Medical Social Consultant - UI Health, Mile Square Health Center

About UI Health

The University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System (UI Health) provides comprehensive care, education, and research to the people of Illinois and beyond. A part of the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), UI Health comprises a clinical enterprise that includes a Joint Commission-accredited tertiary care hospital and outpatient clinics, and the Mile Square Health Center network of federally qualified health centers. It also includes the seven UIC health science colleges: the College of Applied Health Sciences; the College of Dentistry; the School of Public Health; the Jane Addams College of Social Work; and the Colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Nursing, including regional campuses in Peoria, Quad Cities, Rockford, Springfield, and Urbana. UI Health is dedicated to the pursuit of health equity.

About the Role

The Medical Social Consultant is accountable for coordinating and facilitating patient services across the various levels of the continuum for a population of patients whose needs may include social services support or intervention. The Medical Social Consultant will assist patients and their families in navigating through the health care system based on individual and patient population needs, and may provide counseling or psychosocial assessment. He/she will serve as a role model in promoting interdisciplinary collaboration, teamwork, and service excellence.

Responsibilities

• Participating as an integrated component within the primary care team by being available for warm-handoff brief screening and interventions at the direction of primary care clinicians on the day of service.
• Actively assessing daily schedules of primary care clinicians to proactively plan on potential warm-handoff and brief interventions, communicating during session huddles, and co-location with primary care clinicians and nursing staff during clinical hours.
• Conducting brief screening and targeted counseling, conducting short term counseling if needed, and bridging patients to specialty mental health services when appropriate.
• Managing behavioral health referrals and message pool for their respective location under the direction of the Main Behavioral Health Coordinator (Medical Social Consultant).
• Conducting assessments to identify individual needs and psychosocial risk factors and a specific care management plan to address objectives and goals as identified during the assessment. Promotes and coordinates optimum healthcare services with cost effective solutions.
• Counseling patients and families regarding emotional, social, and financial consequences of illness and/or disability, accessing and mobilizing family/community resources to meet identified needs. Provides crisis intervention and brief term counseling with patients and families.
• Implementing care plan by facilitating authorizations/referrals as appropriate within the patient's benefit structure or through extra-contractual arrangements in conjunction with care team.
• Identifying and communicating a self-management plan specifically developed to assist with the improvement of self-monitoring and symptom identification.
• Assessing patients' healthcare needs and initiating outside referrals for community resources and services needed.
• Empowering patients to identify changes in health status and recognize the need to notify their primary care provider of changes.
• Collaborating with the MSHC-BHI team, health center staff, primary care and specialty care providers, school staff, patients, family, insurance carrier, customers, and facilities to assess the patient's healthcare and psychosocial needs and assure appropriate safe, cost effective, timely, and efficient services.
• Facilitating daily communication with the MSHC-BHI team to discuss plan of care and assist with expediting care across the continuum, including participating in daily huddles and communicating to the Care Team or PCP any patient issue that will enhance the office visit.
• Identifying service delivery problems and potential for effective care management intervention. Assists in identifying system problems and issues that impede (impeding) diagnostic or treatment progression to the appropriate administrative liaison. Collaborates with the interdisciplinary team when delays occur in consults, treatments, discharge planning, or procedures to facilitate timely, cost-effective delivery of patient services.
• Participating in approved clinical research protocols including subject recruitment, screening, and administration of research instruments in the form of questionnaires and diagnostic interviews.
• Composing components of quality assurance and other clinical tracking activity reports. Preparing and/or submitting program and treatment reports using quantitative and qualitative data.
• Practicing in accordance with applicable laws, standards, and ethical principles.
• Maintaining professional license in active and current status. Maintains expertise through participation in continuing education programs. Serves as experienced resource and patient services facilitation reference for care team members.
• Reviewing and providing input into policies and procedures related to continuum of care and patient services facilitation.
• Performing other duties and/or projects as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Master's degree from an accredited school or university in social or behavioral science or a related health specialty area.
• Current State of IL Licensure as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and/or Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC).

Preferred Qualifications

• A minimum of 2 years of recent experience providing therapy services.

Pay & Schedule

• Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00AM - 8:00PM, Some Saturdays
• Shift: Days
• FTE: 1
• Workplace Type: On-Site