Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (Children’s) and Emory University School of Medicine (Emory) Department of Pediatrics are seeking a visionary and collaborative physician leader with a strong clinical and academic foundation to serve as Division Chief, Nephrology.
The Division Chief will serve as the primary physician leader for Nephrology for the Children’s health care network providing strategic leadership and oversight for quality, safety, and clinical operations. They will guide the design of care delivery advancing care consistency, efficiency, and a culture of excellence in Nephrology. This leader will be dedicated to the implementation of professional and clinical care standards, team-based care driven by evidence-based care guidelines and mutual accountability.
As the leader of the Division, they will be responsible for clinical program development, faculty recruitment, workforce development, the growth and advancement of research, scholarly activity, and educational excellence of the trainees within the Division. This leader will continue to improve education/training and sustain a strong commitment to leading Division research efforts.
The successful candidate will be an outstanding clinical and academic leader with demonstrated ability to set a vision, position the team to execute, effectively inspire, manage, and mentor others. They will be an individual who has a passion for providing outstanding care, scholarly work, a desire to improve systems and processes to maximize efficiency. The Division Chief will be a leader that demonstrates the collaborative ability to work well with multiple partners and stakeholders. This is an outstanding opportunity for an experienced physician leader to live and work in a desirable, advanced healthcare market, develop trainees in a complex care environment and lead a nationally recognized Nephrology into the future.
The Division Chief is responsible for the Nephrology delivery model design and clinical operations across the enterprise. They will oversee the strategic leadership of the division with the development of faculty, fellows and trainees, academic excellence and increasing research and scholarly activity.
This leader will advance a culture of excellence, accountability, and care innovation. They will be dedicated to performance measures by providing the highest quality patient care and clinical care standards driven by patient safety and regulatory requirements, clinical outcomes monitoring, and patient and family experience expectations.
They will continue to raise the bar with contemporary training programs, mentorship platforms, clinical delivery, service, and a strong commitment to research efforts.
It is anticipated that the Division Chief will be a visible, inspiring leader with a clinical practice presence to foster credibility and to develop an appreciation for division operations and its providers. Furthermore, a clinical presence will allow this leader to identify potential solutions and see the impact of these initiatives. This position requires an individual who has a passion for providing outstanding care, a desire to improve systems to maximize efficiency, the leadership to engage physicians in team-based care and an enduring commitment to providing an environment conducive to maximizing education and scholarly work. This Division Chief will craft the long-term vision for Nephrology at Children’s and Emory while advancing the key mission areas to engage and inspire the faculty to reach these goals while holding the team accountable.
Expectations of Leadership
Together, Children’s and Emory strive to be recognized as a preeminent pediatric Nephrology in advancing clinical, educational, and scholarly activities with the goal of being a top tier program in all areas. To that end, the Division Chief will have made significant progress in the following areas within the first 18 to 24 months of their tenure:
• Establish themselves as a credible, trusted and highly collaborative clinical team leader among the medical staff and administrative leaders at Children’s and Emory through performance as a clinician and a physician leader. It is essential this leader be visible and gain credibility quickly.
• Evaluate the current clinical operations model, provide recommendations working with administration to improve system performance, quality, service excellence, family experience and more efficient ways to meet patient care needs. Consistent performance of care delivery and clinical outcomes will be achieved.
• Define vision and strategies in alignment with Children’s, program development, identifying which services are offered, identifying optimal distribution of services, resource prioritization, and routinely assessing the needs of the Nephrology program, balancing missions of patient care, research, and teaching.
• Prepare the Division's delivery model, resources and workforce plan required for the opening of Arthur M. Blank Hospital in 2025 which will include a larger pediatric care footprint.
• Establish a “team care” culture within all aspects of Children’s services and initiatives strengthening the partnership of physicians, advanced practice professionals, allied health professionals and staff in delivering outstanding patient centered care.
• Advance clear communication channels with staff within the division, leaders, campus medical/surgical directors, and program medical directors resulting in alignment, trust, accountability, and collaborative working relationships in the pursuit of inter-divisional collaboration and esprit de corps.
• Consistently improve the timeliness and efficiency of patient evaluation and admitting procedures to optimize patient care throughput across the enterprise.
• Maintain a high level of scholarly achievement, with an increase in clinical research, publications, and national presence.
• Continue to invest in the effective recruitment of fellows and attending physicians, set a favorable tone regarding programmatic strengths and stature, and ensure that we continue to attract the highest caliber trainees.
