The Chair of the General Internal Medicine (GIM) Department

The Chair of the General Internal Medicine (GIM) Department will oversee the clinical care delivered by providers in their department and will provide academic leadership and mentorship to GIM faculty at Denver Health. The Chair will be responsible for strategic planning, clinical services, professional performance, business performance, medical education and research for the department. Advancing a culture of excellence in the specialty and related services, the Chair will be dedicated to performance expectations that emphasize consistency in clinical care standards to result in high quality and safe patient care. Denver Health is affiliated with the University of Colorado School of Medicine, (UC-SOM) and Denver Health physician faculty have full-time academic appointments at UC-SOM. The Chair has primary responsibility for all aspects of the scholarly and educational programs within GIM at Denver Health and will foster collaboration, innovation and excellence in meeting our joint missions.

General Internists at Denver Health are primary care providers who primarily see adult patients in an office-based setting.  Some may serve as supervising physicians for hospitalized adults for 2-6 weeks per year. Internists are typically generalists who cover a broad scope of medicine to include total body wellness, disease prevention, and management of chronic conditions and illnesses in adults and some adolescents. Advanced practice providers (APPs), behavioral health clinicians, and clinical pharmacists in GIM also provide direct primary care services to ambulatory patients at Denver Health.

With administrative, nursing, and other clinical leaders in Ambulatory Care Services, the Chair shares responsibility and accountability for ambulatory clinical operations, quality, safety, fiscal performance, patient experience, and staff engagement.

Essential Functions:

• Lead and participate in clinical quality initiatives focused on enhancing systems to assure timely, cost-effective, compassionate, high quality, and safe care.
• Promote and oversee development of critical pathways, protocols and practice guidelines that promote high quality, cost-effective care for the patient population.
• Manage human and financial resources to optimize operational efficiency and outcomes.
• Ensure the application of best practices, incorporating regulatory requirements at the local, state, and national level; utilize benchmarking and data analysis from applicable sources.
• Provide leadership and disseminate practice standards and accountabilities to GIM providers, residents, clinic staff, and medical students.
• Drive innovation in care delivery.
• Oversee the substance, quality, and evaluation of medical student, resident, and fellow education in the Department.
• Oversee and promote all academic activities within the department in accordance with the expectations of the University of Colorado, School of Medicine.
• Actively mentor the GIM faculty with personalized professional development plans.
• Promote and support relevant education for all personnel within the Department. Develop and oversee continuing medical education programs for staff at all levels within the Department.
• Maintain and develop professional knowledge and personal competence through participation in professional organizations and conferences.
• Provide leadership for the development of standards, policies, and guidelines related to the Department.
• Support and maintain faculty development, recruitment and succession plans.
• In collaboration with Chairs from all departments and the executive leadership team, contribute significantly to the organizational mission, vision, strategy, and goals.
• Ensure faculty meet performance expectations of their service assignments and customer service standards.
• Assume joint responsibility with Denver Health Administration for compliance with requirements and standards of regulatory agencies and accreditation organizations, including preparation for and participation in relevant surveys.
• Ensure the department’s compliance with the Medical Staff Bylaws and hospital policies.
• Establish appropriate communication channels with providers, clinical staff, and administration that result in trust and alignment. Effectively manage disagreements.
• Lead by example: establish open, non-judgmental dialogue, expect a culture of diversity and inclusiveness, welcome constructive criticism from direct reports, admit errors openly, avoid a punitive response to mistakes, demonstrate timely responsiveness, and hold others accountable.
• Directly supervise the clinical Team Leaders/Medical Directors of all teams within the GIM Department.

Education:

• MD or DO Required
• Masters degree in Public Health, Business, or Health Administration preferred

Work Experience:

• At least four years of practice experience required, and
• At least two years of leadership experience required (preferably in roles that oversee ambulatory clinical operations and providers), and
• Demonstrated academic and clinical success within their specialty required, and
• Demonstrated ability to grow revenues, meet budgets, measure and improve outcomes and take appropriate business risks to achieve goals, required.

Licenses and Certification:

• Board Certification in Internal Medicine required
• Active medical license in Colorado required

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Demonstrated leadership achievement in a busy high-performing department.
• Adequate knowledge and skill of all privileged procedures outlined in the Denver Health and Hospital Authority General Internal Medicine Clinical Privileges application.
• Experience in increasing service excellence.
• Attention and focus on maximizing cost effective care delivery and money-saving initiatives while maintaining quality.
• Skill in exercising initiative, judgment, and decision making in solving problems and meeting organizational objectives.
• Skill in establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with other employees, organizations and the public.
• Skill in adapting new information relative to the work assignment through educational seminars, and staff meetings.
• Skill in maintaining and organizing departmental records, reports and files.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite required.
• EPIC experience preferred

Where 300 days of sunshine, a thriving cultural scene, diverse neighborhoods and natural beauty combine for the worlds most spectacular playgrounds.  A young, active city at the base of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, Denver's stunning architecture, award-winning dining and unparalleled views are all here, year round! The mountainous area of Colorado is six times the size of Switzerland, containing 9,600 miles (15,449 km) of fishing streams, 2,850 lakes and more than 1,000 peaks two miles (3,218 km) high.

Denver Health is an integrated, high-quality academic health care system considered a model for the nation that includes a Level I Trauma Center, a 555-bed acute care medical center, Denver’s 911 emergency medical response system, 10 family health centers, 19 school-based health centers, Rocky Mountain Poison & Drug Safety, a Public Health Institute, an HMO and The Denver Health Foundation.

As Colorado’s primary, and essential, safety-net institution, Denver Health is a mission-driven organization that has provided billions in uncompensated care for the uninsured. Denver Health is viewed as an Anchor Institution for the community, focusing on hiring and purchasing locally as applicable, serving as a pillar for community needs, and caring for more than 185,000 individuals and 67,000 children a year.

Located near downtown Denver, Denver Health is just minutes away from many of the cultural and recreational activities Denver has to offer.

Denver Health is a nationally recognized integrated healthcare system committed to providing exceptional care to the communities it serves. As a leading urban safety net health system, Denver Health is considered a national model for delivering high-quality, accessible care.

Comprehensive Healthcare Network

Denver Health’s system includes:

• A 525-bed acute care hospital with newly designed adult and pediatric emergency departments
• A Level I Trauma Center with one of the nation’s best trauma survival rates
• A 911 paramedic system
• Nine community health centers & 19 school-based clinics
• The Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center
• A 100-bed non-medical detoxification center
• Dedicated psychiatric emergency services
• Correctional care facilities
• The Rocky Mountain Center for Medical Response to Terrorism, Mass Casualties, and Epidemics
• An HMO, providing comprehensive healthcare coverage

Academic Excellence & Leadership Opportunity

Denver Health maintains a formal affiliation with the University of Colorado School of Medicine (CU-SOM), with faculty holding full-time academic appointments. The Chair of Inpatient Pediatrics will play a pivotal role in shaping the department’s scholarly and educational programs, fostering collaboration, innovation, and excellence in both clinical care and academic pursuits.