Staff Welfare Officer (In-house Doctor) at Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

ROLE OVERVIEW

• Under the supervision of the Principal Officer, Staff Welfare & Employee Services, the incumbent is responsible for the development, coordination, and management of medical cases, models, and health services outcome studies. The incumbent is also responsible for examining, diagnosing, and treating ECOWAS patients and applying medical knowledge and skills in diagnosing, preventing, and management of diseases.

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Administrative Medical duties

• Liaise with other clinics, host country medical facilities, and overseas medical facilities to coordinate medical evacuations where applicable.
• Responsible for all documentation and reporting procedures for medical evacuations in line with    ECOWAS rules and procedures.
• Ensure that medical reports are kept strictly confidential.
• Replenish first aid kits and other essential medical supplies at all times; and at ECOWAS duty stations.
•  Initiate procurement and recommend the purchase of vaccines, medical supplies, and equipment for the In-house Clinic and ensure that the inventory is kept up to date.
• Maintain medical records of all ECOWAS staff and advise staff on preventive health measures;
• Lead in the  selection of retainer hospitals/clinics for staff use.
• Carry our periodic assessment/visit to all ECOWAS retainer hospitals/clinics;
• Ensure best price negotiations with retainer hospital for cost saving to the Commission while ensuring quality care services.
• Serve as counsel to the Commission in the periodic negotiations with retainer hospitals/clinics on service charges.
• Verify and vet all medical bills forwarded to the Commission by retainer hospitals/clinics against negotiated rates.
• Facilitate cooperation between management and workers in instigating, developing and carrying out measures designed to ensure staff health and safety at work.
• Assist in developing standards, rules, and policies or procedures for staff health and safety.
• Oversee the day-to-day administrative running of the clinic.
• Conduct surveys on staff health status, health behaviour, and health systems with a view of identifying gaps, providing solutions and entrenching medical best practices in ECOWAS.
• Coordinating the development and promotion of strategies by organizing promotional health talks and preventive health programmes for ECOWAS staff.
• Ensure regular reporting on clinic activities and other statistical information required;
• Serve as Secretary to the Medical Board.
• Respond to acute emergencies in line with international protocols such as trauma support and management and advanced care.
• Diagnose and recommend treatment to all staff visiting the clinic daily.
• On-call availability during and outside office hours to examine and treat emergencies brought to his/her attention.
• Responsible for pre-service and  annual periodic medical examinations for all ECOWAS staff members.
• Analyze cases referred by providers of healthcare, review vendors and medical claims resulting from hospital visits and for potential medical case management interventions.
• Manage the In-house Clinic and provide medical services to all ECOWAS staff and accredited Stakeholders and their dependents who are entitled to receive such medical services.
• Provide emergency services at any time the need arises.
• Provide out-of-clinic medical services at ECOWAS organized events.
• Monitor treatment received by staff from retainer hospitals who are diagnosed with serious illness or are on admission in the said retainer hospitals/clinics.
• Provide promotional and preventive health services to staff and dependents
• Supervise the sports and wellness programme of the Commission.
• Maintain good relationships with retainer hospitals and clinics.
• Make prompt referrals on behalf of staff to retainer hospitals/clinics, where the In-house Clinic cannot address the ailments of staff.
• Ensure easy accessibility and availability of healthcare services  to staff at all times.
• Ensure healthcare services are within reach to all staff and dependants residents in Abuja by organizing periodic audits of selected retainer hospitals/clinics, and ensure the hospitals have updated state-of-the-art medical facilities.
• Establish and maintain close and effective relationships; and collaboration with ECOWAS healthcare retainers by organizing periodic stakeholders’ forums.
• Organize medical evacuation of staff whenever the need arises
• Organize repatriation of staff remains where required.
• Advise management on matters relating to health and follow-up;
• Provide domiciliary medical services to staff members and their dependents whenever the need arises ;
• Provide medical services to delegates during ECOWAS Statutory meetings;
• Perform other duties assigned.

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• A Medical Degree from a recognized University.
• A medical license and board certification to practice medicine.
• Seven (7) or more years in clinical medicine and hospital administration.
• Experience in Tropical medicine.
• Experience in Surgery, Resuscitation (ICU) and Anesthesia.
• Experience with managing retainership agreement with hospital and professional knowledge of clinical management including policies, practices, and processes in medicine.
• Demonstrated a cognitive knowledge of medicine use of specialized state- of -the- art medical and computer systems.
• Sound knowledge of and technical savvy to draft documents such as medical contract agreements, etc.
• Demonstrated practical knowledge of relevant medical, and employment laws, rules, regulations, and principles with a deep understanding of opportunities and challenges unique to public sector management and international organizations.
• Knowledge of change management and organizational development in public health, preferably in diversified and geographically dispersed public-sector and/or international organizations.
• Ability to lead policy and program development initiatives, carry out consultations, produce options, and research impacts/risks.

