Physician - Associate Chief of Staff for Surgery

We are seeking an Associate Chief of Staff for Surgery (ACOS)in the scenic & sunny - Southern Arizona, Tucson- VA Health Care System.

Position Description:

The Associate Chief of Staff (ACOS) for Surgery is the Chief of Surgical Services. This position is responsible for the overall operation and supervision of this complex surgical service in a Level 1a (highest level of complexity) VA facility. The Southern Arizona VA Healthcare system has 13 operating rooms, a DaVinci surgical robot and a state-of-the-art hybrid operating room. The surgical service includes programs in Cardiac surgery, Neurosurgery, Vascular surgery, General surgery, HPB surgery, Orthopedics, Plastic Surgery, Hand surgery, ENT, Urology, Ophthalmology, Optometry, and Podiatry. Duties include resident education, medical staff leadership, research, quality improvement, maintenance of reusable medical equipment, and the provision of excellent inpatient and outpatient care. The successful candidate must meet the requirements for an academic appointment at the main academic affiliate, the University of Arizona.

Job Duties include but are not limited to:

• Insures national, network, and local missions, values, vision, and performance measures are supported and met,
• Provides efficient management of resources and budgetary constraints, facilities a collaborative team environment,
• Develops orientation and training of pertinent clinical staff under the service, and proactively identifies needs and concerns concerning the service.
• Makes long-range plans for the continuing function and development of the surgical service and for the development of sound and carefully documented organizational plans and budgetary proposals for presentation to top management.
• Demonstrates a skill set to interact positively with the Medical Center's Executive Leadership Team to lead and promote surgical staff excellence, staff development, with experience in an academic setting.
• This physician will collaborate with the COS office and provide medical leadership to the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System. He/she reports to the Chief of Staff

Requirements:

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• Degree of Doctor of Medicine or an equivalent degree resulting from a course of education in medicine or osteopathic medicine
• Current, full, and unrestricted license to practice medicine or surgery in any of the US States
• Board certified in General Surgery or a surgical specialty

Work Schedule: Full-time, permanent, Monday-Friday 8:00 am - 4:30 pm

Southern Arizona VA Healthcare System (SAVAHCS) 

The Tucson VA Medical Center is a 295-bed hospital that provides training, primary care, and sub-specialty health care in numerous medical areas for eligible Veterans. It is the "Flagship" for the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System (SAVAHCS), which serves over 170,000 veterans located in eight counties in Southern Arizona comprised of the medical center in Tucson, Arizona and seven Community Based Outpatient Clinics in Casa Grande, Green Valley, Safford, Sierra Vista, Yuma, Northwest, and Southeast Tucson.

It also is a Joint Commission-accredited, level 1a complexity teaching hospital, providing tertiary-level care. The SAVAHCS offers a beautiful 150-acre campus with a full range of medical and mental health services for Veterans, including a 31-bed inpatient psychiatry/substance use acute treatment unit, a 25-bed mental health residential rehabilitation treatment program for substance use disorders (SUD) and PTSD treatment, intensive outpatient programs for SUD and PTSD, homeless programs, and more. The SAVAHCS operates a 24-hour emergency department and is the host site for various regional referral centers of excellence including the Polytrauma Network Site, the Southwest Blind Rehabilitation Center, and the Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program (MHRRTP). The SAVAHCS is the principal teaching affiliate of the University of Arizona Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy. Annually nearly 1,000 physician and associated health trainees participate in health care training programs at the SAVAHCS.

Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is America’s largest integrated health care system, providing care at 1,321 health care facilities, including 172 medical centers and 1,138 outpatient sites of care of varying complexity (VHA outpatient clinics), serving 9 million enrolled Veterans each year.

In addition to the honor of serving America’s Heroes, a career at VHA provides a robust total reward$ package (see full brochure here) and offers many benefits including: 

• Generous education support programs, including loan repayment and reimbursement???  
• Unprecedented federal retirement benefits including a traditional pension (5 years’ vesting) and a federal 401K (TSP) with up to 5% in employer contributions
• VA’s Diversity, People & Culture

• Experience a high quality of life with full range of Federal Government benefits.

We offer top of the line benefits including retirement, health/vision/dental insurance,

• performance pay and up to 55 days of paid leave per year and much more.
• Pay: $300,000 - $375,000, annual performance bonus, regular salary increases
• Recruitment Incentive ( Approved Sign-on Bonus)
  Paid Time Off: 50-55 days of paid time off per year (26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year and possible 5 day paid absence for CME)
  Retirement:  Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA
  Insurance:  Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement)
  Licensure:  1 full and unrestricted license from any US State or territory
  CME:  Possible $1,000 per year reimbursement (must be full-time with board certification)
  Malpractice:  Free liability protection with tail coverage provided
  Contract:  No Physician Employment Contract and no significant restriction on moonlighting
• Financial Disclosure Report: Not required.

Thank you for your consideration and we look forward to assisting you to your new, rewarding career at the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System!

Paid Time Off:

• 26 Days paid annual (vacation/personal) leave
• 13 Days paid sick leave each year with no limit on accumulation
• 11 Federal holidays with pay annually
• 5 Days paid absence to attend approved CME courses

Insurance:

• Health Insurance: VA employees have an outstanding number of health insurance plans from which to choose (premiums are partially paid by VA) Lifetime Healthcare Insurance options available
• Dental & Vision: Our insurance options also include exceptional vision and dental plans (premiums are partially paid by VA)
• VA employees have the option to use Flexible Spending Accounts, which allow you to use tax-free dollars to pay for medical, dental, and vision care expenses that are not reimbursed by your health insurance plan
• Term life insurance, family, and additional coverage options are available with the cost shared by the Federal Government
• Long-term care insurance is available as an option

Federal Retirement Plan:

• VA employees are covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). FERS is a three-tiered retirement plan composed of 1) Social Security benefits, 2) FERS-RAE basic benefits (pension), and 3) Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) which is a 401K-type plan
• How is the pension funded? VA employees automatically contribute 4.4% of their salary each pay period and the VA contributes 12.2% of the employee’s salary each pay period for a total annual contribution percentage equal to 16.6% of the employee’s salary
• Similar to the 401(k) savings plans widely available in the private sector, the TSP allows employees to tax defer a portion of their income each year, subject to the requirements of the Internal Revenue Service. For calendar year 2020, employees under the age of 50 may contribute up to $19,500, while those over age 50 are eligible to make catch-up contributions that allow them to defer up to $25,500.
• The Federal Government also provides an automatic basic contribution (1% of salary) and up to 4% of salary in matching contributions, depending on the amount of the employee contribution
• For retired military personnel, these benefits are in addition to full monthly retirement pay or pension
• In addition to FERS, VA provides health care insurance coverage for retired personnel
• Disability Retirement
• Employees are vested in a federal pension after only 5 years service