Practice Coordinator - Dermatology

The Practice Coordinator is a working supervisor who is responsible for managing the day-to-day staffing and operations within the Mohs and Dermatologic Surgery Center. Working under the direction of the Practice Manager, the Practice Coordinator is responsible for investigating and improving functions of patient flow and patient care, appointment management, registration, managed care and inventory control. The Practice Coordinator is also responsible for identifying and promoting ways to continually improve the quality and efficiency of the practice's operations. This supervisor will also serve as an immediate contact for dealing with patients/customers and handling complaints and works to independently solve issues in a timely manner. This position will provide coverage for staff vacancies as needed.

Working within a high-volume outpatient surgery practice, the Practice Coordinator is responsible for developing, implementing and maintaining systems to ensure continuous improvement in regards to patient care, staff curriculum and education, technology, and other areas/projects as appropriate.

The Practice Coordinator interacts with individuals at all levels of the department and the organization. In the conjunction with the Practice Manager, this position creates an effective management team, which emphasizes on quality management, efficient cost-effective operations, together with a focus on quality patient service and satisfaction.

Operations

a. Scheduling and patient access responsibilities

• Responsible for daily oversight of the practices' schedule management and utilization, with an emphasis on maintaining department and hospital patient access standards.

• Manages department's communication portals, including but not limited to departmental email boxes, practice voicemail, electronic referral system and patient portal. Ensures that messages are routed to the appropriate staff member and that all messages are responded to and appointments are scheduled appropriately.

* Oversees confirmation calls to patients through the designated confirmation call vendor as well as follow up calls by staff members. Tracks completion and timeliness of this task, delegates others to perform this function as needed.

• Acts as liaison for booking international and VIP patients, working with external departments to accommodate their needs. Acts as liaison to other BWH Dermatology locations as well as other practices within and outside of the MGB system.
• Ensures that patient appointments are canceled or rescheduled as necessary.
• Oversee staff scheduling and management of bump lists and waitlists.
• Reviews and adjusts scheduling system templates according to the physician's request for schedule changes, this includes communicating all changes with practice, nursing and administrative staff. Update and maintain physician templates and comments in accordance with physician and department guidelines.

b. Patient care and practice flow responsibilities

* Meets daily with Practice Manager for update and overview of clinical day.

• Responsible for managing daily practice flow in the practice front desk area. Provides real time coaching to staff on patient interactions and provides service recovery as necessary.
• Troubleshoots and assists with problem solving, system improvements related to operational issues. This includes medical records issues, missing notes, missing charges and all aspects of appointment scheduling and practice flow.
• Triages patient complaints, forwarding to Practice Manager as appropriate.
• Responsible for collecting data used for internal tracking, includes but is not limited to no-show rate, new patients, clinic cancellations, practice email usage and daily auditing of billing tickets.
• Participates in the new physician and resident orientation process, guidance on scheduling procedures and administrative functions

c. Revenue operations responsibilities

• Responsible for the day-to-day oversight of managed care issues of the practice. Reviews referral needed, prior authorizations and eligibility work lists to ensure that the designated staff person(s) is communicating registration and referral needs to patients as needed.

* Responsible for the daily oversight of encounter closings including timeliness, accuracy and auditing process

* Responsible for ensuring copayments are collected and managed per department standards Immediately escalates any problems to the practice manager.

* Maintains proper inventory and tracking of front-end office supplies by using approved vendors and adhering to budget

d. Human Resources

* In conjunction with the Practice Manager takes an active role in the Human Resources activities within the practice including those related to recruiting, hiring, orienting, training, disciplining, terminating, employee evaluations, goal setting and employee relations. Complies with all applicable policies and procedures.

* Supervise practice clinical administrative staff and indirectly supervise practice clinical support and clinical research staff for day-to-day direction or in absence of Practice Manager.

* In conjunction with practice manager organizes and conducts regular staff meetings, including one on one meetings, designed to promote peer interactions, improve operational efficiency, provide education and information and encourage professional development.

