Global Patient Services - Patient Relations Specialist

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Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) offers countless ways to change lives. Our diverse community of more than 20,000 Breakthrough Makers will inspire you to pursue passions, develop expertise, and drive innovation.

At CHOP, your experience is valued; your voice is heard; and your contributions make a difference for patients and families. Join us as we build on our promise to advance pediatric care-and your career.

CHOP's Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

CHOP is committed to building an inclusive culture where employees feel a sense of belonging, connection, and community within their workplace. We are a team dedicated to fostering an environment that allows for all to be their authentic selves. We are focused on attracting, cultivating, and retaining diverse talent who can help us deliver on our mission to be a world leader in the advancement of healthcare for children.

We strongly encourage all candidates of diverse backgrounds and lived experiences to apply.

A Brief Overview
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Global Patient Services (GPS) Patient Care Navigator (PCN) collaborates regularly across multiple specialty services and departments at CHOP while serving international patients. The Navigator supports international care coordination and works with Global Patient Services staff for ongoing management of international patients. The GPS Patient Care Navigator provides superior customer service while working to enhance the patient family experience of our international patient population.

The GPS Patient Care Navigator supports new families who are traveling to CHOP by facilitating the delivery of excellent and timely pediatric health services for international patients and families. The Navigator answers all of their questions, assists in processing immigration applications, visas, and visa extensions and facilitates the family's orientation to CHOP which includes providing and reviewing language appropriate welcome manuals, hosting a tour of the CHOP facility and introducing families to the Global Patient Services office/staff/resources. The Navigator maintains effective communication with families throughout their stay and treatment at CHOP.

S/He may also serve as a resource for cultural education to the CHOP community in certain assigned situations.

The GPS Patient Care Navigator works in collaboration with the GPS team, GPS New Referral Supervisor, GPS Arrived Patients Supervisor, GPS Clinical Nurse Supervisor, Global Medicine Business Manager, GPS Operations Counselors, GPS Clinic team, Language Services Team and Hospitality Team to ensure all aspects of the patients/families visit are coordinated and convenient.

Proficiency in Arabic is highly desirable for this role.

What you will do

• As a patient relations specialist, provides coordination of services and supports international patients and family receiving care at CHOP through the following activities:
• Serve as a resource person for physicians, allied health staff and other professionals throughout CHOP system when questions arise regarding International patient access information.
• Acts as a liaison between family, physician, and office personnel to ensure a coordinated course of care for our International families.
• Builds positive and productive relationships across the organization that will ensure exceptional patient services
• Build positive and productive relationships with internal and external constituents, including Embassy contacts in Washington, DC, that will ensure exceptional patient services.
• Provides Hospital Tours and presentation of GPS services to Embassy and special VIP guest visitors.
• Ensures that all families are welcomed to CHOP and greeted in GPS Clinic by PCN team
• Facilitates communication between family and GPS clinic team during patient triage process and ensure that all new referral inquiries to clinic are facilitated efficiently.
• Works closely with GPS clinical nurse coordinator, Access Coordinator, and Global Medicine Operations Counselor to confirm financial clearance before appointments are scheduled in GPS clinic.
• Enters patient communication into Epic chart for continuity of care.
• Completes MERS screening for all newly arrived patients.
• Provide assistance to resolve any issues or problems with compassion and integrity.
• Ensures that all issues and concerns are addressed in real time
• Available on an on call basis for emergencies including the acute change in a patient status, death of a child, and the off hours arrival of new families directly admitted into the hospital
• Travel to airport (JFK, PHL Dulles) in ambulance with CHOP Transport team to greet Direct Admissions and welcome families, assist with Customs and luggage
• Serves as an interpreter in the event of the absence of an interpreter, and may interpret for emergency situations and ED visits until another interpreter can be secured.
• Assures extreme confidentiality 100% of the time.
• Coordinates Welcome Orientation for all new International patients:
• Ensures all patients have a new family introduction and orientation to CHOP, reviewing GPS orientation manual in native language of family. This will serve as a basis for families to understand the CHOP system, how to access our office, plans for emergent situations- use of ED and After Hours Program. Navigators will communicate clearly the ability to have access to care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week given the high medical complexity of international patients. Assists with helping family obtain cell phone and local phone number, and opening local bank account.
• Guides families through a hospital tour to assist in locating all facilities that will be essential during their stay including the ED, outpatient clinics, outpatient registration and the arrival site for the OR suite
• Introduction to GPS office, and how to contact and facilitate communication with multilingual staff, to assure all family and patient needs are met.
• Educate families how to access the After Hours Program in case of emergencies, including teaching families how to know their MRN number, the name of their physician, and the phone system for after hours.
• Schedules Interpreter Services for International families as needed
• Schedules airport transportation as needed
• Completes second orientation 1 week later to ensure that a new family is comfortable and their stay at CHOP is going smoothly
• Collaborates with staff of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia regarding Global Patient Services Patients:
• Works collaboratively each week with Housekeeping team to ensure that international patient needs are being met on the inpatient units; rounds with housekeeping team weekly
• Works collaboratively with Language Services to assist families with scheduling an interpreter when needed
• Facilitates communication with Hospitality team regarding transportation and lodging requests for discharging patients
• Works closely with Health Information Management to request medical records for all discharging patients when care at CHOP is complete
• Works closely with OR/MRI and Sedation teams when international patients are scheduled for procedures
• Ensures that all inpatients are visited and supported twice weekly or as needed
• Additional administrative duties:
• Data Integrity and accuracy of Salesforce Data and Epic demographic information
• Assists family to Cashiers office for payment of services.
• Contact families with appointment reminders and NPO instructions daily
• Provides information regarding US immigrations and customs and Visa application procedures
• Assists family with filling out Visa application
• Conducts Patient Family Surveys to all international patients to ensure delivery of excellent service and to address opportunities for service recovery in real time
• Professional Development:
• Participates in activities and organizations to maintain knowledge of current trends, practices and developments.
• Utilize every opportunity to explore ways to provide professional development

