Urgent Care Physician

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Finger Lakes Healthcare System (FLHCS)

Bath, NY

Period of Performance: March 15, 2025, through March 14, 2026, with four one (1) year option period.

Place of Performance: Bath VA Medical Center 76 Veterans Avenue Bath, NY 14810

Schedule: VA administrative hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Contractor will provide UCC Physician Services during administrative and non-administrative business hours pursuant to schedule from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM on weekdays and from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM on weekends and Federal Holidays. During scheduled VA staff absences, contractor will provide coverage from 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM.

Position Requirements:

• License: The Contractor’s physician(s) assigned by the Contractor to perform the services covered by this contract shall have a current license to practice medicine in any State, Territory, or Commonwealth of the United States or the District of Columbia) when services are performed onsite on VA property. All licenses held by the personnel working on this contract shall be full and unrestricted licenses. Contractor’s physician(s) who have current, full, and unrestricted licenses in one or more states but who have, or ever had, a license restricted, suspended, revoked, voluntarily revoked, voluntarily surrendered pending action, or denied upon application will not be considered for the purposes of this contract.

• Board Certification/Eligibility: All contract physicians shall be board certified and/or eligible in Family Medicine or Internal Medicine.

• Currently certified by the American Heart Association in Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS). ACLS is not a substitute for BLS certification. All continuing education courses required for maintaining certification must always be kept up to date. Documentation verifying current certification shall be provided by the Contractor to the VA COR on an annual basis for each year of contract performance.

• Active DEA registration

• Copies of all licenses, board certifications, NPI

• Must be a U.S. citizen

Duties and Responsibilities may include but are not limited to the following:

• Direct Patient Care: 95% of the time involved in direct patient care. ]

• Assess, evaluate, diagnose, and initially treat patients of who present in the Urgent Care Clinic with any symptom, illness, injury or condition and provide services necessary to ameliorate minor illnesses or injuries and stabilize patients with major illnesses or injuries and to assess all patients to determine if additional care is necessary.

• Initial evaluation, treatment, and management of urgent care patients presenting with any symptom, illness, injury, or condition. Initial evaluation, treatment, and management for Veterans whose acute medical, surgical, or psychiatric illness require a higher level of care than that available in the outpatient Primary Care, Behavioral Health or Specialty Care setting to prevent deterioration of the clinical condition and facilitate either admission to the inpatient acute care unit or transfer to a higher level of care.

• Contract physicians will direct the care of the patient and provide treatment and stabilization, as indicated. UCC staff, including the staff consultants, and other ancillary staff, will be utilized as directed by the UCC physician to treat and stabilize the patient.

• Ensure that the Urgent Care Clinic’s patients are directed to the appropriate level of care. Patients may be diverted to a higher level of care if they suffer conditions that may require services beyond the capacity of the Urgent Care Clinic. A sample listing of these includes, but is not limited to: chest pain, difficulty breathing or severe shortness of breath, uncontrolled bleeding, sudden or severe pain, coughing up or vomiting blood, sudden dizziness, weakness, or visual changes, severe or persistent vomiting, change in mental status, such as confusion, stupor or coma, etc.

• Refer patients who present to Urgent Care with problems that can be appropriately managed in primary care directly to their Primary Care Aligned Teams (PACTs).

• Contract physicians will be fully cognizant of procedures concerned with the determination of blood compatibility in blood transfusions and will be responsible for verification of compatibility.

• Contractor shall be familiar with Medical Center Disaster Policy and is responsible for treatment of casualties until the arrival of additional VA medical staff and it is deemed that the contract physician is no longer needed.

• The On-call Psychiatrist is to be contacted by contract physicians regarding any suicidal/homicidal or acutely psychotic patients for patient/administrative management duties.

• Contract physicians shall make telephone arrangements with appropriate VA physicians at VA tertiary care facilities to arrange for referral or transfer of patients to other VA.

• Contract physicians shall be familiar with Code Blue Policy. Contractor will serve as code director while on duty.

• The UCC physician will be responsible for performing history/physical on all pre-approved domiciliary patients who report to the facility while the UCC is open.

• Contract physicians shall apply orthopedic devices such as splints and braces to stabilize orthopedic injuries.

• Contract physicians shall initiate appropriate social work referrals for all identified homeless veterans and for patients who do not have primary care providers, but who appear regularly in the UCC.

• Clinic: All contract physicians shall be present on time for any scheduled clinics as documented by physical presence in the clinic at the scheduled start time.

• Consultation and Referral Responsibilities: All contract physicians shall provide consultation with and instruction to referring physicians regarding appropriate indications for procedures so that the most expeditious and clinically appropriate work-up can be done. Contractor physicians shall determine the appropriate course of treatment and communicate in person or by phone with the referring clinicians.

• Medications: Contract physicians shall follow all established medication policies and procedures.No sample medications shall be provided to patients.

• ADMINISTRATIVE: 10% of time not involved in direct patient care

• Quality Assurance/Quality Improvement (QA/QI) Documentation: Contract physicians shall participate in continuous quality improvement activities on occasional as required by the VAMC Chief of Service, Chief of Staff, or designee.QA/QI Documentation: The contract physicians shall complete the appropriate QM documentation pertaining to all procedures, complications, and outcome of examinations.Specialized CPRS Documentation Procedures: Patient documentation is completed using the Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS). All contract physicians shall participate in a training session prior to providing any patient care services at VA.

• Contract physicians shall document care provided and select appropriate Evaluation and Management (E&M) procedure codes in CPRS. Documentation must be sufficient to support both the E&M and procedure codes. Documentation and coding functions must be completed by the end of each patient care encounter.

• Patient Safety Compliance and Reporting: Contract physicians shall follow all established patient safety and infection control standards of care.Contract physicians shall make every effort to prevent medication errors, falls, and patient injury caused by acts of commission or omission in the delivery of care. All events related to patient injury, medication errors, and other breaches of patient safety shall be documented in the medical record of those impacted and disclosed to the patient and surrogate. As soon as practicable (but within 24 hours) contract physician shall notify COR of incident and submit an entry in the VA Patient Safety Reporting System, following up with the COR as required or requested.

• Customer Service: Contract physicians shall refer all patient/customer service issues to the Chief of Medicine, Nurse Manager, COR or designee.