• Create professional development plans for individual faculty providing access to mentorship and alignment to key mission areas. Focus on the retention and development of attending physicians.
Principal Duties and Responsibilities
Clinical
• Oversees the delivery of clinical services in the Division’s areas of practice and develop resources (including personnel and programs) related to these services in conjunction with the respective clinical directors or hospital administrators.
• Assures appropriate and continuous coverage of inpatient, outpatient, and consultative services at all relevant clinical sites.
• Assures participation of Division personnel in quality improvement, safety, and patient satisfaction initiatives.
• Builds a high quality, well-developed network of cohesive physician providers. Foster positive relationships with other clinicians including community and referring providers.
• Assures compliance with all relevant Department, clinic, and hospital policies and procedures. Assures compliance with all medical records documentation requirements and appropriate billing procedures.
• Ensures that the Division is responsive to the needs of those it serves clinically (patients, families, referring physicians, other divisions/ departments, etc.).
• Assumes responsibility for faculty members achieving their productivity targets.
Administrative
• Fosters a collegial environment that supports the successful recruitment, retention, and development of outstanding faculty and staff.
• Defines and communicates expectations for faculty members, providing them with the support they need to meet them, and review their performance in individual meetings at least annually using the Career Development Conference Report. Understands the University promotion and tenure process and its requirements and mentor faculty members—or arrange mentoring—accordingly.
• Assigns clinical, administrative, educational, service, and research roles to the faculty in ways that promote the division and department while bearing responsibility for Divisional productivity and academic performance.
• Fosters excellent communication, teamwork, and cooperation in carrying out the scholarly, educational, and clinical missions of the Division and the Department.
• Provides adequate Divisional infrastructure for faculty and staff to carry out their responsibilities.
• Demonstrates accountability for financial performance and stewardship of resources. Develops case for support to achieve fundraising targets and collaborates with business partners to drive optimum financial performance and viability.
• Develops and manage the Divisional budget effectively, productively, equitably, and efficiently to support the missions of the Division and the Department.
• Identifies initiatives and priorities and allocates resources to advance these initiatives.
• Supports faculty in attracting, leveraging, and retaining sponsored research and grant dollars.
• Manages the Division’s capital assets, including both current assets and plans for replacement and renewal.
Research
• Encourages, guides, and supports a comprehensive vision for research activities across the enterprise. Develops the goals and the structure necessary to reach the vision.
• Ensures responsible and compliant conduct of research.
• Seeks to optimize both the research synergies between Divisional faculty and the research activities elsewhere within Emory.
• Fosters cooperative and interdisciplinary research activities with other divisions, departments, and schools and with community physicians.
• Supports faculty in attracting, leveraging, and retaining sponsored research and grant dollars.
• Supports and promotes a research environment that involves trainees (including students, residents, fellows, advanced practice providers) and attendings.
• Assist the organization in ensuring mechanisms are implemented to meet external regulations regarding research program compliance.
• Oversees and manages the research funds, equipment, facilities, and personnel assigned to the Division or its investigators. The effectiveness of the Division’s research programs would be demonstrated by regular publications in top peer review journals, by presentations in notable scientific meetings, and by substantial and growing extramural funding.
• Grows philanthropy to support the generation of research dollars.
Teaching/Education
• Ensures the Department of Pediatrics maintains the highest standard in training medical students, residents, and fellows.
• Creates, supports, facilitates, and implements the educational programs of the Division, including curricula for medical student, resident, and fellow training; and for graduate and postdoctoral training-- to satisfy or exceed national and accreditation standards.
• Develops a collaborative vision, with a track record for successfully implementing new initiatives that meet the challenges of academic medicine and clinical care.
• Ensures academic programs meet external regulations and accrediting standards.
• Builds collaborative partnerships within Children’s, Department of Pediatrics and across Emory to achieve top performance. Works harmoniously with others to ensure efficient and high-quality health care and other services.
• Establishes governance mechanisms that ensure participation in the academic affairs of Children’s and Emory. Holds regular meetings to fully involve members in the organization and executive leadership. Communicates key departmental, university, medical group, and hospital information to executive leadership.
• Provides leadership at the local, regional, state, national and international levels in clinical and academic matters.
• Conducts Divisional and programmatic reviews and appropriately assign faculty to carry out the educational programs.
• Evaluates the performance of faculty, students, and graduates ensuring that goals and professional standards are met or exceeded.
