Medical Director - Clinical Documentation Integrity

Endeavor Health • Evanston, IL

10d • $149 - $172

About The Position

The Medical Director, Inpatient Clinical Documentation Integrity is an enterprise physician leadership role responsible for the inpatient CDI program across Endeavor Health. The role promotes complete and accurate health records that reflect patients’ clinical conditions and care, supporting accurate reimbursement, appropriate quality-measure risk adjustment, and valid quality outcomes. Working in a dyad with CDI operational leaders, the Medical Director sets enterprise strategy and partners with medical staff, quality, and revenue cycle leaders to advance documentation goals across all hospitals. The current scope is acute-care CDI system-wide, with responsibility for additional care settings as assigned.

This full-system, multi-site position is a 0.75 FTE commitment and reports to the Vice President of Clinical Documentation Integrity. It requires travel and is scheduled Monday through Friday during daytime hours, with some flexibility for off-hour coverage. The pay range is $148.68 to $172.00 per hour; the rate offered depends on factors including FTE, experience, credentials, subspecialties, projected volumes, and quality performance measures.

The Medical Director is expected to lead collaboratively and approachably, embody Endeavor Health’s values of kindness, teamwork, excellence, and ownership, and take accountability for program outcomes. The role requires physician leadership across a complex, multi-hospital organization, expertise in CDI, clinical validation and documentation practices, and the ability to engage physicians and teams while maintaining high standards for ethical and compliant documentation.

Requirements

• MD or DO from an accredited medical school.
• Active board certification in a relevant clinical specialty.
• At least 5 years of post-residency practice.
• At least 2 years of experience in a physician advisor role with escalating leadership responsibilities in a healthcare setting.
• Prior experience in CDI and a physician advisor role, including second-level review, denials, appeals, and clinical validation.
• Knowledge of CDI principles and how complete and accurate records support reimbursement, risk adjustment, and quality reporting, including AHA Coding Clinic guidelines, MS-DRG and APR-DRG assignment, severity of illness, risk of mortality adjustments, and Vizient risk calculators.
• Knowledge of clinical validation, query integrity, and compliant documentation practices consistent with AHIMA and ACDIS standards.
• Knowledge of healthcare regulations, payer requirements, and revenue integrity practices.
• Knowledge of performance-improvement principles and methodologies, such as the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Model for Improvement.
• Knowledge of change-management principles and methodologies, such as the Prosci ADKAR Model.
• Collaboration, teamwork, conflict resolution, and de-escalation skills; ability to work across disciplines and hospitals and manage disputed or high-stakes discussions.
• Strong written and verbal communication, analytical and problem-solving, leadership and team-development, organizational, and time-management skills.
• Ability to lead with kindness and emotional intelligence, foster psychological safety and mutual respect, and maintain composure and sound judgment in high-pressure situations.
• Ability to engage physicians and teams as partners, uphold high documentation-integrity standards, and take accountability for program outcomes.
• Ability to establish credibility and influence physicians and stakeholders across clinical and administrative departments, and to align work across a complex, multi-hospital system.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment and maintain professionalism, integrity, confidentiality, and sound judgment.
• Experience with electronic health record systems, CDI software, computer-assisted coding tools, data analytics and reporting/visualization tools, Microsoft Power BI, Vizient Clinical Database, quality-reporting risk-adjustment methods, and Microsoft Office Suite.

Nice To Haves

• Additional postgraduate training in quality, management, and/or leadership.
• Active physician advisor certification from ACPA (ACPA-C) or ABQAURP (CHCQM-PHYADV), held at hire or achieved within six months of start.
• CDI-focused certification from AHIMA or ACDIS.
• Prior work with and knowledge of Epic.

Responsibilities

• Perform expert second-level and escalation reviews of complex, disputed, or high-impact cases, including clinical validation, query disagreements, and CC/MCC and DRG determinations, following Endeavor Health policies and procedures.
• Partner with hospital Chief Medical Officers, CDI leaders, and other physician leaders to advance medical-staff education, engagement, and adoption of documentation best practices in standard templates.
• Serve as the acute-care CDI subject matter expert and physician-facing representative; lead enterprise education and provide individualized provider feedback on documentation patterns and query responses.
• Maintain the physician advisor program’s operating model, workflows, expectations, HR practices, and reporting.
• Lead enterprise CDI physician strategy across Endeavor Health sites and partner with operational leaders to set system-wide direction and standardize practice for care settings within scope.
• Oversee enterprise CDI performance and metrics with operational and entity leaders, support scorecard target setting, and develop physician advisor and CDI team capability.
• Lead the enterprise clinical response to documentation-related audits, denials, and appeals from regulatory bodies and payers, including DRG and clinical validation matters, with relevant stakeholders.
• Advance education, technology, and organizational processes to achieve financial and quality targets, improve physician engagement, and establish and maintain a high-performing program.
• Promote ethical and compliant query and documentation practices consistent with AHIMA, ACDIS, AHA Coding Clinic, and CMS standards.

Benefits

• Career pathways to promote professional growth and development.
• Medical, dental, pet, and vision plan options.
• Free parking.
• Wellness Program Savings Plan.
• Health Savings Account options.
• Retirement options with company match.
• Paid time off and holiday pay.
• Community involvement opportunities.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree