[Hiring] Virtual Physician @Vancouver Coastal Health

Role Description

Come work as a Virtual Physician with Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH)! This role will include virtual physician support on weekends for up to three specific mental health teams operating primarily in the downtown eastside in Vancouver:

• Mobile Crisis De-escalation (MoDe) team - a non-police, same-day crisis response team for individuals in the inner city experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis
• Acute Home Based Treatment (AHBT) team - a short-term mental health stabilization team for patients with moderate decompensations, who can be managed in the community
• Indigenous Crisis Response Team (ICRT) - an Indigenous-specific crisis response service

The interdisciplinary teams work closely with community service providers including shelter and supportive housing staff to provide a community-based, healthcare-led crisis response, post-crisis follow-up, and service navigation. AHBT works closely with nurses, psychiatrists, and other allied health to support patients in the immediate stabilization after a mental health decompensation.

This role is ideal for physicians/NPs who are already working on the weekend and want to stack call shifts, or who would like to work from home.

Physician scope / activities, which will be delivered on-call, remotely:

• Provide on-call, virtual, episodic care to patients, who will be initially assessed by our nurses in-person on Saturdays or Sundays from 0800-1900
• Liaise with nursing staff who are on site (mostly in shelters and supported housing buildings) to create an episodic care plan for a patient and determine which services they will be bridged to
• Coordinating with the other physicians/NPs on the team as needed to ensure continuity of care

This episodic care could require:

• Antipsychotic titration for mental health decompensation
• Virtual certification with a Form 4 (on rare occasions)
• Care coordination, as well as liaison with psychiatrists

You will need to use Profile EMR, PARIS as well as Cerner for this role, and will be compensated for any training required.

In keeping with the spirit of meeting patients where they are, other episodic care needs may also need to be addressed, including:

• Skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI) management
• Bridging scripts for opiate agonist management

As this is a pilot program, we anticipate the call volume to be low in the beginning, and compensation would be equivalent to 1 session for each 10-hour shift on the weekend. This would be rapidly adjusted as demand picks up.

Qualifications

• Current College of Physicians of BC (CPSBC) - Full
• Canadian College of Family Practitioners (CCFP) - Mandatory
• Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) - Mandatory
• Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada (FRCPC) - Desired

Requirements

Please note that a resume and cover letter are required to apply for this position.

As per Ministry of Health policy, all health care workers working in publicly-funded health care facilities are required to report their past receipt of certain vaccines or history of certain infections. Collecting these records will allow for offering of any missing vaccines, and for appropriate actions to be taken in the event of any future exposure to a communicable disease or during outbreaks. For all new hires and appointments to Vancouver Coastal Health, you will be asked to provide this information as part of the onboarding process.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health benefits package, including MSP, extended health and dental, and municipal pension plan
• Grow your career with employer-paid training and leadership development opportunities
• Wellness supports, including counselling, critical incident, and innovative wellness services are available to employees and their immediate families
• Award-winning recognition programs to honour staff, medical staff, and volunteers