Patient Representative

Location:

Avera McKennan Hospital

Worker Type:
Regular

Work Shift:
Day Shift (United States of America)

Pay Range:

The pay range for this position is listed below. Actual pay rate dependent upon experience.
$25.50 - $38.25

Position Highlights

The Patient Representative serves as a resource for patients, families and visitors throughout their healthcare experience. This role promotes effective communication between patients and the healthcare team, assists in the resolution of concerns and grievances and supports efforts to improve patient satisfaction and service excellence. The Patient Representative serves as a neutral, compassionate listener who helps ensure patients and families feel heard, respected, and supported while fostering positive relationships between patients and the organization.

What you will do

• Serve as a primary point of contact for patients, families, and visitors who have concerns, complaints, compliments, or questions.
• Listen actively and compassionately to understand concerns and identify appropriate next steps.
• Advocate for patient and family needs while maintaining a fair and objective approach.
• Educate patients and families regarding their rights and available resources.
• Investigate patient concerns, complaints, and grievances in a timely manner.
• Collaborate with leaders, providers, and staff to facilitate resolution of concerns.
• Ensure concerns are appropriately documented and tracked according to organizational and regulatory requirements.
• Communicate updates and outcomes to patients and families when appropriate.
• Escalate complex, high-risk, or unresolved concerns to appropriate leadership teams.
• Facilitate constructive communication between patients, families, visitors, and care teams.
• Help de-escalate emotionally charged situations and promote respectful interactions.
• Serve as a resource to staff regarding patient experience and service recovery practices.
• Identify opportunities for service recovery during patient interactions.
• Provide immediate support and interventions to address concerns whenever possible.
• Partner with leaders and frontline staff to improve the patient and family experience.

You Belong at Avera

Be part of a multidisciplinary team built with compassion and the goal of Moving Health Forward for you and our patients. Work where you matter.

A Brief Overview

Accountable for providing medical social casework to a wide array of patients ranging from newborns to geriatrics. The main focus of the Social Worker is to assist in meeting the psychosocial/continuum of care needs of the patient and family to ensure optimum functioning. In addition to direct care services, the Social Worker shall have duties of consultation, education, policy and program planning, performance improvement tasks, advocacy and liaison with the community. Each social worker has a "home" department(s) they primarily work out of but will also be cross-trained to other areas to assist colleagues as needed.

What you will do

• Interviews patient and family members to obtain information about home environment, family systems, health history, and the patient's personality traits.
• Evaluates data gathered in terms of the medical plan of treatment, available social service programs, financial counseling, and plan a pertinent therapy program that will provide maximum benefits and safety for each patient.
• Assists patients and families to understand, accept, and follow medical recommendations with emphasis on assisting patients to be compliant with clinical care plan.
• Performs a variety of services such as advising on social problems, arranging for transportation to clinic appointments and treatments as appropriate, arranging for durable medical equipment as appropriate, and alleviation of patient/family anxieties and fears.
• Utilizes resources to assist patient to resume life in the community while learning to live with a chronic illness.
• Prepares and updates records for each patient; prepare required documentation of each case; maintain records and reports as required.
• Serves as the social work representative on multi-disciplinary team approach to patient care.
• Works collaboratively with clinical coordinators, physicians, and other members of the care team in providing coordinated services, which facilitates continuity of care for the patient.
• Provides education to families regarding advance directives and assists patients and families with questions regarding advance directives for healthcare.

Essential Qualifications

The individual must be able to work the hours specified. To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential job function satisfactorily including having visual acuity adequate to perform position duties and the ability to communicate effectively with others, hear, understand and distinguish speech and other sounds. These requirements and those listed above are representative of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform the essential job functions. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential job functions, as long as the accommodations do not cause undue hardship to the employer.

Required Education, License/Certification, or Work Experience:

• Bachelor's in Social Work
• Social Worker - Licensing Board An active license in the state of practice Upon Hire

Preferred Education, License/Certification, or Work Experience:

• 1-3 years Healthcare social work experience

Expectations and Standards

• Commitment to the daily application of Avera's mission, vision, core values, and social principles to serve patients, their families, and our community.
• Promote Avera's values of compassion, hospitality, and stewardship.
• Uphold Avera's standards of Communication, Attitude, Responsiveness, and Engagement (CARE) with enthusiasm and sincerity.
• Maintain confidentiality.
• Work effectively in a team environment, coordinating work flow with other team members and ensuring a productive and efficient environment.
• Comply with safety principles, laws, regulations, and standards associated with, but not limited to, CMS, The Joint Commission, DHHS, and OSHA if applicable.

Benefits You Need & Then Some

Avera is proud to offer a wide range of benefits to qualifying part-time and full-time employees. We support you with opportunities to help live balanced, healthy lives. Benefits are designed to meet needs of today and into the future.

• PTO available day 1 for eligible hires.
• Up to 5% employer matching contribution for retirement
• Career development guided by hands-on training and mentorship

Avera is an Equal Opportunity Employer - Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, Veteran Status, or other categories protected by law. If you are an individual with a disability and would like to request an accommodation for help with your online application, please call View phone number on click.appcast.io or send an email to View email address on click.appcast.io.