Registered Nurse Patient Placement - Patient Flow Operations

Summary:

The Registered Nurse Patient Placement serves as a clinical patient placement and throughput resource within the Bed Board Department. This position coordinates safe, timely, and appropriate bed placement while maintaining awareness of hospital capacity, patient acuity, staffing resources, isolation needs, room availability, and operational barriers.

The Registered Nurse Patient Placement reviews patient charts and uses clinical judgment to determine appropriate placement based on diagnosis, ordered level of care, physician, planned procedure, isolation requirements, patient acuity, safety concerns, staffing resources, specialty needs, and unit capability.

This position requires strong clinical judgment, clear communication, prioritization, and the ability to coordinate multiple competing placement needs in a fast-paced hospital environment.

Responsibilities:

• Meets expectations of the applicable OneCHRISTUS Competencies: Leader of Self, Leader of Others, or Leader of Leaders.
• Demonstrates CHRISTUS customer service standards in all interactions with patients, physicians, nursing staff, ancillary departments, leadership, and external partners.
• Serves as a clinical resource for patient placement, Bed Board operations, capacity management, and hospital throughput.
• Monitors hospital capacity throughout the shift, including available beds, pending admissions, emergency department holds, PACU holds, procedural patients, direct admits, internal transfers, pending discharges, blocked rooms, isolation rooms, upgraded rooms, and anticipated bed needs.
• Maintains accurate Bed Board information, capacity updates, spreadsheets, dashboards, logs, and other throughput tracking tools to support timely patient placement and leadership awareness.
• Assigns and facilitates patient placement for patients from the Emergency Department, Cath Lab, PACU, direct admits, procedural areas, internal transfers, and patients requiring a change in level of care.
• Reviews each patient bed request and chart to determine appropriate bed placement based on diagnosis, ordered level of care, physician, planned procedure, isolation needs, clinical acuity, staffing resources, unit capability, behavioral concerns, safety needs, and available capacity.
• Prioritizes patients awaiting placement based on clinical acuity, level-of-care needs, patient safety concerns, isolation requirements, hold times, bed availability, pending discharges, room readiness, and overall throughput needs.
• Communicate with physicians regarding bed request issues, level-of-care concerns, patient status changes, medication or monitoring requirements, placement barriers, and prioritization of critical patients.
• Coordinates with the Transfer Center, physicians, nursing leadership, house supervisors, and administration regarding inbound transfers waiting for placement.
• Communicates current transfer holds, bed availability concerns, capacity constraints, and prioritization needs to hospital administration and appropriate leadership.
• Collaborates with ECC, PACU, Cath Lab, OPCU, TOPS, Registration, EVS, Transportation Dispatch, Maintenance, Case Management, nursing units, house supervisors, physicians, and the Transfer Center to facilitate patient movement and reduce avoidable delays.
• Tracks rooms requiring upgrades, rooms currently in progress, and rooms that have been upgraded or returned to service.
• Places patients with safety concerns, including confused, combative, high fall-risk, or closer-monitoring needs, in appropriate rooms when available, including rooms closer to the nurse’s station when appropriate.
• Places patients requiring airborne precautions in appropriate negative pressure isolation rooms based on isolation requirements and bed availability.
• Works with Charge Nurses, house supervisors, and unit leadership to expedite bed assignments, resolve placement barriers, and coordinate patient movement to other units when a different specialty, level of care, unit capability, or staffing resource is required.
• Participates in, leads, or supports daily bed meetings, capacity huddles, and throughput meetings by communicating census, pending admissions, discharges, transfer holds, capacity barriers, blocked rooms, isolation room needs, and bed priorities.
• Initiates or recommends capacity alerts and communicates with the Administrator on Call and appropriate leadership regarding urgent throughput concerns, significant bottlenecks, capacity constraints, high-risk patient flow issues, and potential need for divert consideration.
• Applies clinical judgment, nursing process, hospital policy, level-of-care criteria, patient placement guidelines, regulatory standards, and patient-specific clinical information, including labs, vital signs, imaging results, and isolation requirements, when reviewing placement needs and identifying barriers to safe patient placement.
• Obtains educational experiences to meet continuing education needs and to maintain clinical expertise.
• Participates in professional activities and organizations.
• Follows EMTALA rules & regulations for patient transfers.
• All other duties as assigned.

Requirements:

Education/Skills

• Associate's Degree in Nursing required
• Preferred Bachelors in Nursing

Experience

• 2+ years of nursing experience or directly related healthcare experience required
• Critical care experience preferred

Licenses, Registrations, or Certifications

• RN license required
• BLS required

In accordance with the CHRISTUS Health License, Certification and Registration Verification Policy, all Associates are required to obtain the required certifications for their respective positions within the designated time frame.

Work Schedule:

MULTIPLE SHIFTS AVAILABLE

Work Type:

Per Diem As Needed