Director of HIM in Carthage, New York at Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center

NSHA-System Director of HIM-Full Time-Days-Req 9812

Pay Range: $46.28-$61.33*

Position Summary

The Director of Health Information Management (HIM) oversees the strategic planning, objectives, staffing, budget, and daily activities of the HIM Department. This role drives operational efficiency and guarantees compliance with medical, legal, and federal regulations regarding HIPAA, data privacy, and electronic medical records storage. The Director assesses production workflows across electronic and manual systems, implementing process improvements to optimize departmental performance.

Position Details

• Department Name: North Star Health Alliance HIM

• Facility Name: Systemwise (Carthage and Ogdensburg facilities)

• Reporting Relationship: Reports directly to the Director of Revenue Cycle

• Population Served: No direct patient contact

Core Qualifications & Requirements

Education

• Required: Bachelor’s Degree in Health Information Management, Medical Records Administration, or a closely related field.

• Preferred: Master’s Degree in Health Information Management or Healthcare Administration.

Licenses and Certifications

• Required: Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA) or Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT) credential.

• Preferred: Active membership in the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).

Training and Experience

• Required: Minimum of 5 years of progressive healthcare supervisory/managerial experience in an HIM or medical records environment.

• Technical Skills: Deep familiarity with clinical code sets (ICD-10-CM/PCS, CPT/HCPCS), Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems (e.g., Meditech), and specialized software (Clintegrity, Maximize, encoder/grouper applications).

Essential Leadership & Fiscal Responsibilities

Departmental & Operational Leadership (30% of Role)

• Strategic Alignment: Communicates the organization’s mission, vision, and core values to departmental staff, aligning HIM goals with institutional benchmarks.

• Performance Metrics: Defines objective performance benchmarks and metrics for HIM personnel; completes timely and thorough annual performance appraisals.

• Human Resources Management: Collaborates with HR on proactive recruitment, fair policy implementation, progressive discipline, and management of employee attendance and turnover.

• Staff Development: Secures training resources for continuous education, including system application updates and clinical education activities.

Financial & Budgetary Control (30% of Role)

• Fiscal Accountability: Assumes complete responsibility for the department’s financial resources, managing operational expenditures within an established budget.

• Variance Management: Monitors and forecasts monthly budgetary metrics; details and reports anticipated variances directly to the CFO or designated senior leaders.

• Resource Allocation: Authorizes purchasing requests, processing requisitions, and tracking invoices using enterprise management platforms.

Data Compliance, Analysis & Reporting (25% of Role)

• Regulatory Supervision: Monitors workflows to ensure rigid adherence to HIPAA, NIAHO, ISO guidelines, and state/federal data submission mandates.

• Data Integrity & Submissions: Ensures precise compilation, validation, and timely generation of monthly institutional data, including SPARCS, Treos, and Core Measures.

• Payer & Provider Enrollment: Directs the authentication and renewal processes for provider certifications to secure continuous insurance panel participation.

• Provider Deficiency Tracking: Overseas the monitoring and reporting of incomplete physician charts, dictation deficits, and electronic signature workflows.

Interpersonal Skills & Service Excellence (15% of Role)

• Interdepartmental Collaboration: Partners with information technology, clinical care, and patient finance departments to eliminate operational silos and solve system-wide workflow errors.

• Release of Information (ROI): Standardizes medical-legal correspondence guidelines to fulfill external record requests, subpoenas, and audits securely.

• Change Management: Champions digital transformations, software migrations, and updates to the institutional master patient index.

Physical Demands & Environmental Factors

• Physical Requirements: Primarily sedentary office environment requiring frequent sitting (34-66% of a shift). Requires occasional standing, walking, twisting, and bending (1-33% of a shift).

• Lifting & Mobility: Ability to lift, carry, or lower office supplies and documentation up to 15 lbs. occasionally.

• Sensory Demands: Requires close eye-work, color discrimination, normal distance focus, and fine-motor dexterity for persistent computer software usage.

**The listed base pay range is a good faith representation of current potential base pay for successful applicants. It may be modified in the future. Pay is determined by factors including experience, relevant qualifications, specialty, internal equity, location, and contracts. Carthage Area Hospital and Claxton Hepburn Medical Center are Equal Opportunity Employers. Minority/Female/Disability/Veterans encouraged to apply.