Medical Director / Chief Medical Officer

General Description

The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) serves as the Center's senior physician executive and chief medical authority. Reporting directly to the Executive Director and serving as a member of the Executive Leadership Team, the CMO is responsible for the strategic leadership, clinical oversight, quality management, and medical governance of all psychiatric, nursing, and medical services provided by the Center.

Medical Governance and Clinical Leadership

• Serves as the Center's senior physician executive and chief medical authority.
• Establishes and maintains standards of psychiatric and medical practice.
• Provides oversight of prescribing practices, medical protocols, and clinical treatment standards.
• Chairs or delegates medical staff meetings, peer review activities, and medical quality committees.
• Oversees credentialing, privileging, reappointment, and professional practice evaluations for medical providers.

Executive Leadership and Strategic Planning

• Serves as a member of the Executive Leadership Team.
• Advises the Executive Director and Board of Trustees on medical, psychiatric, clinical, and healthcare matters.
• Participates in strategic planning, service expansion, grant development, and new program implementation.
• Collaborates with community healthcare providers, hospitals, universities, and regulatory agencies.

Quality, Compliance, and Risk Management

• Oversees medical quality assurance and performance improvement activities.
• Participates in mortality reviews, sentinel event reviews, critical incident reviews, and clinical risk management activities.
• Maintains compliance with HHSC, TAC, DEA, CMS, Medicaid, Medicare, CCBHC, and applicable regulatory requirements.
• Monitors prescribing trends, polypharmacy reports, utilization patterns, and clinical outcome measures.
• Ensures compliance with infection prevention and control activities in collaboration with nursing leadership.

Medical Staff Leadership and Workforce Development

• Provides leadership, mentorship, coaching, and professional development for psychiatrists, APRNs, and nursing leadership.
• Affords assistance with recruitment, retention, succession planning, and provider workforce development.
• Oversees prescriptive authority agreements and required physician supervision activities.
• Sustains continuing medical education and clinical competency development.

Utilization Management and Clinical Resource Stewardship

• Serves as a member of the Utilization Management Committee.
• Oversees utilization review processes and clinical resource management.
• Maintains monitoring of service utilization and clinical outcomes to support quality care and fiscal responsibility.
• Reviews complex clinical cases and provides consultation regarding treatment recommendations.

Financial and Operational Oversight

• Oversees medical and nursing budgets and assists with forecasting and resource allocation.
• Collaborates with operational leadership to maximize revenue capture and ensure regulatory compliance.
• Maintains monitoring of key performance indicators related to access, productivity, quality, and clinical outcomes.

Community and System Collaboration

• Represents the Center in community healthcare initiatives, professional organizations, consortiums, and collaborative partnerships.
• Promotes integration of behavioral health, substance use, crisis services, primary care, and community-based services.
• Supports the Center's role as the local behavioral health authority and safety-net provider.

Direct Clinical Services - Limited

• Provides direct psychiatric evaluation, consultation, medication management, or emergency clinical services as operationally necessary.
• Participates in on-call coverage and clinical consultation activities as determined by organizational needs.
• Maintains clinical competency and professional licensure requirements.
• Sustains participation in the Center's Zero Suicide Initiative.
• Supports individuals experiencing a crisis by promptly connecting them with appropriate Center programs.
• Ensures seamless coordination to facilitate timely intervention.
• Maintains a calm environment until specialized crisis staff or emergency personnel arrive to take over intervention efforts.
• Adheres to safety protocols to prevent escalation of the crisis situation.
• Participates in debriefing sessions with the immediate supervisor or designated staff following a crisis event.