Medical Social Worker

Case Management
Full Time
PM Shift
7pm -7am

Lexington Health is a comprehensive network of care that includes six community medical and urgent care centers, nearly 80 physician practices, more than 9,000 health care professionals and Lexington Medical Center, a 607-bed teaching hospital in West Columbia, South Carolina. It was selected by Modern Healthcare as one of the Best Places to Work in Healthcare and was first in the state to achieve Magnet with Distinction status for excellence in nursing care. Consistently ranked as best in the Columbia Metro area by U.S. News & World Report, Lexington Health delivers more than 4,000 babies each year, performs more than 34,000 surgeries annually and is the region's third largest employer.

Lexington Health also includes an accredited Cancer Center of Excellence, the state's first HeartCARE Center, the largest skilled nursing facility in the Carolinas, and an Alzheimer's care center. Its postgraduate medical education programs include family medicine and transitional year residencies, as well as an informatics fellowship.

Job Summary

Using interviewing, organizational and networking skills, gathers clinically relevant information and provides psychosocial assessment to assist the healthcare team in developing a treatment plan and determining services needed by patients/families. Actively collaborates with healthcare team to meet patient care outcome management and system improvement goals. Uses planning, prioritizing and organizational skills to achieve utilization and quality goals.

Minimum Qualifications

Minimum Education: Bachelor's Degree in Social Work from an accredited program
Minimum Years of Experience: None.
Substitutable Education & Experience: None.
Required Certifications/Licensure: Licensure as a Social Worker in the state of South Carolina
Required Training: None.

Essential Functions

• The Medical Social Worker works in a cooperative manner, which fosters favorable relationships between employees and patients, patient's families, visitors, fellow employees, the medical staff and outside facilities. Accepts chain of command, supervision and constructive criticism.
• Exhibits commitment and pride through person example.
• Contributes to teamwork and creates harmonious, effective and positive working relationships with others.
• Respects, understands and responds with sensitivity to employees and guests by treating others as one would wish to be treated.
• Resolves conflicts and problem solves.
• Exhibits telephone courtesy.
• Maintains confidentiality.
• Professionalism/Competence: Demonstrates competence in providing duties within role.
• Demonstrates competence to provide developmentally appropriate assessments and interventions for the infant, child, adolescent, adult and geriatric patient populations.
• Identifies the need for professional growth and seeks appropriate professional development opportunities attaining a minimum of 20 hours of continuing education annually in topics related to professional role.
• Serves as a role model for other healthcare team members.
• Respects patient confidentiality and uses discretion in all interactions regarding patient's needs.
• Demonstrates receptiveness to change and flexibility in meeting department needs.
• Abides by the Social Work Code of Ethics.
• Utilizes assessment data to facilitate appropriate and timely discharge plan/post acute services.
• Completes psychosocial/discharge assessments (appropriate to patient type) and reason for referral to assist the healthcare team in development of a care plan. Obtains basic information related to the diagnosis/treatment experiences, age, developmental stage, financial status, living environment, transportation, support systems, and family/significant others.
• Documents assessment information in the patient's medical record (EMR).
• Coordinates appropriate, efficient and timely discharge plan/post acute services.
• Accesses internal/external resources on the patient's behalf.
• Facilitates referrals, confirms resources, and implements plan within LOS.
• Honors appropriate patient preferences and provides patient/family with lists of providers of services needed.
• Consults with case management team members and other healthcare team members routinely.
• Keeps healthcare team members informed of plan of care progress through timely, clear and correct documentation in the patient's medical record (EMR).
• Participates in case management team meetings and program development.
• Utilizes appropriate brief counseling techniques.
• Conveys and receives information efficiently to and from patients, families, other members of the health care team and outside facilities and agencies.
• Provides education/consultation to the patient/family and healthcare team.
• Determines comprehension and need for repetition and revision of methods of teaching.
• Consistently communicates within case management triad regarding issues.
• Uses appropriate channels for reporting progress and/or concerns.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Consults with attending physician to coordinate discharge plans for the patient.
• Identifies opportunities for improvement and coordinates/participates in the development and implementation of action plans to make improvements.
• Contributes to patient outcome measurement.
• Participates in Discharge Planning Team meetings and in Discharge Planning Department program development.
• Participates on teams designed to improve systems based on analysis of data and evaluates outcomes.
• Participates in unit discharge planning activities and in interdisciplinary patient care conferences.
• Performs all other duties as assigned by authorized personnel or as required in an emergency (e.g., fire or disaster).

We are committed to offering quality, cost-effective benefits choices for our employees and their families:

• Day ONE medical, dental and life insurance benefits
• Health care and dependent care flexible spending accounts (FSAs)
• Employees are eligible for enrollment into the 403(b) match plan day one. LHI matches dollar for dollar up to 6%.
• Employer paid life insurance - equal to 1x salary
• Employee may elect supplemental life insurance with low cost premiums up to 3x salary
• Adoption assistance
• LHI provides its full-time employees employer paid short-term disability and long-term disability coverage after 90 days of eligible employment
• Tuition reimbursement
• Student loan forgiveness

Equal Opportunity Employer
It is the policy of Lexington Health to provide equal opportunity of employment for all individuals, and to remain compliant with applicable state and federal laws and regulations. Lexington Health strives to provide a discrimination-free environment, and to recruit, select, on-board, and employ all employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, national origin, veteran status, or pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, including but not limited to, lactation. Lexington Health endeavors to upgrade and promote employees from within the hospital where possible and consistent with the employee's desires and abilities and the hospital's needs.