Surgical Coordinator

Surgical Coordinator

Scheduled Weekly Hours: 40

Monday - Friday (7:30am - 4pm)

The Surgical Coordinator serves as a critical liaison between patients, surgeons, clinical staff, and hospital departments to ensure the timely, accurate, and efficient coordination of surgical services. This position manages all aspects of the surgical scheduling and preoperative process, including scheduling procedures, obtaining authorizations and referrals, coordinating required testing and medical clearances, and facilitating communication among all parties involved in the patient's surgical journey. The Surgical Coordinator plays a key role in promoting a positive patient experience, optimizing surgical scheduling efficiency, supporting physician productivity, and ensuring compliance with organizational, payer, and regulatory requirements.

Reports to: Service Line Manager or Practice Manager

Education/Training

• High school graduate or equivalent required
• Associate degree in Healthcare Administration, Business Administration, or a related field preferred.

Required Qualifications and Skills:

• Minimum of 3-5 years of experience in a medical office, surgical practice, specialty clinic, ambulatory care setting, or other healthcare environment.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to communicate professionally and effectively with patients, providers, staff, and external partners.
• Knowledge of insurance verification, referrals, prior authorizations, and healthcare scheduling processes.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities while maintaining a high degree of accuracy, organization, and attention to detail.
• Ability to work collaboratively with surgeons, hospital surgical schedulers, primary care providers, and multidisciplinary healthcare teams.
• Strong customer service and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build positive working relationships and provide a high level of patient support.
• Ability to exercise sound judgment, maintain confidentiality, and handle sensitive information in a professional manner.
• Proficiency in coordinating complex processes, problem-solving scheduling barriers, and ensuring timely completion of required tasks.
• Ability to work independently while effectively managing competing priorities in a fast-paced healthcare environment.

Preferred Qualifications and Skills:

• Previous experience in surgical scheduling, procedural scheduling, or a surgical specialty practice preferred.
• Knowledge of medical terminology, surgical procedures, and physician practice operations.
• Experience working with electronic medical records (EMR/EHR), practice management systems, and scheduling software.
• Proficiency in insurance verification, referrals, prior authorizations, and payer requirements.
• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills, with the ability to proactively identify and resolve barriers to timely patient care.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, including Outlook, Word, and Excel.

Essential Job Functions:

• Coordinate and schedule surgical procedures in accordance with physician, patient, Operating Room, and organizational requirements.
• Communicate key preoperative, operative, and postoperative information to patients, including expectations and required preparation.
• Collaborate with the Operating Room and other procedural areas to align surgical schedules.
• Manage and optimize physician block time utilization in collaboration with the Operating Room.
• Verify insurance coverage and benefits for scheduled surgical services.
• Facilitate required insurance prior authorizations and referrals.
• Assist physicians with administrative processes related to insurance appeals, peer-to-peer reviews, and other authorization procedures as needed.
• Apply established surgical scheduling protocols, policies, and requirements.
• Obtain necessary medical records, imaging, test results, and other clinical documentation required for surgical planning and anesthesia.
• Determine required preoperative testing, appointments, and clearances based on established protocols.
• Assist patients with arranging medical clearance and medical optimization appointments.
• Arrange required preoperative imaging, laboratory testing, and other diagnostic services as required.
• Monitor completion of preoperative requirements and follow up on outstanding items.
• Identify scheduling or clinical barriers that could delay or prevent a patient from proceeding with surgery and escalate appropriately.
• Facilitate communication among patients, physicians, clinical staff, Operating Room staff, anesthesia, and other departments involved in the surgical process.
• Maintain accurate and complete surgical scheduling and patient information in the electronic medical record and scheduling systems.
• Process changes, cancellations, and rescheduling of surgical procedures.
• Schedule postoperative appointments and ensure appropriate follow-up is arranged.
• Track surgical cases throughout the scheduling and preoperative process to support timely and efficient progression to surgery.

Other Duties:

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Age and Diversity Related Criteria:

Consistently treats patients, colleagues, and visitors with dignity and respect, while being sensitive to the differing needs of all age groups, backgrounds, characteristics, and cultures.

Ability to Fulfill Job Expectations:

Must have the ability to perform the essential functions of the position, including required work hours, locations, and physical demands, without posing a direct threat to the health and safety of themselves or other individuals in the workplace, and with or without reasonable accommodation.

Salary Range: $21.06-$31.96

Salary Range Details

The pay range displayed on each job posting reflects the anticipated range for new hires. A successful candidate's actual compensation will be determined after taking factors into consideration such as the candidate's work history, experience, skill set, and education. This is not inclusive of the value Sturdy Health's benefits package (if applicable), which includes among other benefits, healthcare/dental/vision and retirement. For annual salaries this is based on full-time employment.

Sturdy Memorial Hospital is an equal employment opportunity employer. There is no discrimination because of race, color, creed, age, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, veteran status or disability.