Physician Pain Medicine

Duties include but are not limited to:

• Providing and assisting with the coordination of care for chronic pain patients enrolled with the Pain Service.
• Providing consultation service locally and regionally for providers working with complex chronic pain care and providing education to patients and to providers regarding safe and sustainable chronic pain care and effective functional restoration of patients suffering with chronic pain.
• Completing detailed history and physical exams as well as health inventories ordering and interpreting diagnostic studies and prescribing appropriate medication and other treatment modalities.
• Developing evaluating and managing medical treatment plans intended to achieve defined outcomes that improve the patients quality of life as part of a coordinated multidisciplinary treatment team focused on safe and sustainable chronic pain care and functional restoration of patients living with chronic pain.
• Diagnosing and treating complex chronic pain problems and Opioid Use Disorder (OUD).
• Ordering performing reviewing analyzing and following up on appropriate diagnostic/laboratory test results including any registries necessary to monitor and support the patients medication therapy and communicating findings to patients and other providers including additional surveillance and/or testing requirements necessary as per VA policy.
• Reviewing non-VA records and updating CPRS and/or other electronic health records with outside records.
• Performing suicide and opioid risk screenings and assessments.
• Treating inpatients and outpatients with chronic pain and providing opioid reduction harm reduction and opioid safety/Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) services as needed.
• Providing patient care via multiple modalities including in person video and telephone visits on an individual or group basis as well as electronic consults for referred patients for comprehensive pain management.
• Assisting in the development coordination and implementation of Pain Clinic workflows programs initiatives and therapies.
• Participating in events such as weekly Tele-Pain/SCAN-ECHO conferences UW Anesthesiology Grand Rounds and VAPSHCS Anesthesiology Morbidity and Mortality conferences as requested and as appropriate to work tour.

• U.S. Citizenship; non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements ( Effective May 7 2025 drivers licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Must pass pre-employment physical examination.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• You may be required to serve a probationary period.
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the Required Documents section of this announcement.

To qualify for this position you must meet the basic requirements as well as any additional requirements (if applicable) listed in the job announcement. Applicants pending the completion of training or license requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met. Currently employed physician(s) in VA who met the requirements for appointment under the previous qualification standard at the time of their initial appointment are deemed to have met the basic requirements of the occupation.

Basic Requirements:

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• Degree of doctor of medicine or an equivalent degree resulting from a course of education in allopathic medicine or osteopathic medicine. The degree must have been obtained from one of the schools approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs for the year in which the course of study was completed.
• Current full and unrestricted license to practice medicine or surgery in a State Territory or Commonwealth of the United States or in the District of Columbia.
• Residency Training: Physicians must have completed residency training approved by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in an accredited core specialty training program leading to eligibility for board certification. (NOTE: VA physicians involved in academic training programs may be required to be board certified for faculty status.) Approved residencies are:
  • (1) Those approved by the accrediting bodies for graduate medical education the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) or American Osteopathic Association (AOA) in the list published for the year the residency or fellowship if applicable was completed; OR
  • (2) One year of post medical school training (internship first year of residency or transitional year residency) approved by ACGME or AOA followed by two years of post-training independent practice (performing under a full and unrestricted license) in the United States; OR
  • (3) Non-US residency training programs followed by a minimum of three years of verified independent practice in the United States (performing under a full and unrestricted license) performing duties related to the position they are applying for (United States fellowships would be creditable towards this requirement) which the local Medical Staff Executive Committee deems to have provided the applicant with appropriate professional training and believes has exposed the Physician to an appropriate range of patient care experiences.
  • Exceptions:
    • Residents currently enrolled in ACGME/AOA accredited residency training programs and who would otherwise meet the basic requirements for appointment are eligible to be appointed as Physician Resident Providers (PRPs). PRPs must be fully licensed physicians (i.e. not a training license) and may only be appointed on an intermittent basis. PRPs are not considered independent practitioners and will not be privileged; rather they are to have a scope of practice that allows them to perform certain restricted duties under supervision. Additionally surgery residents in gap years may also be appointed as PRPs.
    • In rare and unusual circumstances the Facility Director can submit a memo to the VISN Director through the VISN Chief Medical Officer who may approve requests for reasonable exceptions to the residency training requirement for Physicians whose composite record of experience accomplishments performance and qualifications warrant such action.
• Proficiency in spoken and written English.