• Organization of daily and weekly staff schedules, ensuring continuous coverage for all operational tasks. Ensures that there is adequate coverage for both front desk and phone line tasks during all operating hours including lunch breaks and meetings. Provides direct coverage for clinical administrative staff as necessary, including when they are out of the office.

• Oversees daily and weekly staff assignments, assigning tasks and responsibilities to clinical administrative staff as necessary. Makes necessary schedule changes if staff needs to leave due to illness or emergency, providing direct coverage as necessary.
• Provides oversight of staff time off requests.

• In collaboration with the Practice Manager, works with the clinical support staff and clinical director, develops, updates and implements training curriculum with the aim of continued improvement. Curriculum will include screening/intake process done by nursing staff, guidelines on maintaining clean vs. sterile field, bandaging, wound care instructions, fielding patient phone calls by nursing and front, and other topics as required. The curriculum development and implementation process is intended to be ongoing.
• Oversees practice technology including microscope and histology lab equipment ensuring equipment is optimized with current technology. Through constant monitoring ensures that all equipment is in good working order and manages equipment maintenance/problems.
• Implement and oversee digitized photography process for Mohs pathology slides such that images are entered into Epic with corresponding pathology reports in a timely manner.
• Oversees pathology QI process including development of systems that ensure a random 10% fraction of pathology slides are reviewed same-day by another Mohs surgeon within the practice followed by practice QI co-review within one week. Ensures co-review and any actions taken are documented and tracked for later analysis and publication.
• Oversees safety reporting process to ensure near misses are reported by staff with appropriate follow-up including ongoing constructive vetting as a group for ways to improvement.
• Organize and oversee regular practice in-services with a focus on patient emergency preparedness.

* Acts as a supe user and represents practice for all clinical administrative systems and applications.

• Develops and monitors tracking system for obtaining and returning outside slides, pathology reports and medical record information from external sources.

* Other General Responsibilities (as required)

* Performs other duties, tasks, and projects as requested by the Practice Manager, Practice Administrator or Clinical Director to ensure the efficient overall performance of the practice, including cross-coverage as necessary.

* No direct budgetary responsibility. Must be aware of the expenses associated with ordering office supplies and have the ability to make recommendations for potential cost-efficient measures.

* At the direction of the Practice Manager attends hospital meetings and workgroups as required.

* Bachelor's degree or equivalent extensive work experience preferred. Must have a minimum of 5 years experience in the clinical delivery of health care services.

Previous supervisory or lead experience is required.

* A strong leader who acts as a role model by daily setting a positive tone for all clinical activities. Provides clear direction in order to organize, inspire and motivate team members, fostering strong teamwork and a productive environment. Establishes daily communication huddles to organize and set the clinical pace for each day.

* Demonstrates the ability to manage stressful situations, conflicts, and quickly adapts to and champions changes.

* Bases decisions and actions on understanding the prospective of others; is a role model to others in service standards.

* Maintains ongoing good communication with Practice Manager, and reports problems. Able to safeguard sensitive and confidential information.

* Responds to requests for change positively and openly that will improve practice conditions for physicians either by implementing such changes or by discussing them with the Practice Manager.

* Participates in special projects as assigned by Practice Manager or Clinical Director, maintains flexibility regarding workload and the needs of the department. In partnership with Practice Manager, identifies and implements ways to continuously improve efficiency and effectiveness of processes.

* Bases decisions and actions on understanding the perspective of others; is a role model to others in service standards.

* Willingness to receive and provide constructive feedback in order to enhance clinic efficiencies and work processes

* Must understand and function effectively in a fast-paced challenging environment and be able to communicate effectively with a diverse patient population visiting their physicians for conditions that may be life threatening, coping with anxiety and stress often created in such situations.

* Must have the ability to be positive and fair to employees and foster strong productivity.

* Must respect the strict confidentiality of medical and personal information and records.