Clinic Services Coordinator - Ophthalmology

UIOWA•Iowa City, IA

10d•Onsite

About The Position

University of Iowa Health Care, Department of & Visual Sciences is seeking a 100% Clinic Services Coordinator (PVL4; 4A). This role leads and develops a team of frontline scheduling staff to ensure efficient patient access and high-quality service delivery for the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences. This position oversees coverage for patient reception, registration, scheduling, triage, and contact lens services, requiring proficiency in these areas to guide staff effectively. Key responsibilities include managing onboarding, training, and performance evaluations; optimizing physician scheduling templates in EPIC; and implementing workflow improvements to enhance patient satisfaction and operational efficiency. The coordinator serves as a primary liaison between clinical faculty, the Patient Access Center, and department administration, ensuring compliance with University policies and performance standards. Additionally, the role contributes to financial oversight and strategic initiatives aimed at improving patient access and clinic operations. University of Iowa Health Care —recognized as one of the best hospitals in the United States—is Iowa's only comprehensive academic medical center and a regional referral center. Each day more than 12,000 employees, students, and volunteers work together to provide safe, quality health care and excellent service for our patients. Simply stated, our mission is: Changing Medicine. Changing Lives. ®

Requirements

A Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
2-3 years of experience in a frontline health care setting to include serving as a patient centered advocate with excellent customer service skills, preferably in a patient access role.
1-3 years of supervisory experience
Ability to motivate and inspire a team of direct reports to serve with accountability and excellence.
Ability to anticipate needs, problem and potential issues and use judgement, foresight and problem solving skills to troubleshoot, recommend and implement solutions.
Attention to detail and accuracy, strong organizational skills and ability to handle multiple tasks quickly and effectively, proactively establish priorities, meet deadlines, and maintain quality standards.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills including the ability to compose communications and grammatically correct documents in a concise, logical, and organized manner.
Experience working with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.) and EPIC

Nice To Haves

Complex experience in an outpatient clinic setting scheduling, hospital operations and/or ambulatory clinic operations.
1-3 years of experience in training
Ability to make decisions requiring interpretation and independent judgment
Ability to gather, analyze and display data in appropriate format and keep accurate records.
Knowledge of institutional policies, processes and regulations.

Responsibilities

Coordinates scheduling and check in/out functions for the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences’ university campus clinic, triage, and contact lens retail teams.
Monitors and assigns daily workflows to team members and ensures timely completion of tasks.
Hires, develops, and manages the performance of frontline scheduling staff for the department’s university campus clinic in collaboration with the Clinic Services Manager.
Ensures staff demonstrate compliance with UI policies, procedures, and required compliances based on their position duties.
Develops, manages and monitors new employee onboarding and training.
Provides re-education to existing staff as needed.
Conducts annual competency reviews to ensure staff skill and competencies meet expectations.
Manages staff performance by conducting regular one-on-one meetings to solicit and offer employee performance feedback and track employee progress on assigned metrics, goals and projects.
Facilitates annual performance reviews and goal setting for frontline scheduling team members.
Manages ELMS time keeping records for all direct reports including approval of leave requests, etc.
Generates reports and analyses productivity metrics on performance of clinic, staff and patient services
Recommends and implements best practice workflow, process, training activities, performance, patient satisfaction, patient access, and financial improvements.
Leads and facilities department initiatives to define and streamline protocols for complex scheduling, triage, etc.
Contributes ideas and improvement of department and PAC processes.
Serves as a subject matter expert in verifying, recommending and adjusting Qgenda based on physician absences.
Serves as an active member in lean initiatives across clinical operations offering input and expertise as needed.
Creates, implements, and manages physician scheduling templates in EPIC in partnership with the PAC, department administration, and the Clinic Services Manager to optimize clinical numbers and ensure patient/staff satisfaction.
Identifies and assigns projects to team members in collaboration with Clinic Services Manager to achieve department patient access benchmarks and strategic goals.
Serves as a point of contact and intermediary for the Patient Access Center (PAC), template team, physicians, clinical staff, and department administration, utilizing independent decision making skills to act and resolve immediate scheduling issues in collaboration with PAC, clinical staff, nursing and department leadership.
Develops training materials, tip sheets, and reference materials for the clinic and PAC scheduling teams.
Communicates EPIC scheduling changes and other frontline issues to appropriate staff and proactively trains on topics as needed.
Collaborates on the development and implementation of decision trees in EPIC to facilitate the new and existing patient scheduling process.
Provides backup coverage for all positions (check in/out, scheduling, triage, contact lens) as needed.
May directly schedule patient appointments/tests and coordinate appointments with other University of Iowa Health Care departments utilizing the EPIC systems to check and verify appointment availability, always assuring compliance with established guidelines.
Trains staff on effective strategies to enhance the patient experience.
Serves as a contributing member of department initiatives to improve processes related to patient experience, satisfaction, and access.
Generates regular EPIC reports and analyzes data for trends in patient no shows, cancellations, and appointments to drive process improvement and improve patient satisfaction.
Makes recommendations for cost saving measures for clinic operations.
Makes recommendations and implements processes to increase patient visit volumes with changes to provider schedules or templates.
Manages ELMS time keeping records for all direct reports including limiting overtime accrual and ensuring appropriate use of earned comp time during fiscal year to avoid large pay outs.