Medical Call Center Agent (Transfer Center Coordinator) - Night Shift

Hours: Shifts are 11p-7a | 7p-7a

Rotating weekends and holidays

Purpose:
Serves as the primary contact for referring physicians requesting the services from UPMC in Central PA for continued patient care. Facilitates all patient transfers into and outgoing transfers, as well as all direct admissions for any service line from any source for all 7 UPMC Central PA hospitals. Facilitates bed placement for every patient in all 7 hospitals while operationalizing capacity management strategies for Central PA. Integrates with UPMC Community LifeTeam for timely and efficient patient movement. The position requires the ability to multitask, identify and escalate concerns, maintain great customer service, and foster the intersection for patient access to healthcare services via MedCall, the central control center for UPMC Central PA.

Responsibilities:

• Manage, coordinate and communicate all activities related to patient movement and flow.
• Provide a single point of contact to assist referring providers (scope unlimited: local and worldwide) with emergent and non-emergent transfers, direct admissions and consults into MedCall Central PA.
• Efficiently manage referral and transfer of patients to align with most appropriate UPMC Central PA resources, determining level of care and affirming need for transfer while providing continuum of care for all patients.
• Maximize provider and patient satisfaction when accessing UPMC Central PA resources.
• Ensure patient safety by optimizing alignment of transport assets via integration with UPMC Community LifeTeam with clinical condition of patient.
• Coordinate internal and external facility transport.
• Work collaboratively to manage communication between various services (physicians, APPs, RNs, unit directors, House Supervisors, etc) to efficiently place the right patient in the right bed at the right time.
• Performs all bed placement activities for all 7 UPMC Central PA facilities.
• Utilize critical thinking to operationalize all strategies related to capacity management, including but not limited to triaging transfer requests, enacting facility capacity plans, regional load balancing, etc.
• Provide supplemental assistance to other departmental functions including internal medicine physician assignment, provider notification of inpatient consults, scheduling of observation unit outpatient services, and off-hours registration activity.
• Efficiently and accurately transcribe all relevant documentation related to patient movement, bed placement, and transfer center intake.
• Maintain a familiarity with internal systems available and necessary in the performance of the job.
• Ability to utilize multiple communication methods within the department.
• Assist in the onboarding of new employees, including primary preceptorship over the transfer and direct admission process.
• Meet departmental benchmarks related to call handling, agent performance, and bed placement metrics.
• Maintain an awareness of services and capabilities of UPMC facilities in support of the outreach efforts of MedCall Central PA.
• Appropriate escalation of any issues or problems as determined by departmental protocols

Qualifications:

• High School diploma, GED or equivalent required.
• College degree or medical certificate program preferred.
• 2 years in a healthcare setting with direct patient care
  • OR 2 years in a transfer center
  • OR 2 years in an emergency call center
  • OR 4 years in a healthcare business setting.
• Formal medical training preferred.
• Knowledge of medical terminology.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Computer literacy/data entry skills.
• Strong attention to detail and ability to multitask.
  Licensure, Certifications, and Clearances:
  Licensed LPN preferred.
• Act 34

UPMC is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Disability/Veteran

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