Vice Chair, Administration - Psychiatry
Location: United States · Reference: 3038906
The Vice Chair for Administration (VCA) serves as the senior administrative
leader for the MSHS Department of Psychiatry, with responsibility for
partnering on the oversight and advancement of all clinical, research, and
educational activities of the Department and its faculty, and overseeing the
related administrative activities.
The position functions within a matrixed organizational structure and reports
dually to the Department's System Chair and to the Vice Dean for Clinical
Affairs, reflecting shared accountability to departmental leadership and
enterprise administration. The VCA is expected to collaborate effectively with
senior and executive leaders across the System to advance the One Mount Sinai
enterprise vision.
The VCA directs comprehensive administrative, financial, operational,
academic, and research affairs across the Mount Sinai Health System. As a key
member of the Department's leadership team, the VCA partners with departmental
and system leaders to develop, enhance, and support the clinical, academic,
and research missions in alignment with Mount Sinai Health System's strategy,
policies, and performance expectations. The role balances advocacy for
departmental priorities with stewardship of system-wide objectives, ensuring
consistency, accountability, and sustainable performance across all divisions
and sites.
Responsibilities
Enterprise and Strategic Leadership
Serve as a strategic partner with the Chair, departmental leadership, Vice
Dean for Clinical Affairs, and Mount Sinai Health System leadership to
advance the clinical, academic, research, and operational priorities of
the Department within the context of the One Mount Sinai strategy.
Operate with dual accountability to departmental and enterprise
leadership, serving as both an advocate for the department and a steward
of system-wide priorities.
Ensure departmental strategies, resource allocations, and operational
decisions are aligned with departmental and enterprise goals, aspirations,
performance expectations, financial frameworks, and any relevant policies
and regulatory requirements.
Identify growth, performance improvement, and strategic opportunities for
the Department; collaborate, support, participate, and/or lead initiatives
that enhance clinical, academic, research, and financial performance.
As relevant, collaborate with relevant Institute Vice Presidents to
advance the strategies and activities of MSHS integrated and clinical
institutes.
Provide guidance to department leadership and faculty regarding external
business ventures, professional service agreements, and affiliations,
collaborating closely with legal counsel and compliance offices to protect
MSHS interests.
Oversee the management of relationships with external for-profit and not-
for-profit entities and ensure potential conflicts of interest are
identified and appropriately managed.
Represent the Department on institutional and system committees and serve
as a liaison between the Department and School, Hospital, and System
leadership.
Serve as the liaison and departmental point of contact for enterprise-wide
administrative initiatives and operational directives, including but not
limited to regulatory and compliance-driven requirements, emergency
preparedness activities, staff compensation, and bonus programs.
Translate enterprise policies and operational requirements into
department-specific implementation plans, ensuring timely coordination,
communication, and execution across all divisions and sites.
Identify and mitigate operational, financial, regulatory, and reputational
risks affecting the Department and/or MSHS.
Faculty Affairs and Performance Management
With the Chair, oversee all components of faculty affairs, including
recruitment; engagement and retention; appointments, promotion, and tenure
processes; compensation; effort allocations; and human resources and
disciplinary matters.
Support faculty recruitment and program start-up planning through the
collaborative development of business plans, cost-benefit analyses,
budgets, space planning, and organizational/programmatic design.
Regularly monitor faculty performance compared to MSHS, FPA, and ISMMS
standards in areas such as clinical productivity, access, quality,
extramural research salary coverage, trainee satisfaction, and others;
recognize exceptional performance and collaborate with the Chair and
relevant leaders to develop improvement plans in areas of
underperformance.
People Leadership and Change Management
Develop a collaborative and respectful culture consistent with a learning
organization to foster individual ideas and to spark intellectual
curiosity.
Build a high-performing administrative leadership team aligned to
enterprise priorities, and collectively foster a culture of teamwork,
accountability, operational excellence, and execution focus.
Lead, develop, and mentor the Department's non-faculty leaders and staff.
Collaborate with Human Resources at their direction to resolve human
resources matters.
Effectively manage and lead change, including implementation of new
initiatives, operating models, and organizational structures in response
to evolving departmental and enterprise aspirations and needs.
Financial Management
In collaboration with the MSHS Finance team, and in compliance with all
pertinent MSHS financial policies, sound internal controls, and relevant
compliance, regulatory, and audit requirements:
Oversee the development and management of the Department's budget, at all
times ensuring that inputs are reasonable, accurate, and manageable; that
the net impact is sustainable and aligned with performance expectations;
and that approved budgets serve as the guardrails for operating the
Department.
Develop and monitor financial forecasts.
Oversee monthly financial variance reporting of material deviations from
the approved budgets and develop remediation plans as necessary.
Coordinate effectively with Health System Office (HSO) teams, including
the Office of Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A), Revenue Cycle, FPA
Finance and Budgeting, Ambulatory Operations, and others to support
enterprise shared services.
