Patient Advocate

The Patient Advocate serves as a liaison between patients, families, community members, and Children's Hospital Colorado team members. Proactively works to address challenges as they arise and collaborates to resolve complaints and concerns. Focuses on strengthening relationships, fostering effective communication, and ensuring respect and confidentiality in every interaction.

Additional Information
Department Name:Patient Family Experience
Job Status: Full time, 40 hours per week.
Shift: Monday to Friday, 8am to 4:30pm, Hybrid

Duties & Responsibilities

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
An employee in this position may be called upon to do any or all of the following essential functions. These examples do not include all of the functions which the employee may be expected to perform.
1. Serve as a point of contact for organization-wide complaints, grievances, and concerns expressed by patients, families, and/ or community members
a. Communicate complaint and grievance process to patients and families, utilize de-escalation techniques as needed and escalate to appropriate teams.
b. Provides a high level of customer service support and assistance to patients, families, physicians and other internal/external partners
c. Practices rapport building with patients, families, and team members (in person, by phone, or by email) to effectively address complaints and grievances.
2. Provides administrative support functions including answering and directing phone calls (intake), responding to internal and external communications for Patient Relations team.
3. Provides complex management of all aspects of the complaint and grievance workload, which may include extensive written documentation in complaint system, reviewing electronic medical records, conference calls with families and leaders. Responsible for proofreading and editing written communications with a high degree of complexity.
a. Performs timely documentation into complaint system to adhere to regulatory compliance.
b. Identifies trends in concerns and notifies appropriate parties when patterns develop.
c. Identifies situations which require additional escalation to leadership teams and department stakeholders.
d. Collaborates with other departments to address patient/family concerns as needed, including but not limited to Clinical Leadership, Patient Financial Services, Risk, and other areas.
4. May involve participation in special department projects, committees, and process improvement efforts as directed by department leadership.
5. Prepares, distributes, and communicates reports as needed. Assists with document preparation for site visits by Joint Commission, CDPHE, Magnet, and others.
6. Participate in meetings with clinical leaders and families to address grievances as a liaison between families and care teams. (Care conferences, SAFTeams, etc.)

Minimum Qualifications

Degrees- Associate's degree in healthcare, human services, or a closely related field
Experience- Minimum Experience Required:Two (2) years of experience in a healthcare or human services industry setting, managing complex, sensitive, and escalated customer interactions while adhering to strict regulatory compliance standards.
Equivalency - Two (2) years of relevant experience, beyond stated requirements, may substitute for the Associate's degree. A bachelor's degree may substitute for the required experience in a relevant field

Hourly Range: $21.77 to $32.66

Benefits Information
Here, you matter. As a Children's Hospital Colorado team member, you will receive a competitive pay and benefits package designed to take care of your needs that includes base pay, incentives, paid time off, medical/dental/vision insurance, company provided life and disability insurance, paid parental leave, 403b employer match (retirement savings), a robust wellness program, and access to professional development tools, including an education benefit to help you advance your career.

As part of our Total Rewards package, Children's Colorado offers an annual employee bonus program that rewards eligible team members based on organizational performance. If organizational goals are met for the year, the bonus is paid out the following April.

Children's Colorado delivers annual base pay increases to eligible team members based on their performance over the previous year.

EEO Statement
It is our intention that all qualified applicants be given equal opportunity and that selection decisions be based on job-related factors. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, or any other status protected by law or regulation. Be aware that none of the questions are intended to imply illegal preferences or discrimination based on non-job-related information. The position is expected to stay open until the posted close date. Please submit your application as soon as possible as the posting is subject to close at any time once a sufficient pool of qualified applicants is obtained.

Colorado Residents: In any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of attendance at or graduation from an educational institution. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.