Medical Director – Detoxification & Addiction Treatment
Facility: Simple & Serene Detox & Recovery
Location: Mesa, Arizona
Employment Type: Part-Time, Contract, or Full-Time
Department: Medical Services
Reports To: Administrator / Executive Leadership
Supervises: Medical providers and nursing leadership, within the scope established by facility policy
Schedule: Flexible administrative and clinical hours with scheduled on-site availability and participation in the facility’s 24/7 medical coverage system
Compensation: Competitive and commensurate with experience, availability, and scope of responsibility
Position Summary
Simple & Serene Detox & Recovery is seeking an experienced, compassionate, and highly accountable Medical Director to provide medical leadership and oversight for its detoxification and substance use disorder treatment program in Mesa, Arizona.
The Medical Director is responsible for establishing and overseeing safe, evidence-based medical practices for withdrawal management, medication administration, medical screening, clinical stabilization, emergency response, and continuity of care. This position works closely with nursing leadership, medical providers, behavioral health clinicians, pharmacy partners, administration, and quality-management personnel.
The Medical Director does not function solely as a name attached to the facility’s license. This is an active leadership position requiring meaningful participation in clinical governance, protocol development, provider supervision, quality improvement, regulatory readiness, and high-risk case consultation.
The ideal candidate understands the medical complexity of alcohol, opioid, benzodiazepine, stimulant, and polysubstance withdrawal and is committed to treating individuals with substance use disorders with dignity, clinical competence, and compassion.
Essential Duties and ResponsibilitiesMedical Leadership and Clinical Governance
- Provide overall medical leadership for the facility’s detoxification and withdrawal-management services.
- Establish and maintain evidence-based standards for medical screening, admission, stabilization, monitoring, treatment, transfer, and discharge.
- Ensure medical services are delivered within applicable Arizona laws, licensing standards, accreditation requirements, and professional scopes of practice.
- Review and approve medical policies, procedures, protocols, order sets, and clinical standing orders.
- Collaborate with executive leadership and the Clinical Director regarding the facility’s clinical model and scope of services.
- Promote coordination between medical, nursing, behavioral health, admissions, case-management, and operations personnel.
- Provide consultation regarding complex medical presentations and high-risk clinical decisions.
- Participate in organizational planning involving medical services, staffing, medication systems, and patient safety.
Withdrawal-Management Protocols
- Develop, approve, and periodically review protocols for the assessment and management of:
- Alcohol withdrawal
- Opioid withdrawal
- Benzodiazepine and sedative withdrawal
- Stimulant withdrawal
- Polysubstance use
- Co-occurring medical and psychiatric conditions
- Overdose risk
- Seizure risk
- Delirium and other withdrawal complications
- Oversee the appropriate use of validated withdrawal-assessment tools, including CIWA-Ar, COWS, and other approved instruments.
- Establish clinical parameters for medication initiation, monitoring, escalation, emergency transfer, and treatment completion.
- Ensure protocols clearly identify conditions that exceed the facility’s capabilities and require transfer to a hospital or higher level of care.
- Review protocols following adverse events, regulatory changes, new clinical evidence, or identified quality concerns.
Admission and Medical Eligibility
- Establish medical admission and exclusion criteria consistent with the facility’s license, staffing, equipment, and clinical capabilities.
- Oversee the medical screening and clearance process.
- Ensure patients receive timely medical histories, physical assessments, medication reconciliation, withdrawal-risk assessments, and necessary diagnostic testing.
- Provide consultation when a prospective patient’s medical or psychiatric stability is uncertain.
- Ensure admission decisions are based on clinical appropriateness and patient safety.
- Support the use of nationally recognized placement criteria, including applicable ASAM criteria.
Patient Care and Clinical Consultation
- Provide direct patient evaluation and medical services as required by the Medical Director agreement and facility needs.
- Complete or supervise medical evaluations, histories, physical examinations, diagnoses, treatment plans, and medication orders.
- Review medically complex, high-risk, or clinically deteriorating patients.
- Provide consultation to physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, and other authorized personnel.