Education Qualifications

• High School Diploma / GED Required
• Bachelor's Degree Preferred

Experience Qualifications

• At least three (3) years customer service, hotel, health care, language services for children and/or families. Required
• Customer service background in a healthcare setting Preferred
• Salesforce, Excel or Epic electronic health record Preferred
• International life experience and experience serving an international clientele in a work environment Preferred

Skills and Abilities

• International life experience and experience serving an international clientele in a work environment.
• Strong Linguistic Skills:
• Fluency in secondary language is required
• Understands variety of regional accents and linguistic styles
• Selects appropriate mode of interpretation for each situation
• Interprets with highest degree of accuracy and completeness
• Self-corrects, understands own linguistic limitations, seeks clarification and accepts correction
• Picks up cues from encounter participants regarding level of understanding and/or need for clarification
• Strong writing skills and understanding of translation process
• Strong Cultural awareness competencies:
• Understands language as an expression of culture, recognizes the underlying assumptions of each party about medicine, the encounter, the illness, etc.; uses this understanding to empower the patients and provider to better understand each other
• Avoids generalizations and stereotyping
• Uses culturally appropriate behavior and is able to choose appropriate time to clarify and interject by respecting the goals of the encounter
• Is aware of own personal values, beliefs, and cultural characteristics which may be a source of conflict or discomfort in certain situations, is able to acknowledge these and/or withdraw from encounters when these may interfere with successful interpretation
• Strong interpreting skills:
• Explains the role of the interpreter to patient and provider
• Recognizes the complexity of the clinical encounter and added factor of linguistic barrier
• Sets tone of the patient/provider encounter to manage spatial configuration and flow of communication to preserve accuracy and completeness, and to assess and address potential areas of discomfort for patient (age, gender of interpreter, no previous experience with interpreters)
• Encourages and fosters direct communication between provider and patient
• Maintains professional distance and integrity
• Diffuses conflict between parties by remaining calm and impartial
• Clarifies instructions, follow up steps in a diplomatic, effective manner
• Additional requirements:
• Ability to deal effectively with the parents, physicians and all levels of Hospital and Embassy personnel.
• Ability to understand medical terminology and direct patients to the appropriate specialty areas.
• Ability to respond to families of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds
• Ability to function independently, efficiently and professionally with minimum supervision.
• Ability to identify problems and find effective solutions.
• High level of interpersonal skills with excellent customer service and responsiveness.
• Detail oriented and highly organized
• Demonstrated public speaking skills.
• Ability to work as a team player as well as independently with minimal supervision and make administrative decisions.
• Excellent telephone listening, written and verbal communications skills.

To carry out its mission, CHOP is committed to supporting the health of our patients, families, workforce, and global community. As a condition of employment, CHOP employees who work in patient care buildings or who have patient facing responsibilities must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and receive an annual influenza vaccine. Learn more.

Employees may request exemptions for valid religious and medical reasons. Start dates may be delayed until candidates are immunized or exemption requests are reviewed.

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