System Director, Clinical Documentation Improvement

Join the transformative team at City of Hope, where we're changing lives and making a real difference in the fight against cancer, diabetes, and other life-threatening illnesses. City of Hope's growing national system includes its Los Angeles campus, a network of clinical care locations across Southern California, a new cancer center in Orange County, California, and treatment facilities in Atlanta, Chicago and Phoenix. our dedicated and compassionate employees are driven by a common mission: To deliver the cures of tomorrow to the people who need them today.

Thank you for your interest. Please note, the purpose of this posting is to recruit for on-going and future positions.

Position Summary-

The System Director of Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) and Coding provides strategic leadership and oversight for CDI, Coding, and Data Quality functions across the health system. This role is responsible for implementing system-wide strategies that ensure accurate, compliant documentation and coding for inpatient and outpatient services, ultimately supporting optimal patient care and clinical outcomes. The System Director collaborates with medical, clinical staff and management to establish policies and procedures that uphold regulatory compliance, improve documentation integrity, and strengthen revenue cycle performance.

Key responsibilities include leveraging technology to enhance operational efficiency, defining performance metrics for inpatient, ambulatory surgery, and outpatient coding, and serving as a liaison between CDI, coding teams, and providers. The director works closely with the physician advisor to recommend and deliver targeted education on documentation standards, medical necessity, level of care, and denials management—ensuring documentation reflects the true complexity of patient conditions and supports quality care delivery. This position partners with Health Information Management (HIM) leadership, the CDI Governance Committee, and revenue cycle stakeholders to improve hospital quality measures, reduce denials, and safeguard documentation integrity within the electronic health record (EHR).

Essential Functions-

• Leads system-wide strategic initiatives to ensure accurate, complete, and compliant clinical documentation, coding, and data quality to support regulatory compliance, revenue integrity, and improved patient care outcomes.
• Acts as a liaison between Health Information Management, CDI professionals, coding teams and providers to ensure accurate and complete documentation that supports accurate coding, data abstraction, capture of clinical acuity, severity of illness, risk of mortality, and appropriate DRG assignment.
• Designs and delivers targeted, ongoing education for the CDI and coding teams, as well as providers, to bridge the gap between clinical language and documentation requirements – ensuring accurate, compliant, and meaningful documentation.
• Participates in key committees and workgroups – including Case Management/Utilization Management, Sepsis, Quality Assurance & Improvement, Complication/PSI Coding, CDI workgroup, CDI Governance, Alliance of Dedicated Cancer Centers (ADCC) Medical Record Documentation Committee and Denial Management to support documentation integrity, compliance and quality initiatives
• Conducts second-level and quality reviews on cases escalated to include cases referred by CDI and coding query processes, HIM Leadership and other healthcare professionals to ensure regulatory compliance in accordance with the hospital objectives for quality patient care and effective, efficient utilization of services.

.Minimum Education: Bachelor's degree in health-related field (Nursing, Health Information Management)

Minimum Experience: 7 years of management experience in CDI, Health Information Management and/or inpatient coding

Required Courses/Training: Clinical Documentation Improvement Training

Req. Certification/Licensure: Currently licensed as a Registered Nurse, RHIA, CCS, CDIP or CCDS

Preferred Experience: EPIC, Solventum, CDI/Coding software

Skills/Abilities:

• CDI and/or Coding Management experience
• Demonstrated leadership, people management, and team building skills
• Ability to develop and implement strategic plans
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• A broad knowledge base of health care delivery and case management within a managed care environment
• Comprehensive knowledge of CDI/Coding
• Awareness of healthcare reimbursement systems: HMO, PPO, PPS, CMS preferred
• Must have excellent time management skills to develop organized work processes in a high-volume environment with rapidly changing priorities
• Ability to interact effectively with internal and external constituents using collaboration and customer service skills that promote excellence
• Excellent negotiation skills
• Customer service oriented
• Demonstrated confidence, initiative, and integrity in work practices
• Goal-directed and well organized