Schedule Details:

Scheduled Hours:

Shift:

Hours:

This position may have a signing bonus available a member of the Recruitment Team will confirm eligibility during the interview process.

At UMass Memorial Health, everyone is a caregiver - regardless of their title or responsibilities. Exceptional patient care, academic excellence and leading-edge research make UMass Memorial the premier health system of Central Massachusetts, and a place where we can help you build the career you deserve. We are more than 16,000 employees, working together as one health system in a relentless pursuit of healing for our patients, community and each other. And everyone, in their own unique way, plays an important part, every day.

Job Title: Patient Advocate

Job Profile Summary:

Serves as a liaison between our patients/visitors and the organization. Responsible for collaborating with stakeholders across the organization to work towards the prevention and remediation of patient/visitor complaints and doing so in a timely and empathetic manner. Collaborates throughout the organization to help build a culture committed to our vision of improving the patient experience, patient-centered care and a culture of respect. This position is also responsible for supporting patients at UMMMC licensed psychiatric facilities through their role as the Human Rights Officer.

I. Major Responsibilities:

Maintains a close working relationship with clinical care teams across the organization to identify potential patient complaints before they arise. Proactively rounds on patients/visitors to ensure a successful patient experience. Liaison with patients/visitors to ensure care is consistent with expectations and facilitates resolution of inconsistencies. Coordinates efforts with all necessary areas of the organization (especially: Legal, Public Relations/Marketing/Communications, Risk Management, Regulatory Affairs, etc.) to resolve complaints, and address issues to prevent future complaints. Ensures suggestions and compliments from patients/visitors are submitted to the appropriate areas. Responsible for investigating, resolving, documenting, communicating, and reporting patient/visitor compliments and concerns, and ensuring regulatory compliance. This includes collaborating with clinicians and drafting letters to patients and insurance carriers. Arranges, mediates, and facilitates meetings between patients and/or staff to foster satisfactory resolution. Must apply an extensive knowledge of clinical processes/systems and of the potential impact of patient complaints on legal, patients' rights, ethical, political, public image concerns. Collaborates with UMass Memorial Medical Center's licensed psychiatric units' staff to promote respect for the Human Rights of Patients and uphold the Six Fundamental Rights of Patients. Provides education to staff regarding optimal approach to patient complaints. Provides consultation to staff, as requested, to help address specific situation. In partnership with the manager, uses documented data to identify areas of improvement across the organization. Uses data to identify themes and trends; provides leadership with information on areas of opportunity throughout the organization and suggested improvements. Respects diverse views and approaches, and contributes in maintaining an environment of professionalism, tolerance, civility and acceptance toward all employees, patients and visitors.

Standard Staffing Level Responsibilities:

1. Complies with established departmental policies, procedures, and objectives.

2. Attends variety of meetings, conferences, seminars as required or directed.

3. Demonstrates use of Quality Improvement in daily operations.

4. Complies with all health and safety regulations and requirements.

5. Respects diverse views and approaches, demonstrates Standards of Respect, and contributes to creating and maintaining an environment of professionalism, tolerance, civility and acceptance toward all employees, patients, and visitors.

6. Maintains, regular, reliable, and predictable attendance.

7. Performs other similar and related duties as required or directed.

All responsibilities are essential job functions.

II. Position Qualifications:

License/Certification/Education:

Required:

1. Master's degree in a Healthcare related field.

2. Current Massachusetts Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) licensure.

Preferred:

1.

Experience/Skills:

Required:

Minimum of 3 years clinical experience within their licensed field. Previous experience in a hospital setting. Participation in Human Rights Officer training using training materials offered by the Department of Mental Health. Excellent writing skills to be used in documenting accurate case reports and in writing to patients on behalf of the institution. Excellent communication, mediation, and facilitation skills. Excellent oral presentation skills to be used in speaking to staff at all levels regarding patient issues. Demonstrated experience with data collection and analysis. Demonstrated ability to handle appropriately: sensitive, confidential information. Skillful in interacting with all levels of the institution, showing good judgment in mediating patient complaints.

Preferred:

1.

Unless certification, licensure or registration is required, an equivalent combination of education and experience which provides proficiency in the areas of responsibility listed in this description may be substituted for the above requirements.

Department-specific competencies and their measurements will be developed and maintained in the individual departments. The competencies will be maintained and attached to the departmental job description. Responsible managers will review competencies with position incumbents.

III. Physical Demands and Environmental Conditions:

Work is considered sedentary. Position requires work indoors in a normal office or patient care environment.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.

We're striving to make respect a part of everything we do at UMass Memorial Health - for our patients, our community and each other. Our six Standards of Respect are: Acknowledge, Listen, Communicate, Be Responsive, Be a Team Player and Be Kind. If you share these Standards of Respect, we hope you will join our team and help us make respect our standard for everyone, every day.

As an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer, UMass Memorial Health recognizes the power of a diverse community and encourages applications from individuals with varied experiences, perspectives and backgrounds. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, gender identity and expression, protected veteran status or other status protected by law.

If you are unable to submit an application because of incompatible assistive technology or a disability, please contact us at talentacquisition@umassmemorial.org. We will make every effort to respond to your request for disability assistance as soon as possible.