Medical Support Assistant-MH ICC

The Medical Support Assistant (MSA) at the St. Cloud VA Health Care System's Mental Health Outpatient Clinic (MHOPC) serves as the initial administrative point of contact for Veterans, their families, and other visitors.

The MSA is tasked with performing intermediate clerical and administrative duties associated with patient care and treatment, such as scheduling,

canceling, and rescheduling appointments, interpreting, verifying provider orders, and managing patient records. This role involves greeting visitors, answering phone calls, recording messages, and directing inquiries appropriately while ensuring compliance with HIPAA regulations. These tasks are executed under close supervision to maintain the accuracy and integrity of handling sensitive information.

Communication

Acts as a receptionist, handling incoming and outgoing calls, recording messages, directing calls and visitors, and conveying information appropriately

Demonstrates positive people skills that reflect caring, service orientation, professionalism, understanding, helpfulness, and concern toward Veterans, visitors, and other employees.

Ability to communicate effectively and professionally with people of all educational backgrounds.

Utilizes basic medical terminology to ensure that Veterans and other callers are directed to the most appropriate place of assistance.

Participates in team huddles/meetings, sharing information and collaborating with the medical team to ensure continuity of care.

Administrative and Operational

Serves as an agent in the department for scheduled and unscheduled visits.

Maintains flexibility in adapting to changes in schedule and workload. Assists other team members willingly. Responsible for scheduling, canceling, and rescheduling appointments, interpreting, and verifying provider orders according to VHA National scheduling guidelines and facility policies.

Provides support to the Behavioral Health and Interdisciplinary Program (BHIP) and other specialty staff.

Demonstrates the ability to multi-task in high-pressure situations and prioritize changing workflows accordingly.

Assists with tasks such as obtaining office supplies, dealing with medical data, scanning, making copies, faxing, and distributing mail.

Enters appropriate information into the Veterans electronic medical record.

Adheres to HIPAA regulations and ensures that Veteran information is shared only on a need-to-know basis.

Promptly and accurately initiates and checks on status of referrals, lab, and imaging procedures.

Updates Veteran's demographic information to include the following: address, phone number, insurance, preferred method of communication, guardianship reminder, and other information as new programs are added or changed.

Receives and responds to inquiries via Secure Messaging, Message Manager, VAR, VEText, letters, or phone calls. These can include getting information to Veteran care teams through the entry of a note into the CPRS system and alerting the appropriate clinical staff member, requesting tests or medications, questions on appointments, scheduling, and various other inquiries.

Demonstrates high proficiency in using computer systems and office procedures, ensuring detailed and accurate data entry and record-keeping.

Acts as the main point of contact for queries and manages complex patient data utilizing systems like ISS, VISTA, CPRS, Insurance Capture Buffer (ICB), Consult Tracking Manager (CTM), and Outlook.

Make numerous calls each day to coordinate information and actions relating to patient care and services. Relays information and requests from the patients and /or clinical services to the treatment team.

The MSA follows established procedures for scheduling appointments.

The MSA schedules and arranges patient appointments to avoid conflict of treatment. Next notifies professional staff of appointments pending and any special preparation needs.

Provides clerical support for the use of the computer contingency plan.

Handles more complex inquiries and effectively communicates with people of varied educational backgrounds.

Manage appointment scheduling with more independence, interpreting, and verifying orders, avoiding conflicts, and notifying professional staff of appointments.

Understanding how to handle a suicide call

Assist in training new or less experienced employees

Work Schedule:

Monday-Friday 8am-4:30pm

Telework:
Not Available

Virtual:
This is not a virtual position.

Relocation/Recruitment

Incentives:

Not Authorized

Permanent Change of Station (PCS):
Not Authorized