Physician Assistant or Nurse Practitioner - Thoracic Surgery, Quality, Clinical Documentation (Outpatient), Full-time, Days

Company Description

At Northwestern Medicine, every patient interaction makes a difference in cultivating a positive workplace. This patient-first approach is what sets us apart as a leader in the healthcare industry. As an integral part of our team, you'll have the opportunity to join our quest for better health care, no matter where you work within the Northwestern Medicine system. We pride ourselves on providing competitive benefits: from tuition reimbursement and loan forgiveness to 401(k) matching and lifecycle benefits, our goal is to take care of our employees. Ready to join our quest for better?

Job Description

Northwestern Medicine has an exciting opportunity for either a Nurse Practitioner or a Physician Assistant to work in our Outpatient Thoracic Surgery, Quality, Clinical Documentation department. 

This role is part of the Clinical Performance & Documentation Integrity Program, an integrated initiative between the Canning Thoracic Institute (NMG) and Clinical Documentation Improvement (NMHC). The program was established after a thoracic surgery pilot demonstrated that targeted, clinician-led documentation improvement meaningfully strengthened the alignment between coded data and clinical reality and produced measurable gains across multiple quality platforms — with no change in clinical practice, surgical technique, or patient selection. The improvement came entirely from ensuring the record reflected conditions that were already being clinically managed.

Schedule: M-F, 5x8s

• No nights, weekends, holidays, or on-call

The program is now scaling across the full thoracic surgery service lin. APPs are the operational linchpin of this model — clinically credentialed documentation experts who make documentation improvement part of the workflow rather than a retrospective coding correction.

• Maintain professional engagement & collaboration with the following:
• Active, valued participation in M&M and multidisciplinary review.
• Effective and reliable performance on the periodic occasions when clinical coverage is requested.
• Engage with respective CDI party (inpatient v. ambulatory)
• Engage with PB Coding, Inpatient coding, and Rev Cycles at NM
• Engage with Physician and APP Support Staff (PASS) Team
• Engage with NM & CTI Quality Committee
• Collaboration with relevant peers within DoS

Performance Expectations:

Performance in this role is evaluated against the quality and integrity of the documentation work product and the durability of the program the APP helps build. The expectations below are illustrative; specific objectives will be set annually with the Vice President, CTI, and the Division Chief.

• Documentation accuracy and integrity
• The medical record for assigned cases reflects the conditions clinically present, the complications encountered, and the procedures performed with the level of specificity supported by the chart.
• Concurrent and retrospective chart reviews are completed on the agreed cadence with consistent, reproducible methodology.
• Documentation queries follow AHIMA/ACDIS standards and are clinically grounded, non-leading, and well-substantiated.
• Sustained Present-on-Admission accuracy and clean PSI/HAC handling on assigned cohorts.
• Quality and benchmarking framework alignment
• STS, Vizient, US News, CMS Star Rating, Leapfrog, and HCC/RAF inputs are populated completely and consistently for assigned cohorts, with data definitions correctly applied.
• Risk-adjusted outcome metrics for the program reflect the true clinical complexity of the patient population — i.e., the chart, the coded data, and the reported metric tell a single, coherent story.
• Audit and second-review findings on assigned cases demonstrate documentation that is defensible against external scrutiny.

Program Development

• Onboarding curriculum delivered and used for every new program hire.
• EHR templates, SmartPhrases, and dot-phrases live in production for thoracic surgery, with documented adoption.
• Clinician-facing documentation reference materials (clinical indicator sheets, framework cheat sheets) maintained current.
• Demonstrated knowledge transfer: subsequent APPs reach independent competency within the agreed onboarding window.

Essential Functions: 

A. Comprehensive Mortality, Morbidity, and Severity Capture

The APP serves as the institute's accountable owner for the accurate capture of mortality and morbidity events, comorbid conditions, complications, and procedural detail across every quality, benchmarking, and regulatory reporting framework that measures the program. This includes — at minimum — the following platforms: