Medical Director |
Career OverviewSupervising and overseeing all aspects of the medical staff, policies and treatment options is the responsibility of the medical director. This career requires and extensive knowledge of medical procedures and practices as well as a keen sense of professionalism and level of care for patients.
The medical director monitors and coordinates medical services including being involved in policy making, hiring of new senior medical staff, working with internship programs and setting the hospital or healthcare facility overall goals for medical care and treatment standards.
The medical director is responsible for budgeting and oversight of spending within the clinical component of the hospital or healthcare facility. He or she is very involved in planning and developing new treatment options as well as determining any research projects or programs that may be organized and facilitated by the hospital.
The medical director also works closely with doctors, surgeons and staff in completing risk assessments of new procedures, establishing policies and protocols for new or experimental treatments and monitoring the success of these treatments or practices. The medical director usually reports to the chief executive officer or directly to the board of directors regarding new and existing treatments and procedures.
The medical director assists with troubleshooting and problem solving when there are issues of concern to medical staff members regarding any aspect of patient treatment or care. The medical director needs to be able to communicate both with medical and non-medical staff, have an understanding of budgeting and financial goals of the hospital or healthcare facility and monitor numerous projects at the same time.
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Career RequirementsThe requirements for a career as a medical director include a degree in medicine, preferably a PhD, with more than 10 years experience in a clinical setting. Most medical directors are surgeons or physicians that have worked significantly longer in those roles than 10 years. Since the medical director is responsible for so many long-term decisions a solid background in medicine is required.
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Job OutlookWhile there are many people that apply for the position of medical director there are relatively few that are fully qualified for the position. This leads to a demand for medical directors that exceeds the average for directors in other areas of healthcare. New hospitals and long-term care facilities as well as a high rate of retirement from the position of medical director leads to a steadily increasing demand across the United States.
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Career TrackMedical directors are consider to be high level management positions so few individuals that obtain these positions choose to move into other areas. There are some medical directors that return to universities or medical schools professors and still others that may choose to become self-employed as consultants to clinical departments.
Generally most medical directors remain within the career until they choose to retire. Most of the movement in the career is caused by larger hospitals recruiting medical directors from smaller hospitals.
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CompensationThe average salary for a medical director in a hospital in the United States is $178,000. There are numerous large hospitals that pay considerably higher yearly salaries with some medical directors making over $300,000 per year.
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