Cancer Screening Patient Navigator-1

About the role

The cancer screening navigator will assist patients, families and caregivers with understanding and navigating the screening options available to identify cancer risks when they are more easily treatable and support the patient through the screening and follow-up journey. This role performs direct outreach to patients, families and caregivers to provide culturally appropriate education on the importance of cancer screening, assist them with accessing screening services and connect patients to other CHW and other resources available as needed. Navigators will also partner with patients to identify and address any barriers or challenges that may prevent screening completions. This role will specifically support the Building Connections Research Grant. As such the role will be trained on 1-2 interventions to then be able to help recruit patients participants, offer these interventions to enrolled patients, maintain post-session notes and tracking in REDCap, and participate in weekly supervision with their assigned clinical supervisor for pilot cases when the interventions launch in the following areas: Cancer screening, Obesity and Mental health.

Responsibilities

• Serves as central contact for physicians, medical staff and Population Health team to contact patients who need assistance navigating the cancer screening journey.
• Facilitates the flow of information between patients, providers and other services and works cooperatively with providers to process referrals for patients as needed.
• Provides one-on-one education to patients on the collection process for certain cancer screenings and offers educational materials in language appropriate for the patient.
• Works with patients and caregivers to coordinate multiple cancer screening appointments.
• Affords assistance to team in making referrals and supporting family with follow-through.
• Affords assistance to team in facilitating the scheduling of additional testing/procedures, such as radiology appointments, anesthesia, etc.
• Counsels coordination of clinical patient services such as interpreter services, etc.
• Assures that patients who lack social and financial resources receive timely support to access services so that screenings or follow up are not delayed and refers self-pay patients or patients with insurance issues to Patient Financial Services, as appropriate and navigates the patients through the process for additional resources available to them.
• Attends trainings and professional developmental opportunities to maintain knowledge or current cancer screening guidelines and resources.

Requirements

• Patient Navigation & Scheduling
• Accurately documents and enters all patient information (i.e. demographic, date of scheduled visits and barriers) into EMR and patient tracking database.
• Enters all patient encounter details and note into the tracking database and/or EMR in timely manner.
• Verifies and updates patient insurances information when scheduling any visits.
• Proactively contacts patients to resolve and follow-up potential barriers for screening completion.
• Provides general clerical support including filing, making appointments, photocopying, faxing, preparing and sending mail, making reminder phone call, and maintaining contacts database.

Programmatic Functions

• Identifies system deficiencies and seeks to fill those gaps in collaboration with the program led.
• Escalates any patient’s issues to the appropriate team member.
• Develops and fosters relationships with other clinical-based navigators and coordinators.
• Provides and receives constructive feedback from team members and patients.
• Contributes to the development of new ideas that impact the program.

Job Requirements

• REQUIRED EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE: A minimum of High School diploma / GED is required. Experience In Health Care Settings Is Preferred.
• PREFERRED EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE (If none, please enter “N/A”): Experience working with patients in a healthcare or community-based setting (preferred). Previous customer service experience (preferred). Completed motivational interview (MI) training (preferred).
• CERTIFICATIONS, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS REQUIRED (If none, please enter “N/A”): None.
• CERTIFICATIONS, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS PREFERRED (If none, please enter “N/A”): None.
• KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES (KSAs) (If none, please enter “N/A”): Ability to work in a multi-cultural, diverse, diverse environment, as a member of a health care team. Strong communication (oral and written), interpersonal, organizational, and record keeping skills. Bilingual or multi-lingual skills based on the patient population served: Albanian, Spanish, Haitian-Creole or Greek, are a big plus. Ability to handle multiple tasks and responsibilities at the same time effectively. Ability to work independently and as part of a team. Ability to maintain confidentiality and sensitivity to cultural differences. Ability to empathize with and coach patients in navigating the healthcare system. Knowledge of software applications such as Microsoft Excel and Word. Ability to interpret and record data and understand basic medical terminology.