Hospice and Palliative Care Physician

Serious illness asks for a physician who can ease suffering, name what matters, and keep care aligned with those goals. In this role you lead that work—at the bedside, in the home, and with the team—so patients are comfortable, families are guided, and unwanted treatment gives way to a clear plan. Your impact is felt in quieter symptoms, honest conversations, and care that holds together across settings.

Performance Objectives

• Establish goals of care and a written plan within 48 hours of admission or consult, including prognosis, priorities, and expected course.
• Bring severe pain and other distressing symptoms to a tolerable level within 24 hours for most acute cases, and sustain that control.
• Lead family meetings that produce a shared decision, appropriate advance-care documents, and fewer crisis hospitalizations.
• Direct the interdisciplinary team so nursing, social work, and spiritual care execute one plan across home, facility, and inpatient settings.
• Keep documentation, certifications, and medication orders audit-ready and consistent with the Medicare hospice benefit and palliative standards.
• Respond to referring clinicians quickly enough that consults convert to trusted, repeat partnerships.
• Coach colleagues in goals-of-care communication so the program’s standard of care does not depend on one physician.

Environment & Resources

You practice with an interdisciplinary hospice and palliative team and report to the medical director. Tools include the clinical record, a defined on-call model, and support for home and facility visits. Caseload, coverage, and visit expectations are set so continuity—not raw volume—drives the work.

Essential Qualifications

• MD or DO with board certification or eligibility in Hospice and Palliative Medicine, or equivalent specialty training plus substantial hospice practice.
• Active state medical license and DEA registration, with sound judgment in opioid and complex symptom management.
• Demonstrated leadership of interdisciplinary teams and family goals-of-care conferences.
• Working knowledge of the Medicare hospice benefit, eligibility, and plan-of-care documentation.
• Ability to cover home, facility, and inpatient needs, including scheduled after-hours responsibility.

Role Selling Points

• Outcomes you can see: comfort, clarity, and fewer unwanted transitions—not productivity quotas alone.
• A full team around the patient, so medicine, nursing, and psychosocial care move together.
• Authority to set the clinical standard for communication and symptom control.
• A schedule built for continuity with patients and families through the course of illness.

Call to Action

If you want your next chapter measured by lives made more comfortable and decisions made more honest, apply with your CV and a short note on one outcome you are proud to have delivered.