Community Relations Specialist

Community Relations Specialist – Hillcrest Health Services

Hillcrest Health & Living is looking for a driven, relationship-focused, and results-oriented Community Relations Specialist to join our Hillcrest Health Services team.

This is a high-impact business development role for someone who thrives on building trusted relationships, creating strategic partnerships, and helping patients and families connect to the right care at the right time. We are looking for a relationship-driven professional with a competitive spirit — someone who enjoys winning through service, responsiveness, and consistent follow-through.

As one of the region's leading providers of senior living, home health, hospice, palliative care, rehabilitation, and supportive services, Hillcrest offers referral partners something few organizations can — an integrated continuum of care. Our Community Relations Specialists help physicians, hospitals, senior living communities, and families navigate that continuum with confidence.

At Hillcrest, our mission is simple:
Inspiring people to live their best lives. As a Community Relations Specialist, you will play a key role in growing referral relationships, strengthening community partnerships, supporting patient-centered transitions, and helping more people access the care and services Hillcrest provides.

What You'll Do

As a Community Relations Specialist, you will be responsible for expanding and maintaining referral relationships, generating referrals, cultivating admissions, and helping meet or exceed company growth goals.

You will:

• Develop and execute a territory-based referral development plan.
• Build, grow, and maintain strong referral partnerships with physicians, hospitals, discharge planners, case managers, senior living communities, and other healthcare partners.
• Conduct consistent external marketing visits and relationship-development calls within your assigned service area.
• Use consultative selling and clinical relationship development to identify needs, solve problems, and connect referral partners to the right Hillcrest services.
• Implement strategic account-management practices to grow market share and strengthen referral pipelines.
• Prepare and deliver professional presentations representing Hillcrest services and the integrated continuum of care.
• Document marketing visits, referral activity, account updates, and key follow-up items in the CRM system within 24 hours.
• Gather needed referral and customer information to support smooth admissions and patient-centered transitions.
• Manage pending customers through the admissions process in alignment with company procedures.
• Maintain strong knowledge of Hillcrest services, admission criteria, financial considerations, and care-level options.
• Monitor referral trends, conversion rates, competitive market information, and opportunities for growth.
• Recommend actions to improve the sales process, referral development, admissions outcomes, and customer experience.
• Communicate customer concerns clearly and timely while supporting service recovery and follow-up.
• Maintain confidentiality and follow HIPAA requirements related to customer, referral, and business information.
• Provide after-hours and weekend referral support based on the published on-call schedule.

What We're Looking For

We are looking for someone with strong business development instincts, healthcare knowledge, and the drive to build meaningful partnerships that produce results.

The ideal candidate enjoys being in the field more than behind a desk. They are energized by meeting new people, uncovering opportunities, solving problems, and becoming a trusted resource for physicians, discharge planners, case managers, and senior living professionals. They are equally comfortable presenting to executives, educating clinical teams, and supporting families through important care decisions.

Ideal candidates will have:

• At least two years of sales, marketing, business development, community relations, or public relations experience.
• Healthcare, senior living, hospice, home care, post-acute, hospital, or healthcare continuum experience strongly preferred.
• Hospice experience preferred.
• Strong business development background with the ability to generate referrals, cultivate accounts, and drive admissions.
• A competitive, goal-oriented mindset with strong follow-through.
• Confidence completing in-person visits, making outreach calls, and presenting to referral sources.
• Ability to build trust with healthcare providers, referral partners, families, and internal teams.
• Strong understanding of consultative selling, referral partnership development, and strategic account management.
• Excellent communication, organization, planning, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to manage a territory, prioritize accounts, and work independently.
• Comfort using CRM systems, sales data, and referral tracking tools.
• Professional presence, strong customer-service skills, and a commitment to service excellence.

Education & Credentials

• High school diploma or…