• Serves as a role model and mentor for Division faculty members or assures that other appropriate mentoring is provided for everyone.
Child Advocacy
• Develops and communicates a vision and overall direction for pediatric health that aligns all entities across Children’s. Presents pediatric health strategy and updates to Children’s & Emory’s Executive Teams, and Boards of Trustees as appropriate.
• Serves as a physician champion and leader for the provision of quality healthcare and clinical performance excellence.
• Ensures consistent standards of practice in all practice locations. Leads in identifying mechanisms to meet external regulations around quality of care and service.
• Takes initiative to identify, conceive, implement, evaluate, and refine new methods of health care delivery, especially wellness/preventative medicine initiatives that will impact the organization and community.
• Guides ongoing and emerging priorities and works with faculty and leaders to develop a vision that encompasses other areas of growth.
• Partners in fundraising endeavors, contributing to new and existing partnerships and philanthropic opportunities.
• Facilitates growth to meet the demands and needs of Metro Atlanta and other communities in Georgia and supports the expansion of regional networks and partnerships. Helps Children’s achieve the right balance between acting locally and having the horsepower and responsibility to achieve globally.
Candidate Qualifications
The ideal candidate will have the following credentials:
Education
• Doctor of Medicine (MD/DO) from an accredited school of medicine; Board Certification as a Pediatric Nephrologist and eligibility for licensure in Georgia.
• Completion of three-year fellowship in pediatric nephrology from an ACGME accredited program
• Meet eligibility requirements for credentialing as part of Children’s professional staff.
Experience and Skills
• An experienced academic and operational leader with vision, enthusiasm, executive presence with a track record as a unifier. Can successfully galvanize a group to one vision.
• Significant clinical experience and clinical operations/management experience with the capacity to align/engage physicians and clinicians.
• Clinical experience with 5-10 years of administrative or leadership experience in a pediatric hospital or health care setting.
• Passion for patient care and service that permeates through the team including the ability to lead service improvement efforts by example.
• National reputation of excellence in clinical care and/or education and research, gained within an advanced and highly complex market.
• Experience building and maintaining partnerships between clinical and non-clinical stakeholders.
Personal Characteristics
• A transformational and strategic leader who can establish an inspiring vision, who is committed to growing and developing clinicians, faculty, staff, and trainees, achieving prestige through the success of the program and its members rather than primarily through his or her own clinical and research work.
• Continually demonstrates excellence in all communications with high energy, enthusiasm, and a professional demeanor. Clearly conveys information and ideas through a variety of media to individuals or groups in a manner that engages the audience and helps them understand and retain the message.
• A confident manager with business skills who knows how to achieve challenging performance goals in complex, evolving environments, including balancing his or her own strengths and weaknesses with complementary associates.
• A mentor with strong coaching skills to nurture the development of team members.
• A teacher who enjoys interchange with students, residents, and faculty.
• An individual of the highest integrity with high levels of energy, maturity, and flexibility and a reputation for fairness and idealism.
• An approachable and enthusiastic leader who is accessible and visible and who can engage the community for philanthropic support.
• Identifies and understands issues, problems, and opportunities; compares data from different sources to draw conclusions; uses effective approaches for choosing a course of action or develop appropriate solutions; takes action that is consistent with available facts, constraints, and probable consequences.
• Maintains advanced knowledge of medicine, healthcare, and the functions over which this position provides senior-level leadership.
• Broad, visionary thinker. Keeps the organization’s vision and values at the forefront of decision making and action, while proactively seeking opportunities with medical staff to lead process improvement in a positive, collaborative manner.
Children’s Division of Pediatric Nephrology
In 2023, Children’s performed 24 kidney transplants, and followed approximately 210 kidney transplant recipients. Children’s also currently follows 44 chronic dialysis patients. Children’s has dedicated clinics for kidney transplantation, peritoneal dialysis, lupus (with rheumatology), hypertension, transition of kidney transplant patients, and chronic kidney disease.
Our ACGME accredited fellowship program was founded in 2007 and we currently have six fellows. Since 2006, our program has grown from two faculty and one APP to 13 faculty and six APPs.
We offer excellent opportunities for clinical research utilizing our NIH funded Pediatric Research Center within Children’s. There are cores for processing and storage of patient samples, grant writing, and statistical support. Our division has over 40 IRB approved protocols and six full-time research coordinators. Children’s and Emory have one of the most active pediatric nephrology clinical research programs in the United States.
About Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
The mission of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is to make kids better today and healthier tomorrow. Across three hospitals, eight urgent care locations and 13 telemedicine sites, we manage more than 1.2 million patient visits each year from 444,000 unique patients. More than 2,300 pediatric physicians provide care across 60 pediatric specialties with support from 12,700 staff and 10,000 volunteers. In addition to fulfilling our role as the community’s trusted source for pediatric healthcare, we conduct groundbreaking research to discover new cures and train and attract some of the best pediatric physicians in the world.
Our dedication to caring for our community’s children has garnered national recognition and secured our reputation as one of the best pediatric healthcare systems in the United States. We are ranked as one of the top pediatric hospitals in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, have earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval by upholding national standards for healthcare quality and safety, and have achieved Magnet® recognition for our dedication to nursing excellence.
Children’s is also the trusted safety net for all of Georgia’s kids. We serve children from all 159 Georgia countries and beyond. Our patients come from more diverse backgrounds than any other provider in the state. We serve as a bridge to our state’s rural communities and hospitals through transfer agreements and telemedicine sites throughout rural Georgia. Every child we serve has access to some of the best pediatric healthcare available, regardless of their ability to pay. This is only possible through the loyal support of our donors.
Children’s is one of the most respected pediatric healthcare providers in the United States. Children’s offers access to more than 60 pediatric specialties and programs and is ranked among the top children’s hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report. With generous philanthropic and volunteer support, Children’s has impacted the lives of children in Georgia, the United States, and throughout the world for more than 100 years.
This is a moment of unprecedented opportunity for Children’s and for the patients and families we serve. In preparation for our next chapter, the dedicated leadership at Children’s has extensively studied growing patient care complexities, current capacity constraints, the breadth and depth of our current and growing reach, and the need for better healthcare access, and forged a bold plan for the future of Children’s. We have begun construction on a hospital campus that will replace our aging Egleston hospital and will transform pediatric healthcare for generations to come.
Opening in September 2024, the Arthur M. Blank Hospital will have 446 beds, and will be a full- service facility for inpatient medical care. The hospital will consolidate some high-acuity programs to one location.
The North Druid Hills campus will serve as the breeding ground for expanded research innovations. The hospital, Clinic Building, and the Center for Advanced Pediatrics will include space to accommodate increased Children’s-led clinical research studies and trials, giving patients access to investigative drugs, procedures, and devices. Because of unparalleled patient volumes, Children’s can conduct more clinical trials than our peer institutions, drastically reducing the time between discovery and treatment.
For more information on Children’s please visit www.choa.org.
Procedure for Candidacy
Qualified applicants should apply online. Questions may be directed to Mark Lotz, Children’s Director of Executive and Physician Recruiting, via email at mark.lotz@choa.org.mark.lotz@choa.org.
Additional Information
Employment will be through the Emory + Children's Pediatric Institute. The Emory + Children’s Pediatric Institute is an affiliation between Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta that is improving the lives of children in Georgia and beyond. The Pediatric Institute combines the unique strengths and resources of each institution in support of our three-part academic missions of providing outstanding clinical care, conducting innovative basic science discovery and clinical research, and coordinating exceptional education of the future healthcare workforce. Our physicians, researchers, and educators have created a model where leadership, commitment and quality are fundamental components of success. Together, we are transforming pediatrics by achieving new levels of clinical excellence—driven by research, teaching and wellness. We look forward to our future together.
Emory University is dedicated to providing equal opportunities and equal access to all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, ethnic or national origin, gender, genetic information, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and veteran's status. Emory University does not discriminate in admissions, educational programs, or employment on the basis of any factor stated above or prohibited under applicable law. Students, faculty, and staff are assured of participation in University programs and in the use of facilities without such discrimination. Emory University complies with Executive Order 11246, as amended, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Vietnam Era Veteran's Readjustment Assistance Act, and applicable executive orders, federal and state regulations regarding nondiscrimination, equal opportunity and affirmative action. Emory University is committed to achieving a diverse workforce through application of its affirmative action, equal opportunity and nondiscrimination policy in all aspects of employment including recruitment, hiring, promotions, transfers, discipline, terminations, wage and salary administration, benefits, and training. Inquiries regarding this policy should be directed to the Emory University Department of Equity and Inclusion, 201 Dowman Drive, Administration Building, Atlanta, GA 30322.
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