Job description
Location: Charlottesville, VA
Description:
The Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs (VCCA) is the senior physician leader for the clinical mission of the Department of Pediatrics and UVA Health Children’s. Reporting directly to the Department Chair, the VCCA is responsible for implementing the strategic direction, operational performance, and financial sustainability of the Department’s clinical enterprise.
The VCCA’s primary domain is the Department of Pediatrics’ clinical enterprise: faculty clinical productivity, access, ambulatory and programmatic growth, and the financial health of the clinical mission. The VCCA collaborates closely with the Children’s Hospital Inpatient Associate Chief Medical Officer (ACMO) as well as Ambulatory ACMO on matters that span inpatient and ambulatory care, but operational authority of these domains rests with the respective ACMOs. In this partnership, the VCCA’s role is strategic and faculty-facing; the ACMO’s role is operational and hospital-facing.
The position is a member of the Department’s Executive Leadership Team, provides direct counsel to the Chair, and serves as a key voice for the Department in system-level clinical governance. The VCCA maintains an active clinical presence and scholarly portfolio (approximately 70% of total effort).
Key Responsibilities:
- Clinical Strategy and Program Growth
- Lead development and implementation of the Department’s clinical strategic plan in alignment with UVA Health and UVA Health Children’s Hospital priorities.
- Identify opportunities for clinical program growth, new specialty service development, and network expansion in the pediatric market.
- Lead assessment of new clinical partnerships, outreach opportunities, and regional market development strategies, including off-site clinic expansion.
- Champion value-based care initiatives; serve as the Department’s representative on the value-based care portfolio steering task force.
- Collaborate with Children’s Hospital leadership and health system executives to advance pediatric clinical priorities at the institutional and system level.
- Clinical Operations
- Partner with departmental and health system administrative leadership to optimize productivity, access and patient experience, and in accordance with this, address systemic operational barriers impacting faculty productivity, access and patient experience.
- Promote standardization of clinical workflows across divisions and outpatient sites.
- Partner with the Chief Quality Officer and hospital quality teams on quality improvement projects specific to departmental clinical operations; coordinate with the ACMO on QI initiatives spanning inpatient and outpatient care
- Provide direct oversight of Department of Pediatrics’ Clinical Directors. Maintain a collaborative partnership with Hospital-appointed Medical Directors on departmental clinical strategy, standards, and faculty engagement; operational oversight of Medical Directors rests with the ACMO
- Faculty Clinical Performance and Workforce
- Collaborate with Division Directors to optimize faculty clinical effort, productivity benchmarks, and engagement across all divisions.
- Work on clinical workforce planning, including physician staffing models, specialty coverage design, and APP utilization within the Department’s clinical programs.
- Support the recruitment, onboarding, and retention of clinical faculty, including participation in faculty candidate evaluation and selection.
- Promote sustainable clinical practice environments that support faculty wellbeing, professionalism, and longevity.
- Work with Division Directors and the Chair to manage professionalism concerns among departmental faculty through established HR and academic processes.
- Financial Stewardship and Clinical Sustainability
- Monitor departmental clinical financial performance, including revenue cycle metrics, billing and coding compliance, physician productivity benchmarks (wRVUs), and payer mix.
- Partner with departmental administration to evaluate clinical business plans and investment opportunities for new programs or service line expansions.
- Support the development of productivity frameworks and physician compensation models, in partnership with the Chair and departmental administration.
- Recommend and implement strategies to improve clinical sustainability, operational margin, and financial performance across the Department’s clinical enterprise.
- Ensure responsible stewardship of clinical resources and support staff in alignment with departmental budget priorities.
- Leadership, Governance and Alignment
- Serve as a member of the Department’s Executive Leadership Team and advise the Chair on clinical operations, strategy, and resource allocation.
- Lead departmental clinical leadership committees as assigned (e.g., Clinical Affairs Committee, Clinical Retreat planning).
- Conduct quarterly meetings with Division Directors to review divisional clinical performance, address operational concerns, and align on departmental priorities.
- Foster alignment across the Department’s clinical, educational, and research missions, ensuring that clinical demands do not come at the expense of the academic enterprise.
- Represent the Department in system-level clinical governance forums, as assigned by the Chair.
Serve as Acting Chair in the Chair’s absence, in rotation with other Vice Chairs.
- Education Mission Alignment
- Ensure that the Department’s clinical operations and scheduling structures adequately support the education of medical students, residents, and fellows, in coordination with the Vice Chair for Education and the GME Designated Institutional Official.
- Advocate for educational mission considerations when clinical operational decisions are made-particularly in scheduling, clinic templates, and faculty effort allocation.
- Specific Standing Commitments (including but not limited to):
- Regular offsite clinic visits (often with the Chair)-including at community practice group sites and practices outside UVA-to maintain visibility and support operational alignment.
- Annual Clinical Retreat: organize and facilitate; develop and implement an action plan based on retreat output.
- Administrator on Call: contribute to the AOC rotation (as a contributor, not as program leader-program oversight rests with the ACMO).
- Morning Report: attend at least once per week.
- Inpatient huddles: attend at least twice per week.
- Monthly Medical Director meeting: attend and contribute.
- Division Director/Vice Chair/Associate Chair meeting: attend and contribute.
- Financial review meetings with division directors: attend and contribute.
- Children’s Wayfinding Committee: attend and contribute
- Telehealth Advisory Group meeting: attend and contribute
- Value Based Payments Steering Committee: represent the Department
- Fortify meetings: attend and contribute
- Quarterly CHIP meeting: represent the Department
- VA AAP and Virginia Medical Society: represent the Department
- Richmond Pediatric Society: represent the Department
- Other duties as assigned by the Chair.
An annual performance review will be conducted with the Department Chair, incorporating specific annual goals aligned with the Department Annual Report and UVA School of Medicine priorities. This process will also include planning for the following academic year.
Description:
- Required:
- MD, DO, or equivalent medical degree with board certification in pediatrics and/or a pediatric subspecialty.
- Active Virginia medical license (or eligibility for licensure) and UVA Health medical staff membership in good standing.
- Minimum of 10 years of clinical experience in pediatric medicine, with substantive experience in both ambulatory and inpatient settings.
- Demonstrated progressive leadership experience at the divisional, program, or departmental level in an academic medical center.
- Preferred:
- Prior experience as a Division Director, Medical Director, or Vice Chair with operational or strategic scope in a Department of Pediatrics or children’s hospital.
- Familiarity with physician productivity models, clinical compensation frameworks, and revenue cycle operations in an academic practice.
- Experience with ambulatory operations management, access improvement, or outpatient program development.
- Experience with faculty recruitment, retention, and professionalism processes.
- Competencies:
- Strategic vision: ability to translate departmental mission into actionable clinical initiatives.
- Operational fluency: understanding of clinical operations, scheduling, and access metrics.
- Financial acumen: comfort with productivity dashboards, billing metrics, and clinical business planning.
- Faculty-centered leadership: demonstrated ability to support, develop, and retain clinical faculty in a high-demand academic environment.
- Collaborative partnership: proven ability to work in a dyad or matrix structure with hospital and academic counterparts.
The selected applicant will undergo a background check and pre-employment health and drug screening.
