System Medical Director, Occupational Health
A System Medical Director, Occupational Health provides clinical leadership for a health system’s occupational health and employee health services, overseeing workers compensation matters, regulatory compliance, and the physicians who deliver care. This is a sample job description from Excelon Associates that you can adapt as a template for your own hire.
What does a System Medical Director, Occupational Health do?
A System Medical Director, Occupational Health supports the strategic vision and direction of occupational health and employee health services across an integrated healthcare system. The role provides clinical leadership for occupational health and workers compensation matters, acts as the medical subject matter expert on occupational claims, and carries fiscal oversight as the system director for enterprise occupational claims.
The position pairs physician-level clinical authority with the operational leadership to run a complex, multi-site program at scale. It is a senior physician leadership role within the healthcare sector.
Occupational medicine is the branch of medicine focused on worker health and safety, including workplace injury, exposures, fitness for duty, and the clinical side of workers compensation. An MRO (Medical Review Officer) is a physician certified to review and interpret workplace drug and alcohol test results. A dyad partner is the administrative leader a physician executive co-leads with, pairing clinical and operational authority.
What does the System Medical Director oversee?
Where the System Medical Director makes the difference
- Collaborates with the dyad partner to support the strategic vision and direction of occupational health and employee health services for the system.
- Provides clinical leadership for system occupational health and workers compensation matters, and serves as system director for enterprise occupational claims, including fiscal oversight.
- Acts as the medical subject matter expert in workers compensation matters, working closely with attorneys, insurers, and third-party administrators.
- Ensures compliance with local, state, and federal regulations while promoting equity in access and treatment, and partners with internal stakeholders for a systematic approach to occupational health care.
Primary duties of a System Medical Director, Occupational Health
- Hold responsibility for the quality of medical care delivered in the system’s employee health and occupational medicine practices.
- Deliver clinical care to employees, particularly in complex cases, and resolve patient-related issues requiring medical expertise.
- Conduct analyses on the quality of occupational health and employee health programs and ensure corrective action where needed.
- Collaborate on policies promoting employee wellness, infectious disease mitigation, and general employee safety, and develop and maintain clinical policies and practices.
- Support the epidemiology, infection control, and prevention function in controlling outbreaks and managing employee exposure to infection.
- Support the worker safety program, participate in committees, and support safety and OSHA investigations.
- Supervise physicians and advanced practice providers in employee health and occupational medicine, overseeing recruitment, retention, and professional growth.
- Identify opportunities to improve the employee experience and ensure program compliance with regulatory agencies and system policy.
- Serve as a clinical resource and consultant in occupational health to other departments and client companies.
What qualifications does the role require?
- Board certified or board eligible in Occupational Medicine, with a current, unrestricted medical license and good standing with the medical staff and medical group.
- OSHA certification and MRO (Medical Review Officer) certification required, with a commitment to ongoing physician education and management training.
- Strong knowledge of workers compensation clinical and administrative processes and applicable state workers compensation systems and regulations.
- Understanding of the OSHA, ADA, FMLA, and GINA legislative frameworks.
- Excellent oral and written communication, strong teaching skills, and comfort working within a matrix organization.
Why is the System Medical Director, Occupational Health role important?
A System Medical Director for Occupational Health sits at the intersection of clinical medicine, employer advocacy, and regulatory compliance. The right leader brings both the clinical credibility to earn physician trust and the operational instincts to run a complex, multi-site program at scale.
Strong leadership here protects employee health, controls workers compensation cost and risk, and keeps the program compliant across local, state, and federal requirements. That combination of clinical, financial, and regulatory accountability is what makes the role demanding and what makes the right hire valuable.
A hiring note from Excelon
This is a narrow candidate pool: a board-certified occupational medicine physician who also holds OSHA and MRO certification and can lead at the enterprise level. Through our healthcare practice, we look for physician leaders who can deliver across all three demands at once, clinical, regulatory, and administrative, since occupational health leadership fails when any one of the three is weak.
The role sits at the intersection of clinical medicine, employer advocacy, and regulatory compliance, and the right leader carries all three credibly.
Related sample job descriptions
System Medical Director, Occupational Health: frequently asked questions
What does a System Medical Director, Occupational Health do?
A System Medical Director, Occupational Health provides clinical leadership for a health system’s occupational health and employee health services. The role oversees workers compensation matters and occupational claims, ensures regulatory compliance, supervises physicians and advanced practice providers, and supports employee wellness and safety programs.
What qualifications does the role require?
This sample role requires board certification or eligibility in Occupational Medicine, a current unrestricted medical license, and OSHA and MRO (Medical Review Officer) certification. It also calls for knowledge of workers compensation processes and OSHA, ADA, FMLA, and GINA frameworks.
What is occupational medicine?
Occupational medicine is the branch of medicine focused on the health and safety of workers, including injury prevention, workplace exposures, fitness for duty, and the medical side of workers compensation. A System Medical Director leads this clinical work across an entire health system.
What is a Medical Review Officer (MRO)?
A Medical Review Officer is a licensed physician certified to review and interpret workplace drug and alcohol test results. MRO certification is commonly required for occupational health leadership because it governs how testing results are validated and reported.
Why is this role important?
The role sits at the intersection of clinical medicine, employer advocacy, and regulatory compliance. Strong leadership here protects employee health, controls workers compensation cost and risk, and keeps a multi-site program compliant across local, state, and federal requirements.
Hiring a System Medical Director, Occupational Health?
Excelon Associates recruits occupational medicine physicians and healthcare system leaders for hospital networks and integrated health systems across the United States through our healthcare recruitment practice. Retained executive search since 2007, headquartered in Asheville, NC, with offices in Boca Raton and Delray Beach, FL.
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Templates you can adapt for your own roles.