Triage Nurse - Behavioral Medicine - PRN

Job Summary

The telephone triage nurse serves as a clinical contact for patients and consumers of healthcare with medical questions or seeking medical advice via telephone or other communication methods. As a critical member of the high performing Patient Access team, the telephone triage nurse provides clinical assessment to facilitate next steps in the patient’s care. They are vital to improving patient care outcomes using a variety of methods including telephone triage, appointment scheduling, referrals for clinical symptoms to care team setting, and population health outreach responsibilities.

The nurse accepts incoming patient calls and assists each patient appropriately, based on their individual care needs. This role continuously provides world class customer service in a high volume call setting.

• Population Health Management:
  Supports system initiatives for population health management and the care delivery of specific patient populations through telephone triage, chart review and outreach to patients in need of care.
• Provides clinical assessment and review of documentation for outreach to existing or Pro Health attributed patients to schedule care that is deemed clinically appropriate.
• Telephone Triage Management:
  Offers call center RN triage or Assessment & Referral Triage when patient communicates symptoms, using evidence-based protocols for Nurse Triage.
• Handles emergent calls based on information provided by caller and department protocol.
• Responsible for facilitating professional verbal and written communication.
• Has the ability to make patient care decisions based on the urgency of the patient needs using safe and effective telephone advice, care management and directions for the appropriate level of care required.
• Is able to direct patient to most appropriate level of care facility (i.e. office visit vs. urgent care vs. emergency room).
• Responsible for a high level of proficiency in handling critical calls ensuring a positive care outcome and patient experience.
• Appointment Scheduling:
  Based on triage disposition, accurately schedules provider, nurse, lab, resource, service line, and education/ support groups using schedule templates as needed.
• Matches patient needs to available appointments, while following department, service line and provider specific protocols, schedule templates and patient preferences.
• Makes decisions about joint visits based on patient risk and triage disposition.
• Provides support to patients by answering clinical questions and resolving urgent and non‑urgent clinical questions while scheduling appointments.
• Assists with analyzing customer problems in order to ensure the best outcomes and the highest patient satisfaction.
• Provides follow‑up with customers as necessary in order to provide closure and an outstanding customer experience.
• General Responsibilities:
  
  Serves as the first point of contact for patients calling with medical questions or seeking medical advice and ensures their calls are being answered in a friendly, personal, professional and timely manner.
• Provides patients and consumers with evidence-based information about any questions or concerns they might have in regards to their health care experience.
• Accurately connects patients to other services as needed/anticipated (social services, financial/billing services, clinical services, etc.).
• Provides concise documentation in the electronic medical record (EMR) and any other communication methods and routes to appropriate care team members.
• Possesses and demonstrates sound clinical, organizational and communication skills.
• A subject matter expert that utilizes critical thinking and decision making skills to recognize and align patient reported symptoms with established protocols and assign acuity levels to ensure a high quality, safe and timely disposition of each patient interaction.
• Evaluates the patient or patient designee’s understanding of instructions using teach‑back methodology and conveys related information to the appropriate care teams via EMR documentation, telephone or other modern means of communication.
• Demonstrates ability to effectively use all systems including but not limited…