Hiring Announcement

Position: Bilingual Medical Assistant, Abortion care and Primary care

Dandelion Health, PLLC, is a direct primary care practice devoted to providing accessible, dignified, and cost-transparent primary care in the Manchester and Blackwell neighborhoods of southside Richmond, Virginia.

Currently, the practice provides preventive, urgent, and chronic disease care for families, from children to elders, to people of all gender identities. This includes people who are uninsured or underinsured. Patients pay through a monthly membership that allows the practice to focus on high-quality patient relationships and care for people who have been marginalized by the dominant medical system.

Dandelion Health also provides reproductive care, including early pregnancy abortion and miscarriage care.

Our practice is located at 1312 Hull Street, which is accessible by foot, bus, wheelchair, bicycle, or car. We also provide phone and video visits.

We require English and Spanish fluency in our workers to improve access for Spanish-only speaking communities.

Dandelion Health is operated by its co-founding family physicians. In addition, we are actively converting to a worker self-directed non-profit. In this model, we will collectively direct and operate the practice with the intention of breaking down the typical hierarchical structures in healthcare and non-profit organizations.

Working with Dandelion Health is more than a healthcare job. It is an opportunity to help build an innovative medical practice in Richmond that seeks to promote economic and social justice in healthcare.

Hiring

We are excited to hire one Bilingual Medical Assistant. This employee will be a core contributor to building the reproductive care services at Dandelion Health and will also be supporting the primary care services. The employee in this role will do clinical intake for patients, help with phone triage of patient needs, provide patient education, process point-of-care testing, assist with procedures, do autoclaving, do phlebotomy if skilled, and help manage the practice with whichever skillsets they can contribute.

We are looking for someone who can work 32-36 hours per week (considered full time) and who is interested in committing at least 1-2 years to building Dandelion Health.

We prefer that the person we hire lives in Richmond, VA, and especially has a relationship to the communities we serve.

Candidates must have the ability and flexibility to work day-time between 8 AM - 7 PM and occasional Saturday hours 9 AM - 3 PM. This schedule will come with some flexibility depending on the candidate's scheduling availability.

Your role will primarily be in the following core domains:

• Communicating fluently in English and Spanish via phone, email, text, and video visits
• Being welcoming to people of all ages, races, languages spoken, immigration statuses, gender identities, sexual orientations, abilities, and economic backgrounds
• Assisting the physicians with physical exams and medical procedures, including the role of medical chaperone and patient support. Procedures include first-trimester abortion.
• Obtaining accurate vitals and brief patient histories
• Documenting in the patient’s chart
• Phlebotomy services including lab processing
• Maintaining inventory of clinical supplies
• Providing patient education (will receive training for particular topics)
• Coordinating referrals and communication with other health care offices, insurance companies, and pharmacies
• Using digital and mobile applications for routine tasks
• When needed, assist with administrative responsibilities, including answering phone calls, administering paperwork (digitally and paper) and ensuring completion, scanning, faxing

Work environment:

• Primarily independent work in a small office space with a small team
• Shared office space
• Managing multiple parallel tasks
• We try to avoid use of paper, so tasks are highly digital

Requirements:

• Bilingual fluency in Spanish and English, willingness to use phone interpreter for other languages as needed
• Strong commitment to a person's bodily autonomy
• Patient-focused with a strong sense of empathy and holding space for others
• Ability to communicate clearly and collaborate with team members
• Highly organized and detail oriented
• Commitment to providing accurate information in a compassionate manner to all people, regardless of their circumstance (substance use, mental health, current or past traumatic experiences, interpersonal violence, etc.)
• Commitment to personal growth around anti-oppressive practices including racial, reproductive, gender, economic, immigrant, and language justice.
• Commitment to creating safe space for gender-diverse patients where we provide gender affirming care and reproductive services including abortion care
• Commitment to taking on tasks of managing the practice through our worker self-directed practices.
• Up-to-date immunity/vaccination per CDC guidelines: Influenza, Covid-19 (including booster), Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Pertussis, Hepatitis B
• Tuberculosis screening yearly
• Following practice protocol for personal protective equipment including masking (protocol changes over time)
• BLS/CPR certification

The following are desirable but not essential domains:

• Phlebotomy for adult (highly desirable), for infants and children (desirable)
• Licensure: Certified Medical Assistant or Licensed Practical Nurse
• 2 year experience working in a health care setting (if you have more substantial experience, please reach out and we can negotiate compensation depending on experience)
• Previous experience in abortion care or reproductive health, birth, postpartum, miscarriage

The following are supplemental domains not essential to success in this role:

• Medical assistant experience or experience working in medical settings
• Experience in counseling, social work, and/or mental health/substance abuse programs
• Knowledge of the political landscape involving abortion care
• Performing pregnancy dating ultrasounds
• Experience working in a pharmacy or managing pharmacy inventory
• Experience administering vaccines or managing vaccine inventory
• Previous work in a cooperative business
• Experience managing a business

All about the logistics, compensations, and benefits.

Logistics:

There is a six week candidacy period, during which you will be a "provisional employee." After passing the 6 week candidacy period, you become a "full employee."

Compensation:

The starting wage is $22-26/hour, depending on experience and skills. Wage increases will occur step-wise based on ability to meet the role expectations.

Benefits:

Paid time off: We offer three weeks of paid time off per year, as well as a 1-month paid sabbatical every 5 years.

Health benefits: We currently offer monthly payment for a health share plan. Additionally, we offer direct primary care membership and dental clinic membership. Employees will have worker’s compensation insurance coverage. We are a young organization, so we are budgeting and planning to expand these benefits in the future.

Here is how you apply.

• To apply, please send a resume or linkedin profile to our email address as soon as possible.
• We will begin to review applications and start interviews as soon as received.
• People of Color, people from poor and working class backgrounds, and trans and gender nonconforming people are encouraged to apply.
• Initial interviews will be held for 10 minutes by phone with all eligible candidates. You will receive an email with scheduling information. Then, there will be a second round of in-person interviews.

Updated: May 8, 2024

Job Types: Full-time, Part-time

Pay: $22.00 - $26.00 per hour

Expected hours: 32 – 36 per week

Benefits:

• Flexible schedule
• Free parking
• Paid time off

Schedule:

• 10 hour shift
• 8 hour shift
• Day shift
• Weekends as needed

Work setting:

• In-person
• Medical office
• Outpatient

Education:

• High school or equivalent (Preferred)

Language:

• Spanish (Required)
• English (Required)

Ability to Relocate:

• Richmond, VA 23224: Relocate before starting work (Required)

Work Location: In person