Company Description

Bridgewater Recovery is a substance use treatment program focused on expanding access to high-quality detox, residential treatment, PHP, and ongoing recovery support.

This is a unique leadership opportunity for an experienced medical leader to help build, launch, and oversee the medical services of a new substance use treatment center. The program is being designed to serve individuals who need a higher level of care, with a focus on patient safety, clinical quality, medical oversight, regulatory compliance, and long-term recovery outcomes.

The ideal candidate is a mission-driven physician with experience in addiction medicine, behavioral health, detoxification, psychiatry, or a related medical specialty. This individual should understand the medical complexity of substance use treatment and be comfortable helping develop, implement, and uphold policies, procedures, protocols, and standards of care.

Role Description

• The Medical Director will serve as the senior medical leader for Bridgewater Recovery and will be responsible for providing medical oversight across detox, residential treatment, PHP, and related recovery services.
• This role requires someone who can support the pre-opening phase, assist with medical policy and procedure development, establish safe medical protocols, support licensure readiness, and provide ongoing medical leadership once the facility is active.
• The Medical Director will work closely with the Executive Director, Clinical Director, nursing leadership, admissions, utilization review, compliance, and administrative teams to ensure the organization delivers safe, ethical, evidence-based, and medically appropriate care.

Medical Leadership & Program Oversight

• Provide medical leadership and oversight for substance use treatment services, including detox, residential treatment, PHP, and related recovery support services.
• Help develop, review, implement, and uphold medical policies, procedures, protocols, standing orders, and clinical workflows.
• Establish medical standards related to detoxification, withdrawal management, medication management, patient safety, emergency response, and clinical escalation.
• Ensure medical services are aligned with applicable state, federal, payer, accreditation, and organizational requirements.
• Serve as a medical resource for complex cases, withdrawal management concerns, medication-related questions, co-occurring conditions, and patient safety issues.

Detox, Medication & Patient Care

• Oversee medical care for clients receiving detoxification and higher-acuity substance use treatment services.
• Support admission, level-of-care, continued-stay, transfer, and discharge decisions in collaboration with clinical, nursing, admissions, and utilization review teams.
• Provide or oversee medical evaluations, medication prescribing, medication management, and medical consultation as appropriate.
• Support safe and appropriate medication practices, including controlled substance prescribing, medication reconciliation, medication storage, and medication administration standards.
• Collaborate with nursing and clinical teams to monitor withdrawal symptoms, medical stability, behavioral health concerns, and risk factors.
• Coordinate with hospitals, emergency departments, pharmacies, laboratories, outside providers, and community partners when needed.
• Policy, Procedure & Compliance Oversight

Assist in the development and ongoing review of medical policies and procedures to ensure they reflect regulatory requirements, clinical best practices, and actual facility operations.

Help ensure medical and nursing practices remain consistent with approved policies, procedures, protocols, and standards of care.

Support licensure readiness, audits, inspections, accreditation activity, payer reviews, incident review, risk management, and quality assurance processes.

Provide medical guidance on adverse events, medication incidents, clinical risk concerns, emergency transfers, and corrective action plans.

Ensure medical documentation is timely, accurate, complete, and compliant with state, payer, accreditation, and organizational expectations.

Promote ethical medical practice, regulatory accountability, patient rights, confidentiality, and a culture of safety throughout the organization.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration

• Work closely with the Executive Director, Clinical Director, nursing leadership, admissions, utilization review, compliance, and operations teams to support coordinated care.
• Participate in treatment team meetings, case consultations, clinical leadership meetings, quality improvement activities, and medical reviews as needed.
• Support utilization review and payer processes by ensuring documentation supports medical necessity, level of care, and continued stay when applicable.
• Provide training and guidance to staff on withdrawal management, medication safety, medical protocols, emergency response, clinical risk, and best practices.
• Help create a collaborative environment where medical, clinical, nursing, and administrative teams work together to support high-quality patient care.

Pre-Opening & Launch Support

• Participate in pre-opening planning related to medical services, staffing, protocols, licensure readiness, and operational go-live preparation.
• Assist in developing medical workflows, nursing coordination processes, medication procedures, emergency transfer protocols, and medical documentation standards.
• Support hiring, onboarding, training, and supervision of medical and nursing team members as applicable.
• Help ensure the facility is medically ready for opening, including policies, procedures, staffing, vendor coordination, pharmacy relationships, lab coordination, and patient safety systems.

Minimum Qualifications

• Medical Degree from an accredited medical school.
• Active and unrestricted medical license in Iowa or ability to become licensed in Iowa.
• Board certification or board eligibility in Addiction Medicine, Addiction Psychiatry, Psychiatry, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, or another relevant specialty.
• Experience working with substance use disorders, detoxification, withdrawal management, addiction medicine, behavioral health, or co-occurring mental health conditions.
• Eligible to prescribe controlled substances in accordance with state and federal regulations.
• Strong understanding of patient safety, medical necessity, medication management, withdrawal protocols, documentation, and interdisciplinary care.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with clinical, nursing, admissions, utilization review, compliance, and operations teams.
• Strong communication, judgment, leadership, professionalism, and ethical decision-making skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience serving as a Medical Director or medical leader in a detox, residential treatment, PHP, IOP, psychiatric, or behavioral health setting.
• Board certification in Addiction Medicine or Addiction Psychiatry.
• Experience with ASAM levels of care, including 3.7 detox and 3.5 residential treatment.
• Experience launching a new treatment facility or helping develop medical services for a start-up healthcare operation.
• Experience with state licensure, accreditation readiness, Joint Commission, CARF, Medicaid MCOs, commercial payers, utilization review, and reimbursement-driven documentation.
• Experience developing, reviewing, and enforcing medical policies, procedures, protocols, and standards of care.
• Experience supervising or collaborating with nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, and other medical professionals.
• Strong working knowledge of co-occurring mental health conditions, psychiatric medications, withdrawal management, crisis response, and risk management.

Compensation & Benefits

Bridgewater Recovery offers competitive compensation based on experience, licensure, medical specialty, addiction treatment background, leadership experience, availability, and overall fit for the role.

Compensation may vary depending on whether the role is structured as part-time, full-time, contracted, or employed.

Candidates should be comfortable with an on-site leadership presence and medical availability as needed to support facility launch, policy development, staff training, patient care, and ongoing medical oversight.

Benefits for eligible employees may include:

• Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage
• Generous Paid Time Off
• Life Insurance and EAP
• Professional development support
• Performance-based bonus opportunity
• Leadership growth opportunity