Medical Director (Practice, Clinic, Region) Recruiters
Healthcare Headhunters recruits healthcare professionals for employers. No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
This is what we do all day: recruit healthcare professionals.
Hire a medical director who can make clinical decisions, guide peers, and work productively with your administrator.
No postings. No stacks of resumes. No chasing. You interview a short list.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
Need someone now? Call 305-306-4829.
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What happens next
- We review your role, responsibilities and location.
- Ivan or a senior team member will reach out soon.
- You meet a focused shortlist when qualified candidates fit the agreed search.
- Fees.
- No upfront fee. Pay only if you hire, under the signed agreement.
- Exclusivity.
- Set out in the signed client agreement.
- Confidentiality.
- We agree the brief before outreach. This is not a promise of absolute anonymity.
- No hire.
- No hire means no fee on standard searches.
- Lead Physician
- Site Medical Director
- Regional Medical Director
What does an open seat cost you every week?
An open role costs you more than the recruiting fee. Someone covers the work, waits for care, or stops a service. We ask what is falling behind and who is carrying it. Use your own figures to compare the cost of waiting with the cost of hiring.
The seat is costing you every week.
Overtime, diverted patients, a stretched team and a schedule held together by favors.
The posting brought the wrong people.
Applicants arrive, but the person who has done this exact work is employed and not looking.
You are the one chasing.
Screening calls, no-shows and follow-ups land on the desk of someone with a facility to run.
What does this hire really come down to?
A practice, clinic, or regional medical director has to divide time between patient care and leadership work. You need clarity on that split before interviews begin. We help you assess whether a physician can review performance data, supervise APPs, address peer concerns, and still maintain the clinical presence your sites need.
The right profile depends on the problem you need solved. A regional operation may need someone who can compare site results, explain variation, and work with local physician leads without taking every decision away from them.
Do not confuse seniority with leadership judgment. Listen for what facts they reviewed, who they involved, what decision they made, and how they explained it to physicians and APPs.
What do we check before you see anyone?
Clinical and administrative split. We ask how many sessions the candidate expects to spend in patient care and what leadership work happens outside those sessions. Ask who covers clinical leadership when the director is seeing patients, on leave, or responsible for several locations.
- Quality measures. We ask for a specific metric the physician reviewed, such as screening completion, follow-up timing, chart closure, or referral patterns. The useful answer identifies the data, the suspected cause, the change tested, and what the physician would revisit if results did not improve.
- APP supervision and collaborative practice. We ask how the candidate reviews APP work beyond chart signatures. Explore case review, escalation expectations, feedback conversations, scope questions, and how they would respond when an APP and physician disagree about a routine clinical decision.
- Working with the practice administrator. We ask the candidate to describe a decision involving staffing, templates, supplies, access, or budgets. The physician should explain where clinical judgment ends, where the administrator owns execution, and how they resolve a disagreement without creating competing instructions.
- Peer review and physician feedback. We ask for an example of addressing a colleague whose documentation, referral choices, attendance, or practice pattern raised concerns. Look for a fair fact-gathering process, direct feedback, follow-up, and respect for internal review policies.
- License, credentials, and scope. We screen physician licensure for the state or states involved, specialty background, work history, and stated leadership scope. You complete your own credentialing, reference process, and clinical assessment before making a hiring decision.
Where do we find them, and why would they move?
We speak with senior physicians from medical groups, FQHCs, urgent care organizations, and value-based care operators. Their leadership exposure varies. Some have led one site while retaining a full panel. Others have worked across multiple clinics or with physician and APP leads.
A physician may consider a move to gain formal authority, reduce an unsustainable clinical schedule, join a different care model, relocate, or take on regional responsibility. We ask what has changed and whether the role you offer addresses that reason.
Which mistakes stall the search?
A common mistake is giving the title without defining authority over clinical policies, schedules, budgets, or local physician leads. Another is interviewing only for clinical skill and skipping a realistic conversation with the practice administrator. Ask candidates to describe a disagreement over access, scheduling, documentation, or quality measures.
Assuming every physician leader wants the same patient schedule or can cover several sites without clear support.
How would we run the search for this opening?
List the decisions the director owns, recommends, or shares with the administrator. Bring the practice administrator and a physician leader into interviews. We present screened candidates and the questions behind their move. A growing clinic may need a physician who can set practical clinical policies with an administrator.
Set the decision scope
Include clinical policies, APP oversight, quality work, physician feedback, and site-level escalation.
Test the working relationship
Ask each candidate how they would handle a disagreement about access, staffing, or a clinical process change.
