California Rural Physician and Medical Leadership Opportunities at Rural Staffing Services in California, California, United States

Job description

• Help Us Build a Better Way for Rural Healthcare
• This application may connect you with the specific opportunity you were viewing, as well as other current or upcoming rural healthcare positions that align with your experience and goals.
• By joining the Rural Staffing Services Talent Network, you are helping us build a more thoughtful and connected approach to rural recruitment, one that allows experienced physicians and California healthcare organizations to find one another more quickly when the right need arises.
• Every application helps strengthen a growing network of people who are willing to bring their experience, leadership, clinical judgment, and heart to rural communities.
• Explore Rural Healthcare Opportunities at RSSJobs.org
• This application may connect you with the specific opportunity you were viewing, as well as other current or upcoming rural healthcare positions throughout California that align with your experience and goals.
• Visit www.RSSJobs.org to explore additional rural healthcare opportunities and communities.
• Physician Leadership and Clinical Opportunities Across California
• In rural California, physicians often have an impact far beyond a single department or patient encounter.
• They may care for generations of families, help shape clinical services, mentor other professionals, support hospital leadership, and become trusted members of the community.
• In some areas, a physician may be one of only a few locally available medical professionals. Patients may otherwise need to travel significant distances for emergency, specialty, surgical, obstetric, behavioral health, or primary care services.
• Some opportunities may combine clinical practice with medical leadership. Others may offer per diem or short-term coverage that helps an organization maintain essential services while recruiting for a permanent physician.
• Physicians may work closely with advanced practice providers, nurses, behavioral health professionals, pharmacists, transport teams, tribal healthcare partners, and regional specialists.
• The strongest rural physicians are collaborative, adaptable, clinically grounded, and committed to building trust with patients, families, employees, leaders, and the communities they serve.
• They understand that practicing in rural California may require a broad scope, strong judgment, resourcefulness, and the ability to provide excellent care when immediate specialty support is limited.
• California's rural healthcare organizations serve communities across mountain regions, agricultural valleys, forests, high desert areas, tribal lands, remote coastal communities, and small towns located far from larger medical centers and specialty services.
• Some communities are connected by major highways and regional corridors. Others may be hours from tertiary care, specialty physicians, airports, and other essential resources.
• These distances make physician access especially important.
• A local physician may allow a patient to receive care closer to family, avoid an unnecessary transfer, maintain a hospital service, or keep an entire clinic operating.
• Practicing in rural California offers the opportunity to develop meaningful relationships, experience a broad clinical scope, and see the direct impact of your work.
• You may care for multiple generations of one family, help stabilize a patient before transfer, mentor a local clinician, strengthen a service line, support a rural or tribal healthcare team, or help shape the future of healthcare across an entire region.
• Even short-term or per diem coverage can make a meaningful difference by protecting services, reducing burnout, supporting local teams, and giving an organization time to find the right permanent solution.
• The work requires humility, adaptability, strong clinical judgment, and a genuine commitment to listening before leading.
• For the right physician, it is an opportunity to practice medicine with extraordinary purpose.

Responsibilities

• Responsibilities will vary by organization, community, and opportunity and may include:
• Providing safe, high-quality, patient-centered medical care
• Supporting continuity of care in rural, tribal, underserved, agricultural, high-need, and geographically isolated communities
• Participating in call, inpatient, outpatient, emergency, procedural, obstetric, or long-term care coverage
• Providing short-term or per diem coverage during vacancies, leave, seasonal demand, or increased patient needs
• Supporting clinical quality, patient safety, infection prevention, and regulatory readiness
• Collaborating with nursing, advanced practice providers, behavioral health professionals, pharmacists, tribal partners, and operational leaders
• Participating in medical staff leadership, peer review, credentialing, privileging, governance, or clinical policy development
• Helping develop, expand, or strengthen clinical programs and service lines
• Mentoring physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, and other clinicians
• Supporting physician recruitment, retention, onboarding, and engagement
• Advising executive leadership, governing boards, or tribal leadership on clinical matters
• Helping improve access, outcomes, referrals, patient transfers, and care coordination
• Supporting telehealth, regional consultation, and communication between rural clinics, tribal healthcare programs, and regional hospitals
• Stabilizing patients and coordinating transfer when required
• Helping teams respond to limited local resources, wildfire impacts, severe weather, transportation delays, utility disruptions, or changes in patient demand
• Building trusted relationships with patients, families, employees, tribal partners, and community organizations
• Considering a permanent opportunity when the organization and community are the right fit

Requirements

• Doctor of Medicine or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree
• Current board certification or board eligibility in the relevant specialty
• Eligibility for California physician licensure
• Current DEA registration when required
• Relevant clinical experience
• Strong communication, collaboration, adaptability, and professional judgment
• The ability to practice independently while remaining connected to a broader clinical and regional care team
• The ability to respond thoughtfully when immediate specialty resources or transportation options are limited
• Experience serving rural, tribal, underserved, agricultural, high-need, or geographically isolated populations
• Experience with Critical Access Hospitals, Rural Health Clinics, FQHCs, public hospital districts, tribal healthcare organizations, long-term care providers, or community healthcare organizations
• Previous medical leadership experience for CMO, medical director, chief of staff, or physician executive roles
• Experience using telehealth or coordinating care across significant geographic distances may be valuable
• A patient-centered, collaborative, and community-minded approach
• Specific credentialing, privileging, call, schedule, travel, certification, and experience requirements will depend on the organization and position.

Skills

Required

• Current DEA registration when required