Remote Medical Director - New York and North Carolina

About the Role

Willow Health delivers virtual-first crisis stabilization and bridge care where appropriate to people who wouldotherwise land in an emergency department or an inpatient bed. We serve currently patients over 18 with behavioral health conditions. The Medical Director is Willow's senior practicing psychiatrist and the physician accountable for the quality and safety of care delivered every day. This is a working clinical leadership role: you will carry your own panel, serve as the supervising or collaborating physician for our nurse practitioners, and own the day-to-day clinical operations of the programs — escalations, coverage, case review, and the judgment calls that determine whether a patient stabilizes at home or needs a higher level of care. You will report to the Chief Medical Officer and partner closely with our clinical supervisors, clinical operations,compliance, and product. This role is designed for a psychiatrist who wants to collaborate in building andimproving a care model rather than inherit one.
• Reports to: Chief Medical Officer
• Direct reports: Nurse practitioners; physician colleagues as the medical staff grows
• Location: Remote (New York and North Carolina markets)
• Status: Full-time, exempt
• Time allocation: Approximately 50% direct patient care, 50% clinical leadership and oversight
• Working hours for the clinic are Monday - Friday from 10:30 AM to 7:30 PM Eastern Time.

Key Responsibilities

Direct patient care

• Carry a clinical panel across crisis stabilization and bridge services, including initial psychiatric evaluations, medication management, and crisis psychotherapy encounters.
• Serve as the physician of record for high-acuity and diagnostically complex patients, including those with co-occurring substance use disorders.
• Provide same-day and urgent assessments when risk escalates, and make the level-of-care determination when a patient needs transfer to a higher level of care.
• Document to clinical and billing standard, including structured risk assessment and the elements required for crisis psychotherapy coding.

Supervision of nurse practitioners

• Serve as supervising or collaborating physician for Willow's psychiatric nurse practitioners in accordance with New York and North Carolina requirements, including written collaborative or supervisory agreements, required chart review, and documented quality improvement meetings.
• Provide real-time clinical backup: be reachable for consultation on risk, medication, and disposition questions during clinical hours.
• Run recurring individual/group supervision and group case conference; set expectations for prescribing practice, risk assessment, and documentation.
• Complete competency assessment, onboarding sign-off, and performance input for each NP in partnership with the CMO.

Daily clinical operations

• Own day-to-day clinical operations of Willow’s programs: daily huddle, escalation pathway, after-hours protocol, and the clinical standards that govern on-call and coverage.
• Triage and resolve clinical escalations from the care team; serve as the final clinical decision-maker on urgent matters within the scope set by the CMO.
• Work closely with the clinical supervisors and the clinical operations team on capacity, scheduling, and coverage — setting the clinical parameters they plan against, including safe caseload ranges, acuity mix, supervision ratios, and prescriber availability requirements.
• Review panel distribution and acuity on an ongoing basis with clinical operations and the supervisors, and raise capacity or acuity mismatches before they affect access, provider sustainability, or safety.
• Escalate to the Chief Medical Officer where clinical safety parameters and operational capacity needs conflict and cannot be resolved between the Medical Director and clinical operations; the CMO holds the decision.
• Partner with clinical supervisors so that supervision, case conference, and quality expectations are applied consistently across teams and programs.
• Ensure continuity across transitions — intake to program, program to step-down, and discharge to community provider.

Quality, safety, and outcomes

• Lead clinical quality and safety review: adverse and near-miss events, root cause analysis, and corrective action.
• Use Willow's clinical oversight dashboard — patient safety, provider load, engagement and retention, clinical outcomes, therapeutic alliance, and population demographics — to direct clinical intervention, and give the CMO clinical input.
• Attend clinical quality committee and contribute to peer review.

Clinical standards and compliance

• Maintain and update clinical protocols, standing orders, and documentation templates in partnership with the CMO and the Compliance Officer.
• Support state regulatory and licensure requirements applicable to our programs.
• Ensure prescribing practice — including controlled substances delivered via telehealth — meets federal and state requirements.

Growth and team building

• Interview, select, and onboard psychiatric prescribers as the medical staff grows.
• Contribute clinical design to new tracks, new populations, and new market launches.
• Represent Willow clinically to hospital partners, referral sources, and payers when asked.

Qualifications

Required

• MD or DO with completed ACGME-accredited psychiatry residency.
• Board certified in psychiatry by the ABPN.
• Active, unrestricted medical licenses in New York and North Carolina, or the ability to obtain the second license within 90 days.
• Active DEA registration.
• Minimum three years of post-residency clinical practice.
• Demonstrated experience supervising or collaborating with nurse practitioners.
• Direct experience with acute or crisis psychiatry — emergency psychiatry, consult-liaison, inpatient, partial hospitalization, ACT or mobile crisis.
• Comfort practicing and leading in a telehealth environment.

Preferred

• Board certification or substantive experience in addiction psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry.
• Prior medical director or clinical leadership role, ideally in a growth-stage or startup setting.
• Familiarity with Medicaid behavioral health delivery in New York or North Carolina.

What We're Looking For

• We are early. Protocols are being written, not maintained.
• The right person is a strong clinician who is energizedrather than frustrated by that — someone who will build the standard, hold the team to it, and stay close enoughto the work to know whether it is actually being met.
• You should be decisive under acuity, direct with colleagues,and willing to say when a patient is not safe to keep in our program.

Benefits for Our Team

• PTO includes sick leave, certain federal holidays, and vacation
• Continuing education time and stipend
• 401K
• Health insurance
• Malpractice liability insurance
• Multidisciplinary team collaboration

Willow Health is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.

Originally posted on Himalayas