Vice Chair, Administration - Psychiatry

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. 

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. 
   

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.