Discharge Planner - Full Time

About the Role

At Oceans Behavioral Hospital Broussard, we focus on healing and are passionate about helping adults and seniors manage challenges associated with anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. The Discharge Planner coordinates with admission and clinical staff to facilitate patient treatment needs for inpatient programs in accordance with Joint Commission, Federal, and State regulations, as well as Oceans' mission, policies, and Performance Improvement standards. This position acts as a patient liaison for physicians, clinical staff, and family members to coordinate resources and discharge needs.

The Discharge Planner works with the Performance Improvement Coordinator to conduct closed and concurrent reviews of medical records. This role interacts with the medical and clinical team to ensure a flow of communication, documents timely and comprehensive information to support services rendered, and facilitates timely discharge planning. The Discharge Planner collaborates with the primary therapist and nursing staff to facilitate treatment planning documentation, family contact, scheduling appointments, addressing absentees from programming, and accessing community resources.

Responsibilities

• Functions as patient liaison in the role of discharge planner to coordinate patient treatments with the physician, therapist, and nursing staff.
• Reviews psychosocial data and other assessments to complete discharge assessment with patient; presents to multi-disciplinary treatment team for review and approval.
• Schedules appointments, follows up on absentees, and completes continuing care plans.
• Attends treatment team meetings and communicates discharge planning activities to other team members.
• Attends status meetings to share pertinent data and communicate current status, update attendance calendar, and communicate individual patient needs to clinical and admission staff.
• Performs additional discharge planning duties as required and coordinates flow of communication among staff involved in the patient's care; completes paperwork for judicial commitments and state bed packets.
• Completes referral process and necessary paperwork for all other levels of care and makes follow-up appointments; including follow-up letters needed by the patient; completes all medication assistance forms and assists patients and families with follow-up care items.
• Conducts special retrospective studies/audits when needed by M&PS and/or other committee structures.
• Accurately performs discharge reviews on 100% of all discharges per month; accurately inputs discharge review information into computer database; accurately completes all initial CQI+ forms and questionnaires in a timely manner.
• Performs other duties and projects as assigned.

Requirements

Education / Experience:

• Associate degree with emphasis in healthcare or bachelor’s degree in social services field preferred.
• At least one year of psychiatric/chemical dependency experience with good working psychiatric/medical knowledge preferred.

Skills

• Demonstrates excellent assertive communication and customer service skills.
• Possesses in-depth knowledge of chemical dependency and psychiatric treatment, including the discharge planning process.
• Strong writing and composition skills.
• Understands regulatory requirements, fiscal reimbursement, and utilization review as integral components of patient care.
• Demonstrates strong patient advocacy skills.
• Able to organize, prioritize, and manage a high-volume workload effectively.
• Skilled in analyzing and utilizing data and systems to provide individualized, cost-effective, high-quality treatment.
• Functions independently with minimal supervision while maintaining a positive work attitude.
• Interacts cooperatively and professionally with staff to achieve optimal patient outcomes.
• Competent in addressing age-, disability-, and culturally related patient needs, relating to patients in a sensitive and respectful manner.
• Must successfully complete and maintain Basic Life Support (BLS) certification and an Oceans approved behavioral health de-escalation program.

Work Environment

• Subject to many interruptions.
• Occasional pressure due to multiple calls and inquiries.
• This position can be high paced and stressful; must be able to cope mentally and physically with the atmosphere.
• Work requires spending approximately 90% or more of the time inside a building that offers protection from weather conditions but not necessarily from temperature changes.