Patient Access Associate - Emergency Department

Position Summary

The Patient Access Associate for the Emergency Department is responsible for entering patients into the system, determining medical triage urgency, validating and verifying medical record accuracy, working closely with clinical staff, ensuring quality patient care and safety, and supporting financial assistance policies.

Qualifications

• A High School degree or GED equivalent is required.
• Experience with personal computers and Microsoft Word is desirable but not required.
• Basic familiarity with medical insurance is helpful.
• Registration experience is preferred.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Accurately establishes patient account in a timely fashion, eliminating duplication of medical record numbers by linking the correct patient and Unit number.
• Completes demographic and financial information accurately in conjunction with Patient Access Department expectations while accurately determining the appropriate flow type in the Admissions registration system.
• Obtains signature on authorization form for all types of registrations including Observations and Inpatients and explains all components of the form to the person signing.
• Directs patients and visitors to appropriate locations within the hospital.
• Completes registration process by producing registration form, admission plate and bracelet for registrant based on registration type.
• Completes registration by assigning the correct physician(s), admit source and admit priority, as well as HIPAA specific information as evaluated through the auditing process.
• Operates department specific equipment such as fax, copier, printer, and credit/debit machine.
• Pre-registers patients for scheduled appointments by responding to pre-registration phone promptly, returning messages in a timely fashion, printing scheduled lists and initiating phone calls as evidenced by weekly audits.
• Accurately performs the discharge function by entering an accurate diagnosis, disposition, referring out physician, discharge time, including time seen by triage, time placed in room, and time seen by physician.
• Reconciles charges for the ED professional and facility component provided to Hartford HealthCare by the coding vendor and closes out month without delay.
• Reports discrepancies and/or issues immediately to the Manager of Patient Access such as accumulative missing records as evidenced by the weekly suspend report and works collaboratively with the Vendor, HIM, ED/PC physicians and nursing to resolve.