Geriatrician Opportunity

The Southern Arizona VA Healthcare System

The Southern Arizona VA Health Care System (SAVAHCS) professional staff is seeking a full-time physician with interest/training in geriatric care to serve as a gap provider in our 92-bed Community Living Center (CLC), 32-bed Southwest Blind Rehabilitation (SWBR), Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Clinic, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) inpatient unit.  Experience in subacute medical/, rehabilitation, geriatrics, spinal cord injury, and hospice/palliative patient care services is helpful.

Duties

The gap physician will provide medical coverage to patients when their primary provider is unavailable.  Duties performed will be consistent with selected provider's granted privileges and based upon individual training, qualifications, and experience. The selected individual will be responsible for performing duties to include, but not limited to the following:

• Provides care within the context of a multidisciplinary approach and documents services through appropriate notes.
• Provides clinical oversight to Nurse Practitioners, Fellows, Residents and students and participates in the education program.
• Participates in interdisciplinary team activities and provides cross coverage to other programs.
• Participates actively in delivering in-service training for medical center staff, Geriatric Medicine Fellows, medical residents, and medical students; and supports an environment that promotes academic excellence and encourages continual learning; and
• Develops and maintains strong relationships with other practice areas to ensure adequate and appropriate delivery of long-term care services to Veterans.
• Home call coverage of the CLC from 1630 – 1900hrs, Monday – Friday, shared with other physicians in the CLC clinical area

Preferred Experience:

Board Certified or Board Eligible in Geriatrics, Internal Medicine, and/or Family Medicine.  Must be able to attain affiliate faculty appointment with the University of Arizona Medical School.

Key Requirements:

• Must be a U.S. Citizen.
• Must be Board Certified or Board Eligible
• Must have full and unrestricted license to practice medicine in ANY U.S. State.

Paid Time Off:

• 26 Days paid annual (vacation/personal) leave
• 13 Days paid sick leave each year with no limit on accumulation
• 10 paid Federal holidays per year
• 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 8.3% of the employee’s salary each pay period for a total annual contribution percentage equal to 12.7% 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 2015, employees under the age of 50 may contribute up to $18,000, while those over age 50 are eligible to make catch-up contributions that allow them to defer up to $24,000.
• 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

Community, Facility and Organization

The Southern Arizona VA Health Care System (SAVAHCS) consists of eight VHA facilities located in Tucson, Northwest Tucson, Southeast Tucson, Casa Grande, Green Valley, Sierra Vista, Safford and Yuma, Arizona.   Tucson is home to the SAVAHCS main campus (285 beds) where key administrative support services, inpatient, outpatient, and specialty care are based.  Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) are located in Northwest Metropolitan Tucson (15 miles from Southern Arizona VA Health Care System), Southeast Metropolitan Tucson (19 miles), Casa Grande (68 miles), Green Valley (25 miles), Safford (127 miles), Sierra Vista (72 miles), and Yuma (237 miles). 

SAVAHCS is a Joint Commission accredited level 1a complexity, tertiary care and teaching health care system, providing a full range of patient care services utilizing state-of-the-art technology, as well as offering graduate medical education and research.  Comprehensive inpatient health care is provided through both primary and subspecialty care; in Medicine (56 authorized beds); Surgery (25 authorized beds); Critical Care-Intensive Care Unit and Step-Down Unit (31 authorized beds); Psychiatry (28 authorized beds); Physical Medicine, Geriatrics and Advanced Rehabilitation (96 authorized beds); Southwestern Blind Rehabilitation Center (31 authorized beds); and Domiciliary-Substance Abuse Residential (18 authorized beds).  SAVAHCS operates a 24-hour emergency room. Referral services for VISN 22 include cardiothoracic surgery, angiography, cardiac catheterization, neurosurgery, imaging (tele radiology), nuclear medicine, telemedicine, and blind rehabilitation. In addition, SAVAHCS is the host site for various regional referral centers of excellence including the VISN 22 Poly-trauma Network Site, the Southwestern Blind Rehabilitation Center (SWBRC), and the Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Center (PRRC).