Wallowa Memorial Hospital & Medical Clinics is seeking an exceptional Chief Medical Officer (CMO) to join our Executive Leadership Team. This person will help shape the future of healthcare in one of Oregon's most beautiful and close-knit rural communities.
This is an opportunity for a physician leader who wants to do more than hold an executive title. We are looking for someone who wants to influence how care is delivered, strengthen physician engagement, champion quality and patient safety, and help build a healthcare organization where clinicians can do their best work.
The CMO serves as the organization's senior physician executive, partnering closely with the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Nursing Officer, medical staff, and clinical leaders. The role combines strategic physician leadership with an active, part-time clinical practice, allowing you to remain connected to patients, colleagues, and the realities of rural healthcare.
Why This Opportunity?
At Wallowa Memorial, physician leadership is not confined to the boardroom.
As CMO, you will have the opportunity to:
- Shape the clinical future of a rural healthcare organization and influence strategic decisions that directly affect patients and the community.
- Build strong relationships with physicians and advanced practice providers, strengthening engagement, communication, accountability, recruitment, and retention.
- Partner with nursing and executive leadership through a collaborative physician-nursing dyad model.
- Champion clinical quality and patient safety, translating data and evidence into meaningful improvements in care.
- Support and develop physician leaders while partnering with department-specific medical directors.
- Help advance access, service lines, care delivery, and clinical operations across the hospital and clinics.
- Maintain meaningful clinical practice, preserving the credibility and connection that come from continuing to care for patients.
- Serve as a trusted physician voice with the Medical Staff, Executive Leadership Team, and Governing Board.
The Opportunity
As CMO, you will provide physician leadership across a broad continuum of services, collaborating with leaders across hospital, clinic, emergency, surgical, obstetric, swing bed, rehabilitation, pharmacy, laboratory, imaging, EMS, and ancillary services.
You will provide leadership for:
Physician & Medical Staff Engagement
- Serve as the principal liaison between Medical Staff and Administration.
- Promote physician and APP engagement, communication, recruitment, onboarding, retention, and leadership development.
- Support Medical Staff governance, credentialing, privileging, professional practice standards, and established processes for addressing provider performance and professionalism concerns.
- Partner with physician medical directors to strengthen collaboration, accountability, and interdisciplinary care.
Quality, Patient Safety & Clinical Excellence
- Provide physician leadership for the organization's QAPI program.
- Champion evidence-based practice, patient safety, quality improvement, and clinical performance.
- Participate in peer review, FPPE, OPPE, mortality review, case review, and other professional practice evaluation activities.
- Partner with Quality, Nursing, Infection Prevention, Risk Management, and clinical leaders to improve outcomes and respond to patient safety concerns.
- Provide visible physician leadership during accreditation surveys and regulatory reviews.
Strategic & Clinical Operations
- Advise the CEO and Executive Leadership Team on clinical matters and healthcare delivery.
- Provide physician leadership for clinical operations, patient access, staffing models, service line development, and care delivery.
- Help develop and evaluate clinical policies, protocols, documentation standards, order sets, and care coordination processes.
- Collaborate with leaders to improve utilization management, medical necessity, documentation integrity, and patient throughput.
- Contribute to organizational strategy, operational planning, growth, and executive decision-making.
Clinical Practice
The CMO will maintain an active clinical practice consistent with specialty, credentials, organizational needs, and approved privileges.
Clinical practice may include:
- Rural Health Clinic
- Emergency Department
- Hospital Medicine/Swing Bed
- Obstetrics, if appropriately privileged
- Other approved clinical services
Maintaining clinical practice is an intentional part of this position, providing the CMO with continued visibility, credibility, and connection with patients and providers.
Chief Medical Officer - Job Description
Who We're Looking For
We are seeking a physician who combines clinical credibility with emotional intelligence, sound judgment, and the ability to bring people together around a shared vision.
Required
- MD or DO from an accredited medical school
- Current unrestricted Oregon medical license
- Board certification in an appropriate specialty
- Active Medical Staff membership in good standing
- Current DEA registration, if applicable
- Current certifications required for assigned clinical practice
Preferred
- Five or more years of clinical practice
- Previous physician leadership experience
- Critical Access Hospital, rural healthcare, or community hospital leadership experience
- Experience with quality improvement, peer review, accreditation, utilization management, regulatory compliance, and electronic health records
The Leader We're Looking For
A Physician Leader
You bring clinical credibility and understand what physicians and APPs need to thrive.
A Relationship Builder
You know that meaningful change happens through trust, communication, and collaboration—not simply through authority.
A Champion for Patients
You are passionate about quality, safety, access, and delivering exceptional patient-centered care.
A Strategic Thinker
You can see beyond individual departments and understand how clinical decisions affect the organization as a whole.
A Rural Healthcare Advocate
You appreciate the unique opportunities and challenges of caring for a rural community and are energized by the ability to make a tangible difference.
A Collaborative Executive
You are comfortable working alongside nursing, administration, medical staff, and community leaders to solve complex problems and advance a shared mission.
Why Wallowa?
This is more than an executive opportunity. It is an opportunity to become part of a community where your leadership can have a visible and lasting impact. In a rural healthcare environment, relationships matter. Decisions matter. And physician leadership matters.
You won't be one executive among hundreds in a large system. You will have the opportunity to get to know your colleagues, understand your community, see the results of your work, and help shape the direction of healthcare for the people who call this region home.
And when the workday ends, the Wallowa Valley offers an extraordinary lifestyle for those who value the outdoors, small-town community, and the opportunity to live and work somewhere truly special.
Join Us
If you are a physician leader who wants to lead with purpose, stay connected to clinical care, develop strong physician partnerships, and make a meaningful difference in rural healthcare, we would love to hear from you. Please contact Anna Hayter, Human Resources Executive, for more information.
Phone: 541.426.5313 | Email: anna.hayter@wchcd.org
About us
At Wallowa Memorial Hospital and Medical Clinics, we value compassion, respect and integrity in all that we do. As a member of our team, you can expect a fulfilling career alongside like-minded professionals who are dedicated to delivering premier care to the residents of Wallowa County.
We treat every employee like a valued member of the family and offer an exciting opportunity to contribute to a nationally recognized, world-class healthcare facility. Wallowa Memorial has been named one of the Top 20 Critical Access Hospitals in the nation and honored as a Top Place to Work in Healthcare for 6 consecutive years.
EEOC/ACCOMMODATION STATEMENT:
Wallowa County Health Care District is a drug and alcohol-free workplace and an Equal Opportunity Employer. All offers of employment are contingent upon the successful completion of background and drug screenings. Please note that we adhere to federal guidelines regarding prohibited substances, including those that may be legal under state law.
Applicants who require a reasonable accommodation during the application or recruitment process are encouraged to contact the Human Resources Department for assistance.
Paper applications may be obtained at Wallowa Memorial Hospital.