Behavioral Health Coordinator

Cape Cod Healthcare•Hyannis, MA

About The Position

The Behavioral Health Coordinator plays a crucial role in minimizing patient wait times in the Emergency Department and on medical units, contributing to efforts to reduce overcrowding and boarding. This position involves conducting comprehensive behavioral health assessments, gathering information from various sources to understand the patient's current functioning and contributing factors to their crisis. The coordinator identifies existing providers and state agency involvement, as well as Health-Related Social Needs (HRSN) such as housing insecurity, food insecurity, transportation access, and the need for health insurance. They provide ongoing support to patients, coordinate admissions to inpatient and partial hospital programs, and conduct bed searches to arrange appropriate placements. For patients discharged home, the coordinator facilitates linkage with support systems and arranges necessary services. They also provide psycho-education on recovery, wellness, and crisis self-management, maintain a community resource list, and participate in process improvement initiatives. The role requires excellent communication, documentation, and collaboration skills.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in the field of human services required.
Working knowledge and proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, Outlook) and internet search engines
Excellent organization and time management skills
Current BLS certification

Nice To Haves

Master’s preferred
1-3 years’ experience working with programs treating mental health, substance abuse, or co-occurring disorders preferred
Experience using electronic health record documentation system/s to document program notes preferred
Crisis Prevention Intervention Training within 1 month of hire

Responsibilities

Respond in a timely fashion to minimize the duration of a patient’s time in the Emergency Department (“ED”) or on the medical units; contributing to efforts to reduce overcrowding and boarding.
Take a behavioral health history, including past inpatient admissions or admissions to other levels of behavioral health care.
Collect information from the patient, family, or providers regarding current functioning at home, school, community, as well as educational, social familial, legal/court related and environmental factors that may have contributed to the current crisis.
Identify current Providers and State agency involvement.
Identify Health-related social needs (HRSN) including housing insecurity, food insecurity, access to transportation, need for health insurance, difficulty paying for prescriptions, education and literacy.
Provide support to the patient, by providing updates on the process as it progresses.
Once disposition is determined by the Psychiatric Provider, in compliance with the medical necessity criteria, present all relevant assessment information to the Payer, and obtain authorization for services.
Work closely with the Behavioral Health admissions team regarding inpatient and partial hospital admissions, authorizations, and coordination of services.
Conduct a bed search to arrange admission for patients assessed to meet medical necessity criteria to an inpatient psychiatric facility and less restrictive levels of care.
Arrange admission or readmission to the same facility when there is a bed available within that facility.
Continue bed search on an ongoing basis until disposition. During this process, keep the patient or accompanying parent or guardian updated.
Coordinate transfer and admission to an appropriate facility, which includes obtaining the accepting physician’s name, time of arrival requested, and faxing of information if required.
Responsible for arranging transportation, inclusive of ambulances.
Update any existing crisis prevention plan or safety plan or create a new plan utilizing the Crisis Planning Tool.
Collaborate with other involved service Providers and/or newly referred Providers to share information (with appropriate consent) regarding the Psychiatric Providers treatment plan.
For patients discharged home, support linkage with the patient’s natural support system, and arrange services based on the assessment completed by the Psychiatric Provider.
Identify strategies to reduce unnecessary hospitalization and utilization of the ED by connecting the patient to alternative community-based services.
Provide the patient with resources and referrals for additional services and supports, such as recovery-oriented and consumer-operated resources in the community.
Answer incoming calls to the Psychiatric Provider.
Provide psycho-education including information about recovery, wellness, and crisis self-management.
Responsible for completion of all encounter documentation required for the position.
Maintain a comprehensive community resource list.
Perform other work-related duties as requested/directed.
Active participant in the annual process improvement plan.
Consistently provide service excellence to all patients, family members, visitors, volunteers and co-workers.