Surgical Services Coordinator - Cardiac Surgery HUP

Surgical Services Coordinator - Cardiac Surgery HUP

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Job Title: Surgical Services Coordinator

Department: Cardiac Surgery HUP

Location: Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania- 3400 Spruce St

Hours: full time day shift hours based on departmental needs

Summary: The Surgical Services Coordinator (SSC) assists the manager and/or physicians in maintaining patient/customer focus, supports the delivery or high-quality care, and assists in meeting or exceeding patient satisfaction and operational targets. In addition to performing the duties of the Surgical Services Associate (coordinating patient related activity for both outpatient visits and surgical procedures, phone calls, messages, authorizations and billing), the SSC will be expected to oversee the daily schedule and operations of an assigned area or group. The SSC serves as the APM/OpTime expert and the liaison between staff and Managers/Physicians to ensure daily performance expectations are communicated and met. In the absence of the manager, the SSC may take on additional responsibilities. Where applicable, this position is responsible for the management and coordination of care for patients within a specialized clinical program or across multiple surgical specialties.

Responsibilities:

Oversight and Lead Responsibilities:

• Independently owns, prioritizes and initiates implementation of assigned work functions
• Serves a point of escalation for Surgical Services team as needed.
• Participates in and supports select projects to be determined by leadership
• Evaluates and manages workload distribution of the Surgical Services staff where applicable
• May assist with recruitment, onboarding, performance evaluations and performance management of Surgical Services staff per practice needs

Clinical Duties:

• Greets, screens, schedules and directs patients in a prompt, positive, pleasant, and helpful manner at all times even in the most adverse circumstances; acts as primary point of contact for assigned patients.
• Retrieve and process incoming medical records/images, ensure scanning and physician review is completed. Ensure diagnostic testing and other evaluations are completed before visit.
• Assists attending physician and/or APP with patient relations and scheduling during outpatient office hours including traveling to clinic location when necessary.
• Provides coverage for practice team members during absences and/or staffing shortages.
• Schedules required procedures and OR for patients at attending physician's direction.
• Coordinates all procedures that need to occur prior to scheduling surgery, including but not limited to the scheduling of ancillary tests, pre-operative testing, obtaining x-rays, scans, MRIs, lab results, EKGs for completion of pre-op packages.
• Responsible for the timely submission and posting of operative cases to the OR grid, accuracy of information and correct forms completed and signed.
• Process medication refill request, triaging to appropriate staff.
• Coordinates and schedules cases with medical equipment representatives as required in the OR.
• Communicates underutilization of OR block time in a timely manner to manager for appropriate redistribution

Admin Duties:

• Answer and screen all phone calls; responds to patient inquires and/or problems in timely fashion or takes appropriate messages/delegate to appropriate staff.
• Maintain multiple calendars/schedules, surgery schedule, office hours and meetings.
• Schedule travel and lodging for physician as well as completing submission of expenses for travel, subscriptions, memberships and books for re-imbursements in a timely fashion.
• Complete prior authorizations for medications.
• Complete medical record request
• Create/Edit and distribute letters per attending physician direction.
• Contributes in the design of practice operational changes by partnering with operations team.
• Trains and mentors new staff members; provides guidance on challenging scheduling issues prior to management escalation.
• Contributes to development of scheduling questionnaires and/or scheduling protocols.

Accountabilities:

• Valued as subject matter expert in surgical specialty assigned; ability to triage patients to more appropriate physician when necessary.
• Valued as subject matter expert in specialized clinical program requirements and/or multiple surgical specialties that require coordination among teams to perform joint cases that all operative reports and encounter forms are turned in for billing within the designated timeframes.
• Takes on special assignments as required.
• Proficient in the use of all systems necessary for practice operations

Billing Duties:

• Ensure that all operative reports and encounter forms are turned in for billing within the designated timeframes.
• Maintains comprehensive knowledge of reimbursement coverage from third party payers, managed care plans and protocols for referrals.

Additional Duties (where applicable):

• Coordinates care for patients across other divisional/departmental locations by scheduling necessary follow up appointments for specialized clinical program and/or additional specialty requirements including psychiatry, radiology, pulmonary, etc. as needed.
• Collaborates with other surgical care teams to schedule complex joint cases across multiple surgical specialties as needed.
• Reviews required patient population specific intake documents to ensure necessary pre-testing in multiple medical specialties has been completed and received prior to initial outpatient consult as needed.
• Monitors the progress of patient completing all required testing and imaging to meet special clinical program or multiple specialty requirements from scheduling initial outpatient consult through surgery as needed.
• Ensures that patients adhere to clinically recommended timelines for meeting specialized clinical program and/or specialty specific care goals; coordinates the rescheduling and resetting of timelines if patient progress is non-compliant as needed.
• Contributes to development of scheduling questionnaires and/or scheduling protocols.
• Maintains comprehensive knowledge of reimbursement coverage from third party payers, managed care plans and protocols for referrals.

Education or Equivalent Experience:

• H.S. Diploma/GED (Required)
• 5+ years medical office experience, or 5 years of customer service experience (Required)
• Related clinical office experience (Required)
• Prior customer service or insurance verification experience in a healthcare setting preferred.
• A degree (Associate's, Bachelor's, Master's) may be considered in lieu of some experience.

We believe that the best care for our patients starts with the best care for our employees. Our employee benefits programs help our employees get healthy and stay healthy. We offer a comprehensive compensation and benefits program that includes one of the finest prepaid tuition assistance programs in the region. Penn Medicine employees are actively engaged and committed to our mission. Together we will continue to make medical advances that help people live longer, healthier lives. Live Your Life's Work

We are an Equal Opportunity employer. Candidates are considered for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, marital status, familial status, genetic information, domestic or sexual violence victim status, citizenship status, military status, status as a protected veteran or any other status protected by applicable law.