Physician Lead, Length of Stay

The Physician Lead, Length of Stay is responsible for advancing inpatient throughput, optimizing length of stay (LOS), and improving patient flow across the assigned hospital(s). This role serves as a real-time physician leader embedded with frontline teams, partnering closely with case management, Mission Control, nursing, and physician leaders to identify, escalate, and resolve barriers to efficient care progression. The Physician Lead works in partnership with LOS Administrative Leader. This position functions as a throughput-focused Physician Lead, partnering and collaborating closely with the Chief Medical Officer of regional hospitals. The role emphasizes proactive, daily engagement in care progression activities and rapid escalation of system barriers to improve patient outcomes, access, and operational performance.

Real-Time Throughput Leadership

• Serve as an embedded, on-the-ground clinical operations leader supporting inpatient teams in real time

• Participate in and as needed, facilitate multidisciplinary/progression rounds to drive timely care progression

• Provide at-the-elbow support to physicians, APPs, and care teams to accelerate decision-making and reduce delays

• Maintain situational awareness of hospital capacity, patient flow, and operational bottlenecks

Barrier Identification and Escalation (Core Accountability)

• Proactively identify clinical, operational, and social barriers to discharge and care progression.

• Aggregate and escalate high-impact barriers to system leadership (e.g., daily huddles, executive forums).

• Partner with operational and clinical leaders to rapidly remove barriers and deploy solutions.

• Establish standard work for escalation pathways and promote appropriate utilization by frontline teams.

• Actively participate in complex patient review processes to remove discharge barriers.

Care Progression & Length of Stay Management

• Lead efforts to reduce observed-to-expected (O/E) LOS and excess/opportunity days.

• Support early and proactive discharge planning, including patient and family engagement.

• Promote parallel processing and timely completion of diagnostics, consults, and procedures.

• Partner with service lines/specialties, employed and independent physicians / APPs to address LOS outliers and complex cases.

Program Development and Continuous Improvement

• Identify recurring barriers and lead or sponsor hospital or system-level improvement initiatives.

• Contribute to development of standardized workflows, escalation pathways, and best practices.

• Support data-driven prioritization of throughput initiatives.

Success in this role will be measured by improvement in key operational and clinical metrics, including:

• Length of stay (LOS), including observed-to-expected (O/E) LOS.

• Excess days / avoidable days/ opportunity days.

• Discharge time (or equivalent throughput metrics).

• Throughput-related delays (e.g., time to consult, procedure, discharge readiness).

• Readmission rates (in coordination with care teams).

• Physician engagement in care progression processes.

• Escalation effectiveness and resolution of barriers.

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Corewell Health is committed to providing a safe environment for our team members, patients, visitors, and community. We require a drug-free workplace and require team members to comply with the MMR, Varicella, Tdap, and Influenza vaccine requirement if in an on-site or hybrid workplace category. We are committed to supporting prospective team members who require reasonable accommodations to participate in the job application process, to perform the essential functions of a job, or to enjoy equal benefits and privileges of employment due to a disability, pregnancy, or sincerely held religious belief.

Corewell Health grants equal employment opportunity to all qualified persons without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, religion, genetic information, marital status, height, weight, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other legally protected category.

An interconnected, collaborative culture where all are encouraged to bring their whole selves to work, is vital to the health of our organization. As a health system, we advocate for equity as we care for our patients, our communities, and each other. From workshops that develop cultural intelligence, to our inclusion resource groups for people to find community and empowerment at work, we are dedicated to ongoing resources that advance our values of diversity, equity, and inclusion in all that we do. We invite those that share in our commitment to join our team.

You may request assistance in completing the application process by calling 616.486.7447.