- Ensure abnormal findings and changes in patient condition receive timely follow-up.
- Coordinate care with hospitals, emergency departments, specialists, pharmacies, primary-care providers, and behavioral health professionals.
- Support effective transition from detoxification into the next appropriate level of treatment.
Medication Management
- Oversee safe prescribing, storage, administration, monitoring, reconciliation, and disposal of medications.
- Review and approve medication protocols and standing orders.
- Establish safeguards for controlled substances, high-risk medications, emergency medications, and medications used for withdrawal management.
- Promote evidence-based access to medications for opioid and alcohol use disorders when clinically appropriate.
- Monitor prescribing trends, medication errors, adverse drug reactions, and medication-related safety events.
- Coordinate with the facility’s pharmacy and nursing leadership regarding medication availability and pharmacy services.
- Ensure prescribing and controlled-substance activities comply with applicable professional, DEA, pharmacy, and Arizona requirements.
Medical Provider and Nursing Oversight
- Participate in credentialing and privileging decisions for physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other medical personnel.
- Verify that practitioners provide services only within their licenses, competencies, approved privileges, and assigned responsibilities.
- Establish clear procedures for provider coverage, consultation, escalation, and after-hours medical response.
- Provide clinical supervision or consultation when required by law, professional standards, contracts, or facility policy.
- Collaborate with nursing leadership regarding nursing protocols, competency expectations, medication administration, and patient-monitoring standards.
- Participate in the evaluation of medical-provider performance.
- Address identified clinical-practice concerns promptly and document corrective action when appropriate.
Emergency Preparedness and Transfers
- Establish medical emergency, overdose-response, seizure-response, fall-response, and hospital-transfer protocols.
- Ensure appropriate emergency medications, supplies, and equipment are available and maintained.
- Define when emergency medical services must be activated.
- Participate in the review of emergency transfers, unexpected hospitalizations, overdoses, deaths, and other serious events.
- Ensure staff receive appropriate training regarding medical emergencies and escalation procedures.
- Collaborate with administration to maintain effective relationships with local hospitals and emergency medical services.
Quality Management and Patient Safety
- Participate in the facility’s quality-management and performance-improvement program.
- Review clinical indicators that may include:
- Emergency transfers
- Hospital readmissions
- Medication errors
- Adverse drug reactions
- Withdrawal complications
- Falls and injuries
- Overdoses
- Seizures
- Unexpected discharges
- Patient grievances involving medical services
- Documentation deficiencies
- Infection-control concerns
- Lead or participate in peer review, root-cause analysis, mortality review, and corrective-action planning.
- Identify trends and recommend measurable improvements.
- Evaluate whether corrective actions produce sustained improvement.
- Promote a culture in which safety concerns are promptly reported and addressed.
Policies, Documentation, and Regulatory Compliance
- Review and approve medical policies and procedures at least annually and when clinical or regulatory changes occur.
- Ensure medical documentation supports the care provided and meets facility timelines and professional standards.
- Participate in ADHS licensing surveys, accreditation reviews, payer audits, and corrective-action responses involving medical services.
- Assist leadership in maintaining compliance with HIPAA, applicable substance use disorder confidentiality requirements, infection-control standards, and patient-rights requirements.
- Ensure medical records accurately reflect assessments, diagnoses, orders, treatment decisions, patient responses, consultations, and discharge recommendations.
- Maintain all personal licensure, credentialing, continuing-education, insurance, and prescribing requirements.
Staff Education
- Provide or approve education related to:
- Withdrawal identification and monitoring
- Medication protocols
- Overdose recognition and naloxone administration
- Seizure precautions
- Medical emergencies
- Infection prevention
- Medication-assisted treatment
- Documentation expectations
- Medical escalation and hospital transfer
- Promote interdisciplinary training and effective communication among medical, nursing, and behavioral health personnel.
- Help ensure staff competencies are evaluated and documented.
Availability and Coverage
- Maintain scheduled on-site availability consistent with patient volume, acuity, contracts, and regulatory requirements.
- Participate in an organized 24-hour medical consultation and coverage system.
- Respond to urgent clinical matters within established response-time expectations.
- Arrange qualified backup coverage during periods of unavailability.
- Ensure the facility always has a clear process for escalating medical concerns.
Required Qualifications
- Doctor of Medicine (MD) or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degree from an accredited institution.
- Current, unrestricted license to practice medicine in Arizona.
- License must remain active and in good standing throughout employment or contractual service. Arizona physician license status can be confirmed through the Arizona Medical Board.
- Completion of an accredited residency program.
- Current DEA registration when prescribing controlled substances is included in the assigned responsibilities.
- Compliance with applicable Arizona controlled-substance prescribing and monitoring requirements.
- Current professional liability insurance in the amount required by the facility.
- Current CPR and Basic Life Support certification; ACLS certification preferred.
- Demonstrated knowledge of substance use disorders, withdrawal syndromes, medication management, and co-occurring medical and psychiatric conditions.
- Ability to provide clinical leadership in a multidisciplinary treatment environment.
- Ability to pass required credentialing, background, exclusion, and employment screenings.
- Ability to respond to urgent medical situations and make timely escalation or transfer decisions.
Preferred Qualifications
- Board certification in Addiction Medicine, Addiction Psychiatry, Psychiatry, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, or Emergency Medicine.
- Certification through the American Board of Preventive Medicine in Addiction Medicine or another recognized addiction-related specialty.
- Previous experience as a Medical Director or senior physician in a detoxification, residential treatment, behavioral health, hospital, emergency, or addiction-treatment setting.
- Experience managing alcohol, opioid, benzodiazepine, and polysubstance withdrawal.
- Experience with medications for opioid use disorder and alcohol use disorder.
- Familiarity with ASAM criteria and withdrawal-management levels of care.
- Familiarity with Arizona Department of Health Services requirements, AHCCCS expectations, and healthcare accreditation standards.
- Experience participating in credentialing, peer review, utilization management, quality improvement, and regulatory surveys.
- Experience supervising or collaborating with nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
- Experience working with patients who have co-occurring psychiatric and medical conditions.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
The successful candidate must demonstrate:
- Strong medical judgment and risk-management skills.
- Current knowledge of evidence-based addiction medicine.
- Ability to establish clear, operationally workable medical protocols.
- Ability to identify when a patient exceeds the facility’s treatment capabilities.
- Strong leadership, communication, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
- Respectful and nonjudgmental treatment of individuals with substance use disorders.
- Timely and accurate medical documentation.
- Comfort reviewing clinical performance data and implementing corrective action.
- Ability to balance patient access with medical appropriateness and safety.
- Willingness to remain actively engaged in facility operations and regulatory readiness.
Performance Expectations
Performance will be evaluated based on:
- Patient safety and quality of medical care.
- Timely medical evaluations and clinical consultation.
- Effective management of withdrawal risks and complications.
- Compliance with approved medical protocols.
- Appropriateness of admissions, continued stays, transfers, and discharges.
- Medication-management performance.
- Provider responsiveness and coverage reliability.
- Medical-record quality and completion.
- Staff competency and adherence to escalation procedures.
- Participation in quality improvement, peer review, and regulatory activities.
- Reduction of preventable medication errors, adverse events, and emergency transfers.
- Effective collaboration with nursing, clinical, administrative, and operational leadership.
Schedule
This position may be structured as part-time, contract, or full-time based on the facility’s census, acuity, provider model, and operational needs.
The Medical Director must maintain scheduled administrative and clinical availability, provide required on-site participation, and support a reliable 24/7 medical coverage and escalation system. Being available by telephone does not replace on-site involvement when an in-person evaluation is clinically or operationally necessary.
Our Mission
At Simple & Serene Detox & Recovery, our mission is to provide a safe, compassionate, and peaceful environment where individuals can stabilize, heal, and take the first meaningful steps toward lasting recovery.
The Medical Director protects the clinical integrity of that mission by ensuring every patient receives medically appropriate, evidence-based, and dignified care.
Simple & Serene Detox & Recovery is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Pay: $125.00 - $150.00 per hour
Benefits:
Work Location: In person