Complete hiring review
You conduct interviews, credentialing, reference checks, and clinical evaluation before selecting your hire.
Where this search connects
Physician Executives & Medical Directors
SpecialtyHospitals & Health Systems
SettingAcademic Medical Centers
SettingChildren's Hospitals
SettingRural & Critical Access Hospitals
SettingMedical Director / CMO, FQHC
Role in a settingMedical Director, Urgent Care
Role in a settingChief Medical Officer (CMO)
Related roleVice President of Medical Affairs (VPMA)
Related roleHospice Medical Director
Related roleHealth Plan Medical Director (Utilization Management)
Related roleNational median annual wage. SOC 11-9111, Medical and Health Services Managers.
BLS publishes Medical and Health Services Managers as a wider occupation. This administrative or professional function proxy does not isolate Medical Director (Practice, Clinic, Region), its clinical credentials, seniority or setting. It is not a pay estimate for the exact title.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS, 2025-05, released 2026-05-15. View source. See the full guide.
Open roles
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Should our medical director remain patient-facing?
That depends on your care model and leadership workload. A patient-facing schedule can preserve direct knowledge of clinic issues, while protected leadership time may be needed for APP supervision, physician feedback, and multi-site review. Define the split before discussing compensation.
What license should we verify?
Confirm that the physician holds or can obtain the license needed for the state where they will practice. If the role covers more than one state, discuss each location early. You make the final credentialing and scope determination.
How do we assess a candidate's work with APPs?
Ask for a recent supervision example involving case review, escalation, documentation feedback, or a scope question. Then ask what they would expect from APP leads and how they would address repeated concerns. A chart-signature answer alone is incomplete.
Can one medical director cover several clinics?
Possibly, but the title does not answer the workload question. Review travel, meeting cadence, physician lead support, patient-care sessions, and who handles urgent site questions. A regional role needs clear local escalation paths.
How does your payment structure work?
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire. We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement. We arrange locum tenens, travel and contract coverage on request. Credentialing, licensing and malpractice coverage are confirmed per engagement before anyone starts.
What should you send us about this role?
Send us the role, where the person will work and what needs to change with this hire. We will ask about the work, not just the title. Share any license or schedule limits that could rule someone out before we begin the search.
Tell us what authority, patient-care schedule, APP oversight, and administrator partnership you need. We will screen for the decisions your next medical director must make.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire. We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
What happens next
- We review your role, responsibilities and location.
- Ivan or a senior team member will reach out soon.
- You meet a focused shortlist when qualified candidates fit the agreed search.
- Fees.
- No upfront fee. Pay only if you hire, under the signed agreement.
- Exclusivity.
- Set out in the signed client agreement.
- Confidentiality.
- We agree the brief before outreach. This is not a promise of absolute anonymity.
- No hire.
- No hire means no fee on standard searches.
Which other positions in this family should you consider?
Department Chair / Division Chief · Hospitalist Program Medical Director
What do you get at each step of the search?
Our process for every search: calibrate the seat with you, map the market, research the real people, reach out to each one personally, qualify them in live conversation, then hand you a short list with a written brief on each person and support through the offer.
Search Calibration
You get an agreed brief: the work, reporting line, credentials, schedule, and offer you can make.
Market Mapping
You get a search aimed at relevant backgrounds, including people working now who have not applied.
Professional Contact Intelligence
We check appropriate ways to reach the people identified for your search. You do not have to chase them yourself.
Persistent Personalized Outreach
We explain your actual job and follow up with people who may consider a conversation.
Live Candidate Qualification
You see people we have spoken with about the work, interest, and practical fit, not an unread resume pile.
Candidate Intelligence and Process Support
You get a written brief and support through interviews and offer discussions. You make the hiring decision.
How long will it take to see a short list?
That depends on the job, schedule, available people, and what your employer can offer. We discuss those constraints before outreach and update you as candidates respond. We do not promise a fixed shortlist date. We check the job brief before arranging interviews. Tell us which parts of the role you can change.
What if a candidate receives a counteroffer?
We ask why the person wants to move and discuss competing decisions before an offer. A counteroffer can still change their choice. Keep the duties and offer clear rather than assuming more money settles every concern. Tell us early if parts of your offer cannot change, so the candidate hears it from us first.
What are the replacement terms?
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement. Ask us to walk through those terms before you sign, so you know how a replacement would work for your opening and who would start it.
What do we not do in a standard permanent search?
We do not bill standard contingency search by the hour or simply repost your job. Temporary coverage is a separate arrangement. Any retainer or different engagement must be agreed, not assumed. Tell us early if you need coverage while the permanent search runs.