Office Coordinator Multi-Specialty Clinic/Dana-Farber/Brigham Cancer Center at South Shore Health

Job Description Summary

The Office Coordinator reports directly to the Office Manager and is responsible for supporting administrative duties for the practices. Responsibilities include scheduling, confirming appointments, patient interaction (telephone and in-person), administrative practice support, and special projects. Essential duties include administrative support and coordination for provider, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and nurses. Scheduling complex appointments; following guidelines that support safe clinical practice, patient comfort, continuity of care for complex visits; a high standard of timely communication and rescheduling as necessary; and coordination of clinical visit related reports, documentation, requisitions, and other materials. Managing direct communications with patients and family members is critical to this role; he/she provides the first greeting and welcome for patients arriving for appointments and represents the customer service orientation of our practice. The Office Coordinator also provides general administrative support to on-site leadership and providers as needed. Duties include scheduling appointments, scanning and faxing documents upon request. He/she is expected to exhibit professional behavior through adherence to SSH and site-specific policies, procedures, and codes of conduct.

Job Description

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
1 - Administrative Support of Practice 
a - Answer telephone; triage calls as necessary.
b - Transition telephones to and from answering service; retrieves messages from the answering service and triages appropriately.
c - Handles incoming requests for medical records and mails/faxes information as appropriate; works appropriately with Health Information Management (HIM) on medical requests and changes to personal patient information (i.e. patient name change)
d - Recognize emergencies and appropriately responds using standard operating procedures and critical thinking skills.
e - Supports patient flow by appropriately directing patients and family members and managing the waiting areas.
f - Provides customer service to colleagues and other staff members on the use of specific systems.
g - Monitors the lobby and waiting areas for neatness and cleanliness and ensures that appropriate assistance is given to the patients and family members.
h - May provide general administrative support and coordination for all aspects of patient care for both new and/or established patients, including filing, document preparation, data entry, telephone support, etc.
2 - Patient Check-In 
a - Greet patients; verbally verify name, date of birth, telephone number, and insurance information; provide and witness signing of consent form (if necessary); arrives patient in Epic and updates patient information in Epic appropriately.
b - Refer patients to financial counselor as appropriate.
c - May navigate new patients and educate them about all available services.
d - If insurance has changed, copy card and performs insurance eligibility check.
f - Review patient “alerts” in Epic and reconciles ie: patient contact information, Medicare Survey etc

3 - Patient check-out
a - Schedule follow up appointments for exam; coordinates ancillary appointments (lab, imaging, outside providers, etc) using Epic, and other systems as needed.
b - Under the direction of the operations management team, provides appointment scheduling ranging in complexity from one physician appointment to multiple care provider appointments in accordance with department scheduling guidelines for new and/or existing patients.
c - May provide basic information regarding the need for insurance referral(s).
d - Recognizes emergencies and appropriately responses using standard operating procedures and critical thinking skills.
e - Performs independent patient and outside provider call triaging and assists in directing patient flow.
f - Refer patients to financial counselor as needed.
g - Manages In Basket messages, takes ownership and responds appropriately to all messages.
h - Manages referral workqueues in Epic
i – Attends staff meetings.
j - Obtains detailed clinical information face-to-face, by telephone or electronically.
k - Handles incoming requests for records and mails/faxes information as appropriate; Faxes notifications to HIS as necessary (patient name changes, etc)
l - Serves as a liaison between patient/family/provider.
m - Resolves issues directly or ensures appropriate management of call by others.
n - May be required to perform other duties as required by the Operations team.


Work Experience
2 years of experience in customer service is required. Experience in healthcare is a plus.
Knowledge and Abilities
Requires basic knowledge of insurance plans which constantly change; knowledge of insurances that Host hospital are participants; and high risk insurances
Ability to multi-task and function as an integral member of the team.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills required.
Excellent computer, customer service and problem solving skills required.
Demonstrated ability to draft reports, correspondence and other administrative documents pertaining to patient scheduling as needed.