Chief Medical Officer

Position Accountabilities

Executive & Strategic Leadership

• Serve as an advisory member of the Executive Leadership Team, contributing physician-level judgment to strategic planning, clinical and quality care, service-line development, and system growth.
• Assume all responsibilities described in state statute and administrative code as the Medical Director of record for REMSA Health and Care Flight and ensure the same for any designated Associate/Assistant Medical Director(s), if any acting on the CMO's behalf.
• Serve as the system's principal clinical spokesperson and advisor to the executive leadership team, Board of Directors, government oversight authority, and regulatory agencies.
• Represent the organization in contract negotiations, requests for proposal, and franchise/exclusive operating area renewal processes where clinical performance, medical oversight structure, or scope of practice are at issue.
• Lead physician recruitment, credentialing, privileging, and performance evaluation for all medical direction staff.

Medical Oversight & Clinical Governance

• In collaboration with the division medical directors, if any, develop, review, and annually approve all clinical protocols, standing orders, and treatment guidelines using current evidence-based and consensus-guideline practice (e.g., AHA, ACS-COT, national EMS clinical guidelines).
• Authorize and maintain the controlled substance program, including DEA registration used for ordering and secure storage, diversion-prevention auditing, and periodic review of security procedures.
• In collaboration with the division medical directors, if any, review sentinel events, critical incidents, and reported deviations from approved protocols; direct clinical corrective action, remediation, or retraining in coordination with clinical quality and operations leadership.
• In collaboration with the division medical directors, if any, provide direct online (real-time) and offline (retrospective) medical control and ensure a reliable base-station/physician-consultation structure is always available to field crews.
• In collaboration with the division medical directors, if any, approve scope-of-practice expansion, new clinical programs, and equipment/formulary changes for ground and air ambulance operations.

Quality, Safety & System Performance

• Own the Clinical Quality Improvement (CQI) program, establishing a data-driven, non-punitive culture of continuous improvement across all lines of service.
• Define and monitor clinical performance measures aligned with the performance-based agreement and nationally benchmarked outcomes — including cardiac arrest survival with favorable neurologic outcome, STEMI and stroke system time intervals, sepsis and pediatric bundle compliance, airway and pain management success rates, and patient experience.
• Partner with operations and communications center leadership to ensure clinical performance is achieved concurrently with contractual response-time compliance, recognizing that a high-performance system is measured on clinical outcomes, not speed alone.
• Utilize NEMSIS-compliant data, dashboards, and analytics to benchmark performance against peer high-performance/PUM systems and to guide protocol revision and resource allocation.
• Oversee a structured patient safety and risk-mitigation program, including trigger-based chart review, near-miss reporting, and root-cause analysis.
• Report quality and safety performance regularly to the Board, government oversight authority, and Prehospital/Regional Medical Advisory Committee(s).

Education, Training & Workforce Development

• Direct the system's education and training programs as they relate to clinical care, including onboarding, continuing education, and high-risk/low-frequency skills maintenance.
• Where applicable, serve as Medical Director for a CoAEMSP-accredited paramedic education program, including review and approval of curriculum, instructional quality, student progress, and graduate competency across cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains.
• Support and mentor an EMS Fellowship or equivalent physician training program, where present, in coordination with academic/hospital partners.
• Provide direct teaching, simulation, and case-review sessions for clinicians, communications center staff, and base-station physicians.

Regulatory, Legal & Compliance

• Ensure the EMS system's medical practices remain in continuous compliance with state EMS statute, administrative code, licensure/certification requirements, and any federal regulation applicable to controlled substances, HIPAA, and telehealth/telemedicine used in prehospital care.
• Support corporate compliance, risk management, and legal counsel in the investigation, response to, and resolution of