What does a rehab director do?
A Rehab Director is responsible for coordinating the programs and staff of the rehabilitation services department for a nursing home. They supervise the departmental staff operations and budget development and ensure that services are in compliance with professional and clinical standards, as well as state and federal regulatory requirements.
Rehab director responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real rehab director resumes:
- Manage PPS, MDS input, Medicare caseload, setting planner, managing minutes, and managing insurance approvals authorizations.
- Manage budget and labor costs of rehab department in LTC skil nursing facility.
- Experience in education and training of other DOR's at sister facility to accomplish clinical and financial goals.
- Manage PPS/schedules and ensure sufficient coverage for a mix caseload of MCR, HMO and private pay residents.
- Organize, supply, set up, and manage therapy services in a new state of the art SNF.
- Lead team of interdisciplinary therapists through the preparation process to successfully obtain CARF accreditation.
- Establish routine for PPS management, therapy screenings/rounds and CMI meetings.
- Create schedules for PTA staff.
- Maintain SLP caseload and treatments throughout.
- Provide OT services under supervision of an OTR.
- Fast initiation into the PPS/RUG setting as the DOR.
- Work in a long term care setting as a COTA.
- Participate in daily care plan, discharge, and CMI meetings.
- Provide the highest quality of care to LTC residents and their family.
- Relocate from Texas to Arkansas choose to step down from regional to rehab director/staff COTA
Rehab director skills and personality traits
We calculated that 20% of Rehab Directors are proficient in Patients, Rehabilitation, and Occupational Therapy. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Communication skills, and Detail oriented.
We break down the percentage of Rehab Directors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 20%
Coordinated Quality Assurance reports for disciplines in facilities, within regions and participated in marketing of patients to facilities.
- Rehabilitation, 13%
Directed administrative and personnel needs for the rehabilitation department of a 159-bed skilled nursing facility providing care to elderly clients.
- Occupational Therapy, 10%
Job Duties: Managing a five star skilled nursing facility rehab department including physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech/language pathology.
- Program Development, 5%
Position included extensive internal and external marketing efforts, focus on customer service, and rehab/interdisciplinary team program development.
- Customer Service, 5%
Managed fiscal budget for therapy department, Collaborated with therapists to maintain clinical excellence and customer service.
- Speech Therapy, 4%
Manage speech therapy caseload including evaluations and daily treatments.
"patients," "rehabilitation," and "occupational therapy" are among the most common skills that rehab directors use at work. You can find even more rehab director responsibilities below, including:
Analytical skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a rehab 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." Rehab directors often use analytical skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "tracked treatment schedules, mds assessment periods and data, and recruited and oriented therapy staff. "
Communication skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling rehab director duties is communication skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "medical and health services managers must convey information to their staff, other healthcare workers, and, sometimes, patients and insurance agents." According to a rehab director resume, here's how rehab directors can utilize communication skills in their job responsibilities: "constructed new forms to increase communication with mds, sw, and nursing to ensure continuity of care. "
Detail oriented. This is an important skill for rehab directors to perform their duties. For an example of how rehab director responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "medical and health services managers must pay attention to detail." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a rehab director: "analyzed financials and key indicators on a weekly basis, providing detailed reports and action plans to regional rehabilitation managers. ".
Leadership skills. Another crucial skill for a rehab director to carry out their responsibilities is "leadership skills." A big part of what rehab directors relies on this skill, since "medical and health services managers hire, train, and direct staff." How this skill relates to rehab director duties can be seen in an example from a rehab director resume snippet: "performed direct patient care as well as providing leadership to a team of 15 staff members. "
Technical skills. Another skill commonly found on rehab director job descriptions is "technical skills." It can come up quite often in rehab director duties, since "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 from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day rehab director responsibilities: "sound knowledge of technical procedures and government regulations - management, development and organization of programs and staff for the rehabilitation department"
The three companies that hire the most rehab directors are:
- HealthPRO31 rehab directors jobs
- Legacy Healthcare18 rehab directors jobs
- ProMedica Toledo Hospital16 rehab directors jobs
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Compare different rehab directors
Rehab director vs. Nurse manager
The primary role of nurse managers is to supervise the nursing staff in a clinical or hospital setting. They are the ones who are in charge of patient care, setting work schedules, and making budgetary and management decisions. They are also responsible for making personnel decisions, coordinating meetings, and creating safe environments that promote patient engagement and aid the healthcare team's work. Their role is vital in promoting a culture in which team members contribute to professional growth and patient outcomes.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, rehab director responsibilities require skills like "occupational therapy," "program development," "speech therapy," and "snf." Meanwhile a typical nurse manager has skills in areas such as "cpr," "performance improvement," "surgery," and "quality patient care." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Nurse managers earn the highest salaries when working in the health care industry, with an average yearly salary of $90,775. On the other hand, rehab directors are paid more in the health care industry with an average salary of $72,490.On average, nurse managers reach lower levels of education than rehab directors. Nurse managers are 6.2% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 3.7% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Rehab 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.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that rehab director responsibilities requires skills like "rehabilitation," "occupational therapy," "program development," and "customer service." But a director of professional services might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "healthcare," "client facing," "software development," and "business development."
On average, directors of professional services earn a higher salary than rehab directors. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, directors of professional services earn the most pay in the technology industry with an average salary of $143,973. Whereas rehab directors have higher pay in the health care industry, with an average salary of $72,490.In general, directors of professional services achieve similar levels of education than rehab directors. They're 3.4% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 3.7% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Rehab 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.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from rehab director resumes include skills like "occupational therapy," "speech therapy," "snf," and "mds," whereas a director of clinical operations is more likely to list skills in "clinical operations," "healthcare," "patient care," and "gcp. "
Directors of clinical operations earn the best pay in the pharmaceutical industry, where they command an average salary of $139,321. Rehab directors earn the highest pay from the health care industry, with an average salary of $72,490.Most directors of clinical operations achieve a similar degree level compared to rehab directors. For example, they're 2.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Rehab 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.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between rehab directors and directors, network operations, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a rehab director might have more use for skills like "patients," "rehabilitation," "occupational therapy," and "program development." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of directors, network operations require skills like "network management," "network development," "san," and "direct reports. "
The hospitality industry tends to pay the highest salaries for directors, network operations, with average annual pay of $150,612. Comparatively, the highest rehab director annual salary comes from the health care industry.In general, directors, network operations hold similar degree levels compared to rehab directors. Directors, network operations are 0.9% more likely to earn their Master's Degree and 3.2% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of rehab director
Updated January 8, 2025