Contribute to the execution of financial plans that align departmental
priorities with One Mount Sinai strategic objectives.
Leverage data, analytics, and digital tools to drive performance and
decision-making.
Monitor, analyze, and report on established key performance indicators
(KPIs) and escalate or address variances as appropriate.
Revenue Cycle
In collaboration with the MSHS Revenue Cycle Management team and in compliance
with all pertinent MSHS revenue policies, protocols and relevant processes and
procedures:
Ensure consistent adherence to policies, procedures and standard work to
mutually achieve agreed operational targets as outlined in the Service
Level Agreement (SLA).
Maintain regular communication and partnership with Revenue Engagement
specialists to resolve issues as they arise.
Regularly review department revenue cycle performance using data available
to coordinate any modification to work as required to meet deadlines.
Coordinate physician and APP timely completion of clinical documentation
(within 2 days of DOS).
Coordinate and implement timely response to RCM queries as they arise.
Coordinate and oversee timely coding and charge capture in EPIC (where
applicable) within two days of service date.
Oversee regular charge reconciliation processes.
Ambulatory Operations and Clinical Program Development
In collaboration with the MSHS Ambulatory team, and in compliance with all
pertinent MSHS operational and clinical policies, protocols, and relevant
compliance and regulatory requirements:
Support the implementation and ongoing utilization of standard workflows
and scope of responsibilities across all locations.
Ensure that access, capacity management, patient experience, and
operational performance goals are embedded in faculty and other provider
expectations.
Partner with relevant clinical and business development leaders to
identify opportunities for expansion of clinical services and development
of new and existing practices across MSHS sites.
Participate in operational planning, performance monitoring, and
implementation of new clinical programs and services.
Monitor, analyze, and report on established key performance indicators
(KPIs) and escalate or address variances as appropriate.
Research Administration
Provide oversight and/or collaborate in the Department's research
enterprise, including grants management, clinical research compliance,
core facilities, and research space planning and utilization.
Collaborate with the relevant ISMMS teams to ensure efficient and
effective administrative collaboration, alignment of all data, and support
for departmental investigators.
Education and Residency Program Administration
In collaboration with the Department Chair, and Graduate Medical Education
(GME) leadership:
Provide administrative leadership and oversight for the Department's
education and training programs, including undergraduate medical education
(UME), graduate medical education (GME), residency, fellowship, and
other trainee programs.
Ensure operational, financial, and regulatory support for residency and
fellowship programs, including compliance with ACGME, LCME (as
applicable), institutional policies, and accreditation requirements.
Oversee budgeting, financial management, and resource allocation for
education and training programs, ensuring sustainability, transparency,
and alignment with institutional funding models.
Coordinate with central ISMMS and MSHS offices on trainee onboarding,
compensation, benefits, payroll, visas, and timekeeping, ensuring
consistent and compliant execution.
Support data collection, reporting, and analysis related to trainee
satisfaction, performance metrics, accreditation outcomes, and program
effectiveness.
Facilitate alignment between clinical operations and educational needs to
ensure high-quality training experiences while maintaining patient access,
productivity, and quality standards.
Measures of Success
Performance in this role is evaluated based on effective leadership, as
evidenced by oversight, monitoring, reporting, and management of established
performance indicators, including but not limited to:
Excellence, growth, competitiveness, and sustainability of the
Department's clinical, research, and education programs and the related
performance metrics, all aligned with One Mount Sinai priorities.
Effectiveness of the leadership team, employee engagement, talent
development, and effectiveness in driving change and organizational
transformation.
Achievement of budget and forecast targets, margin improvement, and long-
term financial sustainability of the Department.
Improvement in physician productivity, access, patient experience, and
overall faculty practice performance aligned with system benchmarks.
Demonstrated improvements in operational efficiency, standardization,
regulatory compliance, and proactive risk identification and mitigation.
Successful adoption and execution of enterprise initiatives, policies, and
operating models across all divisions and sites.
Qualifications
Education and Experience
Advanced degree required, preferably in business, health administration,
public health, or a related field.
Minimum of 10 years of progressive and substantial leadership experience
in an academic health system, including direct managerial responsibility
Capabilities
Demonstrated ability to operate effectively within a matrixed
organizational structure, including the ability to effectively collaborate
with leaders of various organizational units and functions and faculty.
Strong working knowledge of the mission activities, and operating
constructs of academic health systems including a solid understanding of
the key performance metrics, need for incentive alignment, and cross-
subsidization requirements.
Commitment to financial stewardship, data rigor, and fairness that
transcends constituent pressure.
Execution-focused approach that allows for timely advancement of all
responsibilities, incorporating strategic, operational, and financial
considerations.
Excellent communication skills complemented by the poise, confidence, and
mission commitment necessary to advance thought leadership,
implementation, and ongoing change management related to areas of
responsibility.
Ability to clearly and effectively communicate complex issues to a wide
variety of stakeholders, including those with less knowledge of the
subject matter.
