Patient Advocate

Summary:

The Patient Advocate responds to patient-facing inquiries within Rogers Behavioral Health (“Rogers”). This individual works to maintain, develop, and strengthen the patient-provider relationship through the development, coordination, and support of the overall objectives of Rogers’ mission and vision, along with compliance, patient safety, and quality improvement programs and policies. This includes providing support regarding handling of patient compliments and complaints, responding to grievances both informally and formally, participating in compliance, patient safety and/or quality improvement projects, and facilitating provider/care team training and education.

Job Duties & Responsibilities:

• Ensures accurate recording, tracking and completeness of reported incidents.
• Assists with the development of tools or metrics to track the overall effectiveness of the patient incident reporting program and processes.
• Plans, coordinated, and implements patient incident reporting and patient advocacy program awareness, education, and training.
• Fosters a speak up culture and employee confidence that reporting makes a difference in the organization.
• Collaborates with other departments to direct patient complaints, grievances, and risk issues to appropriate channels and effectively implement process improvements.
• Supports patient safety and quality generally with performance of other projects and risk-reduction duties as assigned.
• Conduct routine audit and monitoring of patient incident and advocacy activities across all Rogers sites and levels of care based on identified need(s) and risk(s).
• Interview and/or collaborate with care teams and staff.
• Lead discussions arounds applicable regulations, standards, and/or Rogers polices in a way that resonates with staff.
• Provide education, training, and helpful tools/resources for management and staff.
• Prepare written summaries, findings report, and management action plans.
• Conduct chart reviews.
• Track and manage action items to ensure timely follow-up and resolution.
• Utilize key metrics and reporting tools for tracking, trending, and optimal decision making.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to help ensure there is a mechanism in place for correcting instances which pose safety or other risks to patients or the organization as a whole, appropriate to the nature and extent of the occurrence, and ensure consistency in the application of corrective action.

Promote a team atmosphere by treating individuals with respect and honesty and by using direct communication and active listening skills

• Be open to change and actively support change.
• Be open to others’ ideas and points of view.
• Uses emotional intelligence to effectively communicate, lead, and develop leaders and staff.
• Evaluate employees objectively and provide employees with periodic coaching and feedback.
• Ensure all team members are following policies and procedures for Rogers.

Promote department goals as well as the mission of Rogers

• Communicate goals to fellow staff members.
• Demonstrate measurable goal achievement.
• Maintain department policies and procedures.
• Educate new staff regarding regulations or requirements of those functions that relate to their areas or departments, as directed.
• Resolve individual issues with peers in a positive, solutions focused manner.
• In collaboration with human resources with conflict resolution and investigations.
• Maintain an understanding of any variance and its impact on the department budget.
• Ability to influence departments within Rogers and provide leadership guidance.
• Include requirements and guidelines from external agencies (i.e., Joint Commission, State of Wisconsin).
• Maintain and/or communicate to appropriate party function backlog at a set time.
• Educate new staff regarding regulations or requirements of those functions that relate to their areas or departments, as directed.
• Demonstrate acceptance and training of student interns in the department, as directed.

Participate in Roger’s committees, performance improvement team meetings, and team projects, as directed

• Demonstrate punctuality and preparedness.
• Demonstrate effective communication skills.
• Demonstrate good organizational skills.
• Contribute in a positive, solution-focused manner.

Conduct self in a professional manner

• Demonstrate organizational skills that promote timely response to all inquiries and to task completion.
• Communicate with all individuals in a positive and professional manner.
• Attempt to resolve individual issues with peers in a positive, calm manner, with a focus on solution.
• Communicate concerns and provide solutions for same.
• Project a professional image by wearing appropriate, professional attire.
• Ability to influence departments within Rogers and provide technical guidance.

Perform other duties as assigned

Additional Job Description:

Physical/Mental Demands

• Maintains a high degree of creditability, independence, integrity, confidentiality, and trust.
• Individual must possess excellent attention to detail, strong writing, and verbal communications skills.
• Ability to effectively communicate with all levels of staff.
• Individual must be comfortable in handling challenging situations involving possible adverse outcomes.
• Highly collaborative individual with ability to influence others and build strong professional relationships.
• Ability to work independently, make independent judgments and set priorities.
• Ability to maintain a calm, professional demeanor under pressure.
• Position requires walking, sitting, and standing. Lifting is moderate; must be capable of lifting a minimum twenty (20) pounds. Reaching, handling, grasping, and manual dexterity are necessary to operate various equipment.
• Verbal and hearing ability are required to interact with coworkers, staff, auditors/consultants and other third parties, as applicable. Numerical ability is required to maintain records and operate a computer.
• Tact is required to interact effectively with employees and professional staff. Logical thinking and discretion required to make decisions in initiating and implementing policies and procedures and standards.
• Must be able to read and communicate through exemplary written, verbal, and auditory skills and abilities.
• Superb analytical and research skills.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality.
• Highly collaborative with ability to influence others and build strong professional relationships.
• Must be able to plan, control, and manage all aspects of an effective healthcare compliance program and related activities.
• Must be able to travel by car and/or air to Roger’s locations as business needs present.
• Must be physically/mentally able to perform job duties as verified by a physical exam by a licensed physician, per post-employment physical.

Education/Training Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in healthcare, nursing, social services, business, or related field required.
• Minimum of five (5) years’ experience in a healthcare setting, specifically within a patient safety, patient relations, quality improvement, and/or compliance/risk management role (preferred).
• Registered nurse licensed by Wisconsin State Board of Nursing. License must be in good standing with the State Board of Nursing. OR Full, independent licensure as a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) or equivalent in state practicing, i.e., LPCC, LMHC (preferred).
• Knowledge of patient incident reporting systems and customer service/service recovery principles.
• General knowledge of hospital clinical and operational practices and procedures to be able to educate and communicate effectively with internal and external customers.
• Excellent communication skills, customer focus, proficiency, leadership ability, and professional integrity.
• Self-starter attitude; comfortable with working independently.
• Working knowledge of federal and state healthcare laws and regulations.
• Electronic health record software (e.g., Cerner, Epic) experience preferred, but not required.
• Case management and/or workflow solutions/management software (e.g., SAI360, NAVEX, etc.) experience preferred, but not required.
• Strong proficiency in Adobe®, Adobe® Creative Suite, and Microsoft® Office Products.
• Ability to work quickly and effectively in a fast-paced detail-oriented environment while adhering to deadlines.
• Valid driver license. Must be granted insurable status by the Rogers Memorial Hospital insurance policy.

Basic Life Support BLS - Cert, Nonviolent Crisis Intervention NCI - Cert

With a career at Rogers, you can look forward to a Total Rewards package of benefits, including:

• Health, dental, and vision insurance coverage for you and your family 
• 401(k) retirement plan 
• Employee share program 
• Life/disability insurance 
• Flex spending accounts  
• Tuition reimbursement 
• Health and wellness program
• Employee assistance program (EAP)

Through UnitedHealthcare, UMR and HealthSCOPE Benefits creates and publishes the Machine-Readable Files on behalf of Rogers Behavioral Health. To link to the Machine-Readable Files, please visit Transparency in Coverage (uhc.com)