Public Health and Preventive Medicine

Role and Facility Information

In accordance with the Vision, Purpose, and Values, and strategic direction of the Vancouver Island Health Authority (Island Health), patient and staff safety is a priority and a responsibility shared by everyone; as such, the requirement to continuously improve quality and safety is inherent in all aspects of this position, including cultural safety and humility. Island Health and its employees are committed to culturally safe health and care, respecting Indigenous health and wellness beliefs, practices, customs and ceremonies, unique to Vancouver Island First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples.

In a growing public health team at Island Health, we have an opening for Medical Health Officer (MHO). The role offers an opportunity to practice public health and provide expert leadership for policies, programs and services to improve health and reduce health inequities in a diverse population of 916,000. Your public health practice can focus on urban or rural and remote population health issues, as well as region‑wide leadership in health assessment, communicable disease control, environmental health, healthy public policy, mental health promotion, substance use, Indigenous health, injury prevention or other public health issues of interest. This position is located in North Vancouver Island, which includes the Comox Valley and Campbell River and a number of smaller municipalities and First Nations communities, and offers the opportunity to work closely with a team of Medical Health Officers supporting a population of 455,000 people living in Central and North Vancouver Island.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Monitors and assesses the health of the population : works with Island Health's Population Health Surveillance, Assessment and Epidemiology team and provincial partners to monitor the health and determinants of health for the population.
• Interprets population health indicators for the executive team, external partners, municipalities and the public to advance programs, policies and interventions to improve health.
• Identifies and addresses community health priorities through policies, programs and services provided by Island Health and / or its partners.
• Provides population health leadership, including advice on community health assessment, engagement, health inequities and developing partnerships to address underlying determinants of health.
• Proactively fosters relationships with local government elected and non‑elected representatives, education sector, Indigenous communities and other partners to improve health.
• Links with the appropriate local, regional and provincial agencies as required to fulfill the mandates of the position.
• Acts as a Public Health and Preventive Medicine consultant.
• Participates in program and service planning to improve population health and reduce inequities within the assigned geographic area and the Health Authority as a whole.
• Manages cases of communicable diseases and large outbreaks; has specific knowledge, judgement and media skills to perform this role and directs nursing and environmental health staff working in communicable disease control.
• Works with Population & Public Health Directors and / or Managers to administer, coordinate and evaluate designated core programs in public health.
• Participates in client‑focused design, planning, delivery and evaluation of policies, services and programs; develops and evaluates short‑ and long‑range goals and objectives.
• Works with various authorities in planning response to public health emergencies.
• Works with health protection staff in responding to environmental health issues.
• Provides advice to clinicians in the Health Authority and the community on matters of public health including vaccination, communicable diseases and other health hazards.
• Participates in the after‑hours on‑call rotation with the other members of the MHO team.
• Acts as a source of information about public health issues and core programs for other health care workers, the public and the news media.

Responsibilities

Participates in Quality Improvement, Research, Evaluation, and Training

Qualifications

Skills and Abilities

Compensation

Salary.

Seniority Level

Executive

Employment Type

Full‑time

Job Function

Health Care Provider

Industries

Hospitals and Health Care

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