Quality Process Coord/Discharge Planner: FT

Position Highlights:

• Work/life: You will find support to help you manage your personal life while building a career.
• Employee-centric: Tuition reimbursement, loan forgiveness, comprehensive major medical, dental and vision insurance, paid time off, 401(k), health and wellness offerings, monthly employee events, and more. 
• Lifestyle: Sandusky was voted “Best Coastal Small Town in America”. You will have the opportunity to enjoy living and working in this growing area along the beautiful shores of Lake Erie.

About Firelands Health:

Our goal at Firelands Health is to be the best & preferred independent healthcare employer for the Sandusky Bay region.

Firelands Health is the area’s largest and most comprehensive resource for quality medical care. We are “big enough to care for you, and small enough to care about you”. We are locally managed and governed as a not-for-profit healthcare facility, serving the counties of Erie, Ottawa, Sandusky, and Huron, covering a regional service area with over 300,000 residents. Our mission is to provide excellent healthcare, promote community wellness, and improve the lives we serve.

Our Core ACE Values:  Attitude: We choose to be positive and inclusive every day. Commitment: We are committed to exceed the expectations of those we serve. Enthusiasm: We will work passionately to make a difference.

What You Will Do: 

Performs concurrent and retrospective multi-disciplinary review of patient care. Uses comprehensive quality review criteria to collect data pertaining to the appropriateness of care. Compiles and organizes data into meaningful reports for evaluation. Identifies opportunities for improvement and coordinates interdisciplinary intervention for planned change. Assists and acts as a resource for assigned functions to facilitate quality activities. Promotes development and enhancement of total quality systems. 

Under the supervision of the Director, this position is responsible for initial and ongoing discharge planning throughout the acute care continuum, including but not limited to coordination of care through the facilitation of a safe and appropriate discharge plan to the post-acute environment.  This process is supported by current research and evidence-based practice. The Case Manager identifies potential risk management and utilization issues and reports findings per departmental protocol. Works closely with the Social Worker as appropriate in the identification of discharge and transition needs and is ultimately responsible for the coordination of discharge planning activities. This is accomplished by working collaboratively with interdisciplinary staff internal and external to the organization. Participates in quality improvement and evaluation processes.

• Possesses knowledge and remains current with interdisciplinary standards of care to effectively review patient care, compliance with evidence-based best practices, prioritize quality of care interventions, and facilitate immediate action when necessary.
• Conducts “real time”/concurrent and retrospective assessments of processes and outcomes for assigned populations and communicates within the interdisciplinary team and provides direct service, as needed, to assure delivery of best practices.
• Demonstrates the ability to assist with the development of criteria-based evaluation tools; identifies opportunities to improve patient care, assures appropriate reporting and follow through with physicians, nursing, and ancillary services.
• Aggregates data and provides reports that are timely, pertinent, reliable, and accurate to report positive and negative findings. Abstracts direct patient data as needed.
• Collaborates with Directors and caregivers of assigned care areas regarding development and refinement of care processes as indicated through monitoring.
• Institutes immediate feedback to personnel regarding systems/process/quality deficiencies, as needed.
• Coordinates the flow of findings to facilitate peer evaluation.
• Demonstrates responsibility for the management of the quality information contained in the assigned database, monitoring functions and registries including inputs, validation of data, and required reporting.
• Exercises ingenuity, judgment, and problem-solving techniques in the absence of established guidelines and precedents and consistently demonstrates an ability to assess a situation from a variety of perspectives, consider several alternatives, and chooses an appropriate course of action.
• Demonstrates responsibility through responsiveness to others and competent follow-up on matters requiring additional attention; contacts appropriate personnel as required, following appropriate channels of communication.
• Demonstrates a consistent level of performance; avoids periods of extremely high activity and very low activity; maintains progress on special projects; regularly demonstrates initiatives and flexibility in scheduling.
• Conduct comprehensive discharge planning assessments within 1 business day of admission or as required.
• Conduct readmission risk stratification and follow-up care as appropriate.
• Collaborate with interdisciplinary care teams to develop individualized discharge plans based on medical, psychosocial, and functional needs.
• Facilitate communication between the patient, family, physicians, nursing, social work, and post-acute care providers.
• Arrange and coordinate post-discharge services, including but not limited to:
  • Skilled nursing facility (SNF) placement
  • Home health services
  • Rehabilitation services
  • Durable medical equipment (DME)
  • Transportation
  • Follow-up medical appointments
• Post hospitalization phone calls and intervention s appropriate
• Provide patients and caregivers education regarding discharge plan
• Document all discharge planning activities in the electronic medical record (EMR) in accordance with hospital policy.
• Identify and address barriers to discharge in a timely manner.
• Participate interdisciplinary rounds as per hospital policy.
• Maintain current knowledge of community resources, insurance guidelines, Medicare/Medicaid, and managed care regulations.
• Promote patient safety and readmission reduction through proactive discharge planning and education.
• Communicates with nursing and medical staff in assessing the psychosocial needs of the patient to monitor and oversee the discharge plan.
• Maintains current working knowledge of HFAP, COBRA, EMTALA, OSHA, CMS and other regulatory standards.
• Maintains current, accurate documentation in the patient's medical record.
• Maintains current and accurate data collection related to the quality of the delivery of care of the department.
• Works with the social worker as appropriate in assigning tasks and responsibilities in the discharge planning process.
• Maintains a working knowledge of and update community resources in areas of practice.
• Participates in reporting abuse, neglect or exploitation suspected prior to hospitalization as indicated by hospital protocol. Report findings to the appropriate agency.
• Assures all high risk and/or complex patients have an interim plan of discharge established prior to discharge from our facility.
• Proposes alternative placement and/or treatment options as appropriate to facilitate and ensure a cost-efficient plan of care and quality outcomes.
• Collects appropriate avoidable delays and other data as directed.

What You Will Need:

• RN-BSN Preferred. License must be active and valid in the State of Ohio.
• Demonstrated ability to work with constant attention to detail and accuracy. Demonstrated ability to work closely and cooperatively with others; educate effectively and influence appropriate actions to effect positive change.
• Three to five years’ experience in an acute care hospital setting.
• Experience with case management process.
• Certification in a field related to Case Management preferred.