Orthopedic Surgeon SSM Health in Madison, WI

Position Summary

The Regional Associate Medical Director for Foot and Ankle Surgery and Podiatry provides physician leadership for clinical alignment, quality, access, operational consistency, and provider engagement across SSM Healths Wisconsin Region. In partnership with the Regional Clinical Program Medical Director for Musculoskeletal Services and operational leaders, this role supports orthopedic foot and ankle and podiatric providers, APPs, nursing, perioperative, ambulatory, wound care, rehabilitation, and related teams.

The leader helps establish a consistent regional structure for foot and ankle care, including meeting cadence, communication, escalation pathways, standardized care delivery, and support for regional wound care and limb salvage strategy development.

This is anticipated to be a 0.10 administrative FTE leadership role, inclusive of orthopedic foot and ankle surgery and podiatry, with scope subject to regional need, provider complement, and applicable agreement terms.

The role reports clinically to the Regional Clinical Program Medical Director for Musculoskeletal Services or designated Vice President, Clinical Programs, and collaborates closely with market physician leaders, medical directors, administrators, clinic managers, perioperative leaders, and regional medical group operations.

• Serve as the regional physician leader for foot and ankle surgery and podiatry within the Musculoskeletal clinical program.
• Partner with clinical and operational dyads to set regional priorities, align local leadership roles, and represent the specialty in relevant quality, access, recruitment, perioperative, ambulatory, and operational forums.
• Maintain a consistent department meeting cadence and support clear communication across sites.

• Develop, review, and promote evidence-based standards, clinical pathways, and best practices for foot and ankle and podiatric care.
• Monitor quality, safety, patient experience, access, and outcome measures, and partner with Quality, Patient Safety, Infection Prevention, Perioperative Services, Rehabilitation, and Clinical Outcomes teams to close gaps.
• Support safety event review, peer learning, corrective action plans, perioperative optimization, postoperative management, and evidence-based protocols.

• Partner with operational leaders to improve access, referral pathways, triage expectations, scheduling templates, clinic workflows, and regional coordination.
• Support clear escalation pathways for operational issues, provider concerns, access barriers, and interdepartmental needs.
• Collaborate with perioperative, ambulatory, imaging, rehabilitation, orthotics, wound care, and primary care teams to reduce variation, improve efficiency, and strengthen consistency across the patient journey.

• Foster collaboration, professionalism, accountability, and engagement among foot and ankle surgery and podiatry providers.
• Participate in provider onboarding, mentorship, clinical integration, performance input, recognition, and leadership development.
• Assist with specialty-specific provider concerns, including practice variation, communication, documentation, and adherence to agreed-upon standards.

• Support regional workforce planning, including provider need, market coverage, succession planning, recruitment, candidate evaluation, interview participation, and onboarding planning.
• Provide clinical input into growth opportunities, outreach, service line development, strategy, access expansion, regional coverage, and competitive positioning.

• Lead or co-lead regular regional foot and ankle surgery and podiatry meetings.
• Facilitate bidirectional communication among frontline providers, site leaders, regional clinical program leadership, operational dyads, perioperative teams, APPs, clinic leaders, and market leaders.
• Share timely regional and system updates and elevate barriers, risks, quality concerns, and resource needs through established channels.

• Participate in strategic planning, budget discussions, capital planning, service line development, and review of productivity, access, quality, and financial performance data.
• Provide input into equipment, technology, clinical space,…