Surgery Scheduling Specialist

About the role

The Surgery Scheduling Specialist collaborates with specialty providers to oversee and coordinate surgery and procedure scheduling across multidisciplinary specialties. The scheduler partners with patients to ensure all consultations and preoperative visits are completed before scheduling surgery, monitors performance measures and quality indicators, and provides training to new caregivers. They demonstrate competency in all areas of surgery and procedure scheduling by working alongside fellow caregivers. This position does not directly manage other caregivers.

Responsibilities

• Ensure high-level accuracy in clinic business and patient process flow from intake to collections.
• Track and manage all aspects of patient care and coordinate close postoperative follow-up.
• Schedule and coordinate all procedures, including verification of prior authorization completion.
• Provide concise, specific patient instructions for procedures.
• Establish and maintain communication with team members and departments such as the OR, MDU, pre-surgery, and outside entities to promote continuity of care.
• Troubleshoot issues between the clinic and other hospital departments and collaborate on resolutions.
• Correlate provider procedure schedules with EPIC procedure schedules and resolve conflicts with clinic leadership.
• Schedule inpatient and outpatient procedures and appointments accurately.
• Respond to telephone inquiries and faxes from provider offices and clinics across all service locations.
• Coordinate procedures for orders received from external providers for review by the performing physician.
• Review and verify history and physical documentation is completed in an appropriate timeframe and coordinate care with the patient.
• Optimize provider schedules to fully utilize available procedural time across the health system and ASCs.
• Demonstrate excellent phone etiquette and understanding of medical terminology, human anatomy, and procedures.
• Maintain knowledge of hospital operations, block and open time rules, and processes for inpatient and outpatient procedures.
• Prioritize tasks to ensure all details are addressed and proper documentation is entered into all systems.
• Develop and maintain a high level of understanding of EPIC processes and function as a system super user.
• Evaluate department process flows and practices to identify improvement opportunities and convey feedback to leadership.
• Design and deliver Surgery scheduling onboarding training, develop training materials, and maintain policy manuals.
• Evaluate trends and adjust education to provide relevant and accessible training.
• Work with clinic leadership to compile and interpret key business, financial, operational, and statistical data; perform analyses to identify process errors and education opportunities.
• Maintain accurate records on department spreadsheets and use tools such as rosters and shared data for tracking, follow-up, and documentation.
• Anticipate the need for change through direct observation and maintain open communication with other departments and facilities.
• Learn and maintain knowledge of documents and forms according to state and federal requirements and guidelines including CMS, Medicaid, COBRA, EMTALA, HIPAA, and others.
• Support the vision, mission, and values of the organization and champion Lean principles of continuous improvement.
• Provide and maintain a safe environment for caregivers, patients, and guests.
• Conduct all activities with the highest standards of professionalism and confidentiality.
• Comply with all applicable laws, regulations, policies, and procedures, supporting corporate integrity by acting ethically and reporting known or suspected violations.
• Deliver customer service and/or patient care that promotes goodwill, is timely, efficient, and accurate.

Requirements

• High School diploma or GED.
• One year of experience in healthcare registration and scheduling.
• Ability to travel to business functions, trainings, meetings, and all SCHS worksites.

Qualifications

• Preferred: Associate degree plus healthcare scheduling experience.
• Preferred: Two years of experience in healthcare registration and scheduling.