Outpatient Intake Clinician - M-F 8-5

About the role

At Oceans Behavioral Hospital Abilene, healing is our focus. We are passionate about helping adolescents, adults and seniors manage the challenges associated with anxiety, depression and other mental health issues. Utilizing proven, innovative and progressive therapies, our qualified professionals strive to promote long-term wellness through a range of inpatient and outpatient psychiatric counseling and treatment options.

Responsibilities

• Receives and responds to call inquiries for potential admissions and generalized questions.
• Obtains required information to facilitate admissions and makes referrals for persons who are not appropriate for admission to the facility.
• Reviews pending admissions daily to ensure clinical, financial, insurance, and administrative information has been accurately obtained and acted upon.
• Completes Level of Care Assessments for any patient in need of evaluation within Intake.
• Works collaboratively with referral sources, community members, patients, the provider, and interdepartmentally to ensure the facility’s mission of providing exemplary patient care and customer service is upheld.
• Maintains the ability to provide excellent customer service to internal and external customers.
• Displays the ability to effectively listen, process received information, and express ideas verbally and in writing.
• Ensures confidentiality of hospital employees and patient information to meet HIPAA and hospital standards.
• Shows the ability to initiate action, take personal responsibility, suggest improvements, and solve problems within the scope of the position without being asked.
• Shows an understanding and complies with government regulations, regulatory and accreditation requirements, and hospital policies.
• Shows the ability to complete assigned work in an acceptable manner, in the time allotted, with minimal prompting or reminders.

Essential Functions

• Admissions Process
  • Processes requests for admission from outside referral agencies and from within the community.
  • Maintains ability to review clinical packet for criteria in alignment with the capability and capacity of the facility.
  • Maintains understanding of Admission and Exclusionary Criteria.
  • Maintains understanding of EMTALA.
  • Ensures that prior authorizations are obtained for admissions.
  • Organizes information of patient’s current needs and provides a succinct clinical presentation to admitting physician.
  • Completes Level of Care Assessments/Evaluations.
  • Collaborates with On-Call Provider to determine appropriate disposition for the patient.
• Communication
  • Handles sensitive information appropriately and acts in a fair and honest manner consistent with the Company’s Code of Conduct including reporting violations.
  • Builds and maintains communication processes to ensure efficient and effective transmission of information.
  • Works collaboratively with all departments to create an environment that supports the facility’s mission.
  • Ensures current state and federal regulatory and standards related to communication of incidents are met.
  • Demonstrates timely communication of information to appropriate leadership channels commensurate with situation.
• Customer Focus
  • Interacts with patient, family members, external entities and internal staff professionally and respectfully.
  • Adheres to systems and processes that promotes a high level of commitment to anticipating, understanding and meeting the needs of patients, family, and other employees.
  • Demonstrates an understanding of the community’s continuum of behavioral health resources.
  • Acts to preserve patient and family dignity and safety.
  • Values Diversity: Takes measures to gain the perspectives from persons having diverse opinions, motivations, abilities, and ethnic and/or cultural backgrounds; shows appreciation for gender, race, age, and other differences.
• Documentation
  • Completes required Admission documentation within electronic medical record and through internal web-based systems.
  • Ensures documentation for medical records and reports is timely, legible, thorough, and in required format.
  • Adheres to documentation standards for the department and facility in compliance with regulatory requirements.
  • Documents as required including inquiry calls, assessments, managed care data, etc.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Masters’ degree in Behavioral Health field from an accredited college or university preferred; or Registered Nurse.
• Experience with crisis management or intake preferred.

Qualifications / Skills

• Understands admission criteria for varying levels of care, medications commonly prescribed for treatment of psychiatric illness and community resources.
• Possesses interpersonal skills to develop rapport with presenting patient, family members and referral sources.
• Demonstrates the knowledge and skills necessary to assess for care appropriate to any age-related/disability-related needs of the patient served.
• Demonstrates knowledge of the principles of growth and development appropriate to the patient population served.
• Can assess and interpret data about the patient's status in order to identify each patient's needs and provide appropriate referrals, including age related care and disability related care by Chronically Mentally Ill, Adult, Geriatric and Chemically Dependent patient populations.
• Demonstrates knowledge of mental illness and chemical dependency and family dynamics which accompany them.
• Has basic knowledge of Chronic Mental Illness and knowledge of clinical therapy modalities.
• Excellent communication and skills as related to age specific patient needs.
• Can demonstrate assessment skills.
• Must be able to pass the general age/disability post test.
• Versatile, flexible and able to perform in stressful situations.
• Good time management and organizational skills.
• Can read, write and follow verbal and written instruction.
• Knowledgeable concerning DSM-IV-R diagnosis.
• Successfully completes CPR certification and an Oceans approved behavioral health de-escalation program.

Work Environment

• Subject to many interruptions.
• Occasional pressure due to multiple calls and inquiries.
• Position can be high paced and stressful; must be able to cope mentally and physically with the atmosphere.
• May sometimes experience disagreeable odors, sights and/or unpredictable patient behavior.
• 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.