RN Patient Navigator

Experience a rewarding and fulfilling career with Mercyhealth. Mercyhealth is committed to offering our partners a best place to work. Our unique workplace Culture of Excellence is built upon:

• Employee engagement, empowerment and growth
• Teamwork toward our common goal - providing exceptional health care services with a passion for making lives better
• An atmosphere of caring and quality that cascades throughout the organization

The RN Patient Navigator coordinates and facilitates patient care activities to assure appropriateness of services and efficient utilization of resources, improve coordination of care across the health care continuum, and to contribute to improved patient satisfaction and outcomes. Provides compassionate, culturally sensitive, holistic nursing care to patients in a clinical setting, supporting the Mercyhealth nursing mission, practice values and strategic plan. May include variable shifts, weekends, holiday and/or on-call hours. Performs other duties as assigned including floating to various units based on identified needs and clinical competency.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Provides case management, advocacy, and care coordination services to hospital patients in a variety of settings to assure seamless transitions in care while minimizing any associated delays or risk of readmission.
• Conducts early patient assessment, by case-finding and referral, to identify coordination and discharge planning needs.
• Creates individualized, patient -focused plan for meeting continuing care needs.
• Makes referrals to post-hospital care providers utilizing knowledge of community resources.
• Collaborates with the healthcare team to ensure discharge is timely, patient education and instructions are complete, and appropriate follow-up is established.
• Utilizes current clinical nursing knowledge to effectively educate patients and families about chronic disease conditions.
• Collaborates with staff nurses and physicians to ensure all elements for core measures have been met prior to discharge.
• Conducts clinical review process according to Utilization Management Plan.
• Identifies and intervenes in situations that pose financial risk to the patient and the organization.

Culture of Excellence Behavior Expectations

To perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following behavior expectations:

Quality - Follows policies and procedures; adapts to and manages changes in the environment; Demonstrates accuracy and thoroughness giving attention to details; Looks for ways to improve and promote quality; Applies feedback to improve performance; Manages time and prioritizes effectively to achieve organizational goals.

Service - Responds promptly to requests for service and assistance; Follows the Mercyhealth Critical Moments of service; Meets commitments; Abides by MH confidentiality and security agreement; Shows respect and sensitivity for cultural differences; and effectively communicates information to partners; Thinks system wide regarding processes and functions.

Partnering - Shows commitment to the Mission of Mercyhealth and Culture of Excellence through all words and actions; Exhibits objectivity and openness to other's views; Demonstrates a high level of participation and engagement in day-to-day work; Gives and welcomes feedback; Generates suggestions for improving work: Embraces teamwork, supports and encourages positive change while giving value to individuals.

Cost - Conserves organization resources; Understands fiscal responsibility; Works within approved budget; Develops and implements cost saving measures; contributes to profits and revenue.

Education and Experience

Graduate of an accredited nursing program. BSN or upon hire BSN completion agreement for enrollment in an accredited BSN Completion Program May require specific years of applicable experience to qualify (per department guidelines). If hired prior to 1-1-14 in Winnebago County and prior to 9-1-14 in Rock, Walworth and McHenry Counties an ADN only is required.

Certification and Licensure

Current Registered Nurse License in the state of practice. CPR certification.
Case Management Certification (ACM) preferred.
Certification preferred within three years to a specialty approved by CNO or designee; i.e.; Case Management, Med/Surg or Diabetic Education.

Skills and Abilities
May include color blind test (per department guidelines)
Must be skilled with use of voice mail and phone features. Must be able to use available technology for language interpretation.
Must have expert knowledge of Allscripts Care Management program and Epic EMR. Must be able to use Microsoft Outlook, and have basic knowledge of Excel and Word. Must be able to easily toggle between computer applications.
Must be available to work and or be on-call on weekends and holidays, as assigned. On-call requires accessibility by pager or cell phone during assigned hours and ability to respond promptly to pages by phone.

Special Physical Demands

The Special Physical Demands are considered Essential Job Functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodations.
While performing the duties of this Job, the employee is frequently required to sit, handle, finger, feel, reach with hands and arms, talk and hear. The employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, climb and balance. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include frequent close vision, distance vision, and the ability to adjust focus as well as occasional color vision, peripheral vision and depth perception. . Specific fine motor abilities required include writing, keyboard entry and mouse use.

Level of Supervision

Assignments are based on abilities and are normally received in the form of results expected and due dates. Only general procedures are available to guide work. Must be able to work independently with minimal guidance.