Patient Advocate

POSITION SUMMARY

This position is responsible for the coordination, administration, education, and documentation of all customer service initiatives in order to enhance patient and employee experience.  Key functions include serving as a liaison between the patient(s) and TCRHCC by responding timely to patient issues.  Impartially investigates, resolves, and documents all outcomes and reports organization-specific patient and visitor complaints and concerns to the Quality Manager and appropriate leaders. The Patient Advocate Coordinator’s tact, approach and positive customer service relationship skills are critical to meeting the mission and vision of the corporation.  Provides accountability and variance analysis (benchmarking) of customer service outcomes and patient/visitor concerns in accordance with regulatory agencies (e.g. federal, state, and tribal), accreditation standard requirements, nationwide hospital benchmarks, and organizational needs.

NECESSARY QUALIFICATIONS

Education:

Must have a bachelor’s degree in a healthcare related field (such as RN, Health Services Administration, Community Health)

Experience:

Must have one (1) year of experience in customer relations or customer service or patient advocacy/coordination

       Other Skills and Abilities:

A record of satisfactory performance in all prior and current employment as evidenced by positive employment references from previous and current employers.  All employment references must address and indicate success in each one of the following areas:

• Possesses strong customer service/interpersonal interactions; must have the ability to handle difficult and angry people constructively; confident enough to interact with managers, providers, and Senior Leadership.
• Respects diverse views and approaches, maintains an environment of transparency, and professionalism when addressing customer service and patient complaints.
• Possesses excellent analytical skills including analysis, interpreting, planning, organizing, and responding effectively to the most sensitive inquiries and complaints.
• Must work in conjunction with staff in a supportive way to troubleshoot and resolve issues.
• Positive working relationships with others.
• Possession of high ethical standards and no history of complaints.
• Reliable and dependable; reports to work as scheduled without excessive absences.
• Ability to work with minimal supervision and adaptability with high tolerance for ambiguous work situations; and
• Proficient in Windows-Based operating software systems including Microsoft Word, Power Point and Excel.
• Must be visible to staff, offering support and modeling service behaviors and recommending resolution processes.
• Completion of an above-satisfactory scores on all job interviews, demonstrating to the satisfaction of the interviewees and TCRHCC that the applicant can perform the essential functions of the job 
• Successful completion of and positive results from all background and reference checks, including positive employment references from authorized representatives of past and current employers demonstrating to the satisfaction of TCRHCC a record of satisfactory performance and that the applicant can perform the essential functions of the job
• Successful completion of fingerprint clearance requirements, physical examinations, and other screenings indicating that the applicant is qualified to be employed by TCRHCC and demonstrating to the satisfaction of TCRHCC that the applicant can perform the essential functions of the job
• Submission of all required employment-related documents, applications, resumes, references, and other required information free of false, misleading or incomplete information, as determined by TCRHCC.

MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EFFORT

The physical and mental demands described herein are representative of those that must be met by a professional employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position.  Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Physical:

This position requires an individual with high energy who can maintain a long and flexible schedule to meet the management requirements. The physical requirements include sitting at a desk for long periods of time, long periods of sitting in meetings; frequent sitting for intense work on a personal computer, frequent walking to interact with staff within the facility, frequent bending, kneeling, crouching, twisting, maintaining balance and reaching. Must be able to hear, speak and comprehend over the telephone and in person with others. Must have the ability to lift, push and pull up to 50lbs frequently. Sensory requirements for position include prolonged ability for far, near, and color vision, depth perception, seeing fine details, hearing normal speech, telephone use and ability to frequently hear overhead pages. Must have ability of both hand manipulation in simple and firm grasping, fine manipulation, and use of keyboard.

Mental:

Uses independent judgment and analytical skills to make decisions that impact operations, finances, and customer service within the organization.  The incumbent must have the ability to perform in structured and unstructured environments and possess keen attention to detail and propose practices/mechanisms to enhance customer satisfaction. Must have ability to continually concentrate, handle a high degree of flexibility, handle multiple priorities in stressful situation, demonstrate high degree of patience, adapt to shift work, work in areas that are close in crowded, frequently cope with high levels of stress, make decisions under high pressure, work alone, and occasionally cope with anger/fear/hostility of others in a calm way and manage altercations.

Environmental:

May frequently be exposed to chemical agents, extremes in temperature of humidity, occasional exposure to infectious diseases, dust, fumes, gases, hazardous or moving equipment, and loud noises.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

1. Coordinates with the Quality Manager in the resolution of concerns, grievances, and requests for patients and visitors by responding to submitted suggestions and complaints. Documents patient and visitor concerns by including patient demographic data, synopsis of incidences, actions taken to resolve outcomes, and database entry. Refers potential risk management issues to the Risk Manager. Refers potential employee/labor relations issues to the Human Resources office.
2. Composes professional letters or e-mails to patients, visitors, providers, and Senior Leadership in accordance with the Complaints and Grievances – Patient/Family policy.
3. Analyzes concerns and grievances data and collaborates with the Quality Manager, Senior Leadership, and staff on a monthly basis. Assists in the preparation of annual and quarterly executive reports for Senior Leadership and presents data to department managers.
4. Identifies systems related problems, via patient and visitor data, and works collaboratively with physicians, administrators, staff, and Quality Manager to resolve issues.
5. Coordinates and facilitates customer service initiatives and provides updates to TCRHCC staff (i.e. board of directors, Senior Leaders, department heads, committees, staff) and the general public.
6. Collaborate with supervisor and staff (i.e. Senior Leadership, department heads, clinicians, outside entities, and customer service committees) in the communication and updating of customer service goals, initiatives, objectives, and plans.
7. Facilitates and provides training, oversight, and administrative assistance for customer service initiatives and provides technical support by reviewing and recommending improvement to policies and procedures.
8. Conducts monthly accountability and variance analysis and benchmarks of customer service outcomes to influence positive change across the organization.
9. Develops a consultant relationship with clinics and departments to build and sustain a patient/customer-focused culture.
10. Maintains liaison network to ensure that a variety of hospital information and clinical suppo1t services are linked with those community groups and general public who have need of information and are likely to seek out and better utilize hospital services.
11. Perform duties on an as needed basis (evening and weekends) to implement customer service initiatives and various reports to the Board of Directors and management.
12. Must be familiar with TJC (Joint Commission) standards such as Physical Environment, infection Prevention and Control and Performance Improvement.
13. Ensure proper PPE is always worn while on duty including but not limited to face mask, gloves, gown, NIOSH-approved N95 filtering respirator or higher (if available), and eye or face shield.
14. Complete all donning and doffing tasks in a safe acceptable method and discard of used PPE accordingly. (See CDC website for most current updates).
15. Responsible for wearing personal protective equipment as related to the patient areas to complete essential job functions.
16. Must adhere to all TCRHCC hospital policies.
17. Responsible for electronic health records data entry pertinent to patient service role.
18. Performs other related duties as assigned.