day.
• If notified of a commercial patient in the emergency department that may need admission, the hospitalist is expected to perform his own evaluation of the patient before admission to determine if the patient truly needs to be admitted or if their care can be adequately serviced in another fashion, such as a skilled nursing facility.  If the patient does need to be in a hospital, the hospitalist, if working in a non-contracted facility, will determine if the patient is medically stable for transfer to a contracted hospital.  If so, the case manager will assist in arranging for that transfer to the other facility.  Commercial patients who are not immediately stable for transfer to a contracted facility should be transferred as soon as they are considered medically stable.

PHONE ROUNDS

• Hospitalists shall participate in telephonic physician rounds with RMG senior case manager/medical director daily, 7 days a week, at a pre-established time. Hospitalists should be prepared to discuss all patients in a detailed yet succinct manner, with a disposition plan for each patient. Time estimate is 1-2 minutes per patient.
• Hospitalist shall agree to a thorough and complete sign-out to covering physicians (weeknights, weekends, and national holidays) with specific instructions for treatment and management of all inpatients.  Hospitalists must indicate to the covering physician the requirements that would result in the discharge/repatriation of the patient in the absence of the Hospitalist so that no discharge delays are incurred.

CONSULTATION AND TESTING

• Hospitalists will exercise their full ability as clinicians before requesting specialty consultations.  When such consultations are requested, the Hospitalist will clearly indicate to the specialist which aspects of the particular patient’s care he would like assistance with.
• Consultations will be requested from RMG contracted specialists whenever possible and only when the patient’s clinical needs are beyond the expertise or clinical capabilities of the hospitalist. It is the responsibility of the hospitalist to only use physician providers contracted to RMG, unless under emergencies. Hospitalist shall request specialty services on RMG patients by directly contacting specialists (physician-to-physician) to request either the consultation itself or approval from the specialist to discharge any patient under the care of the specialist.  Relying only on written chart documentation to request consultations or specialist permission for discharge shall be avoided.  Direct physician-to-physician communication is required.
• Hospitalists will ensure that all tests and specialist consultations are ordered only when it is clear that the management plans are likely to change depending on the results of such services.
• Hospitalists will interact directly with specialist consultants involved in a patient’s care daily and shall report the specialist management plans to RMG during phone rounds.
• Hospitalists shall attend and coordinate care on ALL