JOB DESCRIPTION

MEDICAL DIRECTOR FOR INFORMATICS

PURPOSE: To promote high quality cost effective medical care, patient satisfaction, and healthcare provider/staff satisfaction throughout the Healthcare System by facilitating the efficient use of computers and information technology.

QUALIFICATIONS: Training and experience in Medical Informatics.

REPORTS TO: Medical Director

WORKS WITH: Hospital VP for Medical Affairs, Hospital Director of Information Services, Clinic Director of Information Services, Clinic Department Chairs

PRIMARY ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES:

I. Liaison/Advocate

• Help identify the clinical data requirements of the Directors, Departments, Committees, clinicians, and patients across the Healthcare System. Help coordinate the advancement of clinical information systems to satisfy these data requirements.

• Create guidelines for vendor demonstrations in order to most efficiently use our resources.

• Create and chair a "Physicians Informatics Committee" to represent Hospital, Clinic, and Affiliated practitioners.

• Create inpatient and outpatient "Nursing And Therapist Informatics Committees."

• These clinical committees will act as "sounding boards" for products (e.g. screen designs and implementation plans) from the Information Services Transition Teams, as well as sources of ideas to be implemented by these Implementation Teams.

• Work with representatives from these three committees and others to create and maintain a unified data dictionary for the enterprise.

• Apply information technology to Medical Education in order to assist the Residency Programs and clinicians.

• Advocate for patients' needs and rights pertaining to the Healthcare System's clinical information systems, including issues of confidentiality of medical information.

II. Project Management

• Act as the clinical representative in the "Program Managers Office" for the new Healthcare System's clinical information systems.

• Participate in clinically relevant Transition Teams (e.g. MPI, CDR, Orders, Ancillaries, Scheduling, etc....)

• Lead (with the Manager of Medical Records) the Medical Record functions, including record quality, record access, record content, and Medical Records policies and procedures.

• Develop and implement strategies to move the Healthcare System toward a fully integrated computerized patient record.

III. Change Management

• Educate clinicians and patients across the enterprise about plans for the new information systems and relevant Informatics issues (e.g. data security). This will be done through newsletter articles and meetings.

• Demonstrate the benefits of the new systems to clinicians.

• Set up a "Clinicians Hot-line" (mail, voice-mail, and email) to answer questions, concerns, and to solicit ideas.

• Identify other applications that may help physicians assimilate information technology into their daily practice (e.g. On-line Medical Textbooks, Medline Literature Searches, Email, remote access, etc....)

• Assist in the development and maintenance of the Healthcare System's Web Sites in order to advance the notion that the Healthcare System is technologically superior.

If anyone would like to contribute another sample job description, please contact Dean Sittig at my_last_name@informatics-review.com

© 1999 The Informatics Review

dfs 29 Oct. 1999