Office Coordinator, Surgery Scheduling

About the role

The Surgery Coordinator / OR Scheduler oversees daily operations of surgical scheduling, OR coordination, front‑desk clinical operations, and related administrative activities within the Department of Surgery. Serving as a central operational resource, the role supports surgeons, advanced practice providers, clinical staff, front‑desk staff, patients, hospital operating rooms, pre‑operative services, insurance companies, referring offices, and other clinical departments. Based in Norfolk, VA, the position coordinates approximately 50‑70 surgical cases per week for multiple physicians.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate surgical scheduling for inpatient, outpatient, urgent, endoscopy, joint, and complex procedures.
• Monitor pre‑operative requirements and ensure authorizations, referrals, clearances, orders, and approvals are completed prior to surgery.
• Coordinate with hospital departments to support efficient patient flow and maximize OR utilization.
• Provide day‑to‑day operational oversight, workflow coordination, training, and support for three clinical/OR support secretaries and front‑desk clinical operations.
• Manage operational workflow direction and coordination; formal HR supervisory responsibilities remain with department leadership unless assigned.
• Direct oversight of three clinical/OR support secretaries handling critical OR scheduling workflow aspects.
• Maintain 14 physicians’ calendars, ensuring no conflicts with surgery postings, meetings, lectures, etc.
• Add urgent surgical cases as needed and ensure call schedules are accurately placed on calendars.
• Inform staff and physicians of conflicting appointments (EVMS Surgery emails, ACC emails, OR scheduling emails).
• Schedule inpatient and outpatient procedures using the Epic system (in‑basket, email, or phone requests).
• Coordinate surgical procedures for all 14 physicians by analyzing monthly call schedules, physician calendars, acute care surgery rotation, trauma rotation, nights, EGS, ICU, and hospital availability.
• Schedule surgery following physicians’ guidelines onto clinical and administrative calendars.
• Schedule ACC clinic patients’ surgical procedures as needed and email date updates to ACC clinic staff.
• Assist with meetings involving Sentara Norfolk General Hospital ACC clinic staff.
• Support staff in resolving scheduling conflicts, patient access concerns, authorization barriers, provider schedule changes, and other operational issues.
• Provide day‑to‑day leadership, workflow direction, and operational oversight to clinical operations staff and surgical schedulers as assigned.
• Assign and prioritize daily work based on surgical volume, provider needs, patient needs, deadlines, and departmental priorities.
• Coordinate front‑desk workflow to support efficient patient check‑in, check‑out, scheduling, registration, communication, and clinic flow.
• May act as lead or supervisor for designated staff when formally assigned by department leadership, with scope defined by the Practice Manager.
• Maintain appropriate communication with patients, providers, clinical staff, and hospital departments to support continuity of care.
• Identify opportunities to improve workflow efficiency, patient access, provider productivity, and OR utilization.
• Maintain OR utilization metrics and weekly case counts.

Qualifications

LPN or MA preferred OR five years of surgical scheduling experience.