Psychiatric Admissions Referral Specialist, PRN

Job Description

UMMC's Psychiatric Admissions and Referral Center (PARC) has an exciting opportunity to join our team as a PARC Referral Specialist PRN. This post is for PRN/as needed position only. A team member in this position would not have a routine schedule. They would be contacted as needed to provide coverage for planned and unplanned schedule openings.

Looking for candidates familiar with the Psychiatric Admissions Process.

Under general supervision, the PARC Referral Specialist is responsible for optimizing patient flow through active management of inpatient psychiatry bed capacity and facilitation of psychiatry inpatient and partial hospitalization program/intensive outpatient program referrals.

• Obtains detailed clinical and demographic information regarding referrals from internal and external sources

• Continual evaluation of psychiatry unit(s) capacity and demand. Triage the referral queue to place the right patient in the right bed at the right time to manage overall demand and optimize patient flow. Suggest patients for expedited review to the reviewing provider based on patient clinical needs and resource demand/availability.

• Reviews patient information with designated psychiatry attending physicians

• Manages the logistic details and communications required to successfully process program referrals and complete transfers for psychiatry hospital admission.

• Interfaces with callers seeking information about psychiatry services and processes, patients/families, internal and external clinical referral sources, third party payors, receiving unit staff/providers, psychiatry attending physician reviewers, Maryland Office of the Public Defender, Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings, and other stakeholders.

• Obtains and documents complex and highly specialized psychiatry pre-certification authorization from third-party payors.

• May act as Hospital Presenter in Involuntary Admission (IVA) Hearings and/or Hospital Presenter or Rights Lay Advisor in Clinical Review Panels.

• Performs the duties of PARC Administrative Assistant in addition to PARC Referral Specialist duties when workload volume or priority requires.

Company Description

Renowned as the academic flagship of the University of Maryland Medical System, our Magnet-designated facility is a nationally recognized, academic medical center with opportunities across the continuum of care. Come join UMMC and discover the atmosphere where talents and ideas come together to enhance patient care. Located in downtown Baltimore near the Inner Harbor and Camden Yards, you won't find a more vibrant place to work!

Qualifications

Education and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in psychology, social work, nursing, or a related health and human services field is required. Associate's degree: May substitute 2 years of directly related experience in psychiatry admissions for Bachelor's degree. HS Diploma: May substitute 4 years of directly related experience in psychiatry admissions for Bachelor's degree.

• One-year experience in a hospital or psychiatric treatment setting is preferred.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong critical-thinking and problem-solving skills required to manage referrals and patient flow: matching individual patient needs to the right bed at the right time in the context of overall service demand and availability of resources.

• Effectively manage competing priorities with high reliability and attention to detail.

• Interact and communicate effectively verbally and in writing with patients, potential patients, and healthcare professionals in stressful situations while maintaining calm, courteous, exemplary customer service.

• Accurate documentation and stewardship of protected health information.

• Familiarity with psychiatric illnesses including working knowledge of DSM/ICD diagnostic categories and disorders and psychotropic medications commonly used in treatment of psychiatric illnesses and substance use disorders.

• General familiarity with levels of psychiatric care available at UMMS and in the community. Direct callers seeking psychiatry treatment to appropriate resources, including callers in crisis.

• Learn and maintain working knowledge of legal and regulatory requirements of hospital-based health care, transfers between health care facilities, patient rights, legal guardianship, procedures for emergency petitions and emergency psychiatric evaluations, voluntary and involuntary psychiatry admissions, involuntary admission hearings, and clinical review panel/forced medication processes.

• Learn and maintain working knowledge of insurance prior authorization processes, including third party payor rules and clinical criteria for inpatient, partial hospitalization, and intensive outpatient levels of care.

• Proficient in the use of technology to support communication, review of records, and documentation. Requires daily use of telephone, fax, email, secure text messaging, internet navigation including third party online portals, Microsoft Office applications, and electronic medical records system (Epic).

Additional Information

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.