AGE LIMIT

• Be below 50 years old. This provision does not apply to internal candidates.

ECOWAS KEY COMPETENCIES

• Ability to get groups to work together cooperatively, by enlisting active involvement, creating a climate for respect and openness, and applying effective techniques for group facilitation, explore their potentials, motivate them and guide them.
• Organizes and leads cross-divisional work group in developing creative solutions to address problems and or leads a small group of entry level professionals and administrative support staff.
• Well-developed on—the-job training techniques paired with excellent coaching and mentoring skills; knowledge of new staff orientation approaches to facilitate understanding of the position and organization.
• Ability to assign work to employees and provides timely and consistent feedback regarding technical proficiency and effectiveness.
• Knowledge of project management at the level usually acquired from a certification in Project Management (e.g. Prince2 or Project Management Professional PMP).
• Ability to consider the impact of a shift in programmatic direction to the needs of internal and external client.
• Ability to promote and consider staff feedback to streamline processes in order to meet deadlines of relevance to client expectations; ability to consistently maintain composure and direction in high- pressure situations.
• Well-developed problem solving, mediation and conflict resolution skills to address discrepancies, complaints, bottle necks, time constraints affecting quality and quantity of client services.
• Ability to anticipate growing client needs and expectations to continuously improve quality, and timelines and service delivery; addressing client questions in a timely manner.
• Ability to communicate openly with clients/stakeholders, keeping them informed of progress and issues requiring attention/resolutions.
• Excellent judgement and ability to implement programmatic changes in a manner that ensures a bias-free work environment and fair and equitable application to new rules/regulations.
• Demonstrated experience and ability to adhere to policies, goals, objectives, and principles of valuing diversity in performing everyday duties and responsibilities; promoting/modeling behaviors that demonstrate tolerance and understanding of various cultures.
• Ability to build value from leveraging diverse capabilities and inputs from various cultures, staff and clients.
• Ability to seek out best practices to make organizational decisions of relevance to diversity management, ensuring that project and program activities identify vulnerable areas and contain systemic checks.
• Excellent knowledge of ECOWAS institutions and how the different organs relate to each other, particularly as it relates to own work sector/programs.
• Broad knowledge of ECOWAS legal framework with a sound knowledge of approaches to policy and program development as well as project management normally acquired through certification.
• Well-developed knowledge of the rules, processes and procedures of ECOWAS, of pertinence to tasks related to own position.
• Broad knowledge of member states trends, indicators, challenges and opportunities as it relates to sector/programme assigned to own position.
• Creativity and flexibility to deviate from traditional methods in developing new procedures, processes and tools, using technology to simplify methods and approaches whenever possible.
• Ability to reevaluate current procedures and suggest improvements to ensure an effective, streamlined process.
• Ability to gather and summarize information to predict stakeholder views on a new policy/programmes; and excellent analytical skills to assess external policies and trends when reviewing policy/programme options, pros, cons and recommendations.
• Ability to synthesize complex information gathered from a variety of external sources and disseminates it to others in a logical.
• Ability to apply appropriate methodology to discover or identify policy issues and resource concerns.
• Ability to evaluate, incorporate, and communicate the latest developments in specialty area (i.e. in specific sector or program area) using institution/agency guidelines and criteria.
• Well-developed interpersonal, negotiation, networking and presentation skills with proven abilities to influence, explain complex information and demonstrate empathy and open-mindedness.
• Ability to demonstrate operational proficiency in the use of computer in communicating using technology tools such as email, word processing, excel, power point, collaborative software, graphic software.
• Ability to convey information clearly and concisely in a succinct and organized manner through both writing and verbal means, either with electronic or print media.
• Fluency in one of the three ECOWAS official languages (English, French & Portuguese).
• Good knowledge of internal planning cycles and ability to contribute to the development and to implement Community-wide or institution policy by determining target audience, building coalitions with the appropriate population, and monitor progress.
• Ability to considers external circumstances, factors and trends when organizing project activities to ensure the best outcomes.
• Ability to review process outcomes, correspondence, reports, and policy documents to develop sound and achievable plans.
• Ability to conduct meetings with staff, stakeholders, colleagues and others to ascertain of organizational, program and/or project needs, making adjustments to plans and activities accordingly.
• Ability to adjust project plans based on input from staff and stakeholders and/or ability to design and implements guidelines, tools and templates to accommodate new or revised programmes and services.