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Physician Advisor

At Houston Methodist, the Physician Advisor position is responsible for teaching, consulting, and advising the case management department, clinical documentation specialists, medical staff and the hospital on matters regarding medical necessity; compliance rules and regulations; collaboration and relationships with payers; physician practice patterns; documentation and over- and under-utilization of resources. This position is a key member and leader of the hospital's utilization review/management committee, which is charged with regulatory goals of ensuring high levels of healthcare quality and acceptable levels of cost.

The Physician Advisor position will conduct clinical reviews on cases referred by case management and/or other healthcare professionals in accordance with hospital objectives related to quality care of patients.

Qualifications:

• Graduate of accredited medical school
• Five years experience in clinical practice
• MD
  - Physician
  - State Licensure
  - Texas Department of Licensing and  Unrestricted medical license in the State of Texas

Skills and abilities:

• Demonstrates the skills and competencies necessary to safely perform the assigned job, determined through on-going skills, competency assessments, and performance evaluations
• Sufficient proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing the English language necessary to perform the essential functions of this job, especially with regard to activities impacting patient or employee safety or security
• Ability to effectively communicate with patients, physicians, family members and co-workers in a manner consistent with a customer service focus and application of positive language principles
• Ability to foster positive medical staff relations and work effectively with all healthcare disciplines.
• Demonstrates understanding and knowledge of utilization management, clinical documentation, and state and federal healthcare regulations.
• Active practitioner

Essential functions:

• Interact with medical staff members to discuss needs of patients and alternative levels of care. Provide consultation to case management staff regarding complex clinical issues and advises on next steps. Provide feedback to attending and consulting physicians regarding level of care, length of stay, and quality issues.
• Chair the utilization review/management committee, actively participates in defining operational strategic objectives for the Utilization Management Program and serve as the liaison to other medical staff committees that interface with the utilization review/management committee. Assist with the evaluation of the hospital's Utilization Management Program, including annual review and revision of the hospital's UR plan.
• Contacts physicians to resolve delays and achieve positive outcomes and ensures physician accountability for efficient patient care management. Communicates to medical staff leaders (e.g., department chairs, medical directors and other attending physicians as necessary) relevant findings of physician's performance when patterns of clinical outcomes demonstrate undesirable variation.
• Create strategies to enhance hospital and post-acute interdisciplinary efforts for maximizing patients/family outcomes. Serve as an advocate for case management services and clinical documentation. Collaborate with medical staff in the development and measurement of performance standards involving patient care and utilizations of resources to achieve optimal outcomes.
• Round on the patient care units, and throughout the hospital, to identify opportunities, to impact resource utilization and manage length of stay (e.g., outliers, medical management practices, problematic patient/family dynamics).
• Provides support and assists Clinical Documentation Specialists and Coders on an ongoing basis by addressing specific documentation issues encountered by CDSs/Coders, including noncompliant physicians. Determines the "focus" of presentations of clinical examples regarding documentation opportunities and specifics based on quarterly trends and presents this information in department meetings.
• Act as consultant and resource to attending/responsible physicians regarding their decisions relative to appropriateness of hospitalization, continued stay and use of resources in length of stay management. Use Inter Qual criteria and document patient care reviews, decisions, and other pertinent information per hospital/case management and clinical documentation policies policy.
• Review issues identified by case management department to ensure appropriate follow-up, recommends improvement initiatives as needed and makes referrals to appropriate department chairs as necessary.
• Determine if standards of quality care, as defined by the hospital's Medical Executive Committee are met.
• Seek additional clinical information from the attending and consulting physicians as required to make effective level of care determinations, and in doing so, recommends and requests additional, or more complete, medical record…