Decedent Affairