What does a Medical Director do?
A medical director is responsible for handling the overall supervision of different medical departments, managing the coordination between medical teams to ensure smooth operations and achieve high-quality care services for the patients. Medical directors enforce strict guidelines and safety measures for everyone's adherence. They also implement medical care programs, recruit medical staff, inspect the adequacy of medical equipment, respond to patient's inquiries and concerns, and oversee the facilities' procedures. A medical director manages the budget of the department, allocating equal resources to address every need.
Medical director responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real medical director resumes:
- Manage OPD for acute injuries.
- Manage patients with diabetes, hypertension and other medical problems.
- Manage patients living with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and other sexually transmit infections.
- Manage hypertension and diabetes in elderly patients
- Conduct psychiatry evaluations and treatment, manage co-occurring disorders.
- Manage budget planning, forecasting and accruals for improve financial management.
- Set up intravenous lines for patients requiring surgery and administer medications.
- Involve in the management and treatment of obstetrics and gynecology cases/emergencies.
- Plan and implement data-based quality improvement protocol for ADHD patients within organization to improve symptom relief and prevent medication diversion.
- Follow up on aging billing from old EMR system.
- Reduce turn-around time for chemotherapy from 97 minutes to 17 minutes.
- Perform normal deliveries, minor surgical operations and CPR if need.
- Train staff in OSHA approve standards, and proper radiograph attire.
- Work on complex cases with multiple diagnoses in both psychiatry and orthopaedics.
- Train and supervise security officers on first aid, CPR, a use.
Medical director skills and personality traits
We calculated that 12% of Medical Directors are proficient in Patients, Medical Care, and Medical Services. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Interpersonal skills, and Leadership skills.
We break down the percentage of Medical Directors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 12%
Developed methodology and provided expertise to achieve a statistically significant increase in the detection rate of breast cancer in screening patients.
- Medical Care, 7%
Performed general medical care to adult female inmates with multiple complicated medical problems at a medium security facility.
- Medical Services, 6%
Provide medical oversight for Emergency Medical Services in the territory.
- Utilization Review, 5%
Developed utilization review, risk-sharing, and referral management for hospital-medical staff joint venture covering 40,000 lives in commercial/Medicare products.
- Appeals, 5%
Guided application of BSC clinical and pharmaceutical policies to adjudicate complex appeals and grievances.
- Internal Medicine, 4%
General Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases consultant and primary care provider for HIV-infected population in the metropolitan Atlanta area
"patients," "medical care," and "medical services" are among the most common skills that medical directors use at work. You can find even more medical director responsibilities below, including:
Analytical skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a medical director to have is analytical skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "medical and health services managers review and evaluate healthcare metrics for ways to improve efficiency and meet goals." Medical directors often use analytical skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "collaborated with the legal department to ensure regulatory compliance to fda regulations and provided substantial clinical data to support claims. "
Leadership skills. This is an important skill for medical directors to perform their duties. For an example of how medical director responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "medical and health services managers hire, train, and direct staff." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a medical director: "delivered fda multi-center registration trial ahead of schedule and obtained standards of leadership award. ".
Technical skills. A big part of what medical directors do relies on "technical skills." You can see how essential it is to medical director responsibilities because "medical and health services managers must stay up to date with advances in healthcare technology, such as the coding and electronic health record (ehr) systems their facility adopts." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical medical director tasks: "guided nursing staff in educational and technical areas worked with the medical staff to ensure quality care and patient satisfaction"
Communication skills. Another crucial skill for a medical director to carry out their responsibilities is "communication skills." A big part of what medical directors relies on this skill, since "medical and health services managers must convey information to their staff, other healthcare workers, and, sometimes, patients and insurance agents." How this skill relates to medical director duties can be seen in an example from a medical director resume snippet: "developed a neonatal transport telehealth program to facilitate enhanced communication and clinical care around transports of critically ill neonates. "
Detail oriented. Lastly, "detail oriented" is an important element of what a medical director does. Medical director responsibilities require this skill because "medical and health services managers must pay attention to detail." This resume example highlights how medical director duties rely on this skill: "supervised nurse practitioners in rehabilitation medicine including stroke, spinal cord and rheumatically oriented syndromes. "
The three companies that hire the most medical directors are:
- UnitedHealth Group253 medical directors jobs
- CSL Plasma180 medical directors jobs
- Elevance Health
104 medical directors jobs
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Compare different medical directors
Medical director vs. Director of professional services
A director of professional services is responsible for evaluating and improving the professional services offered by the firm. Directors of professional services assess the operational processes and systems to ensure high-quality outputs and deliverables. They review contracts for project requirements and specifications and design strategic techniques to achieve goals and objectives within the budget limitations and agreed timetables. A director of professional services must have excellent communication and leadership skills, especially in directing the project team for project solutions.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, medical director responsibilities require skills like "medical care," "medical services," "utilization review," and "appeals." Meanwhile a typical director of professional services has skills in areas such as "healthcare," "software development," "application development," and "enterprise sales." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Directors of professional services really shine in the technology industry with an average salary of $143,973. Comparatively, medical directors tend to make the most money in the insurance industry with an average salary of $242,668.The education levels that directors of professional services earn slightly differ from medical directors. In particular, directors of professional services are 1.6% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a medical director. Additionally, they're 26.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Medical director vs. Director of clinical operations
A director of clinical operations is responsible for monitoring the overall operations of a clinic facility, ensuring the efficiency of staff performance in providing the best quality care services for the patients. Directors of clinical operations enforce safety guidelines and security procedures during operations for everyone's strict compliance to prevent hazards and unforeseen circumstances within the premises. They also assist in clinical trials, as well as reviewing medical procedures, recommending strategic plans to improve medical approaches. A director of clinical operations handles the clinic budget, allocates adequate resources for every department's needs, and tracks medical inventory reports.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real medical director resumes. While medical director responsibilities can utilize skills like "medical care," "medical services," "utilization review," and "appeals," directors of clinical operations use skills like "healthcare," "patient care," "gcp," and "project management."
Directors of clinical operations may earn a lower salary than medical directors, but directors of clinical operations earn the most pay in the pharmaceutical industry with an average salary of $139,321. On the other hand, medical directors receive higher pay in the insurance industry, where they earn an average salary of $242,668.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Directors of clinical operations tend to reach higher levels of education than medical directors. In fact, they're 7.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 26.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Medical director vs. Director, network operations
As a network operations director, you will be responsible for overseeing the availability and overall performance of a company's network. You will perform varied tasks that include analyzing the network and recommending changes or upgrades, ensuring compliance to best practices, promoting continuous information operations, and overseeing other technical resources. A network operations director is expected to provide expertise in networking and operating system and project management. You are responsible for managing all vendor-related support contracts for software, hardware, and connectivity.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a medical director is likely to be skilled in "patients," "medical care," "medical services," and "utilization review," while a typical director, network operations is skilled in "network management," "network development," "san," and "ipa."
Directors, network operations earn the best pay in the hospitality industry, where they command an average salary of $150,612. Medical directors earn the highest pay from the insurance industry, with an average salary of $242,668.Most directors, network operations achieve a higher degree level compared to medical directors. For example, they're 5.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 26.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Medical director vs. Director of health services
A Director Of Health Services is responsible for evaluating and supervising the overall activities for health maintenance and promotion of a health department. They are also responsible for budgeting, procurement, and requisition of biological supplies and equipment.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between medical directors and directors of health services, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a medical director might have more use for skills like "medical services," "utilization review," "internal medicine," and "medical management." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of directors of health services require skills like "patient care," "oversight," "resident care," and "public health. "
In general, directors of health services earn the most working in the non profits industry, with an average salary of $85,179. The highest-paying industry for a medical director is the insurance industry.The average resume of directors of health services showed that they earn higher levels of education compared to medical directors. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 8.8% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 23.6%.Types of medical director
Updated January 8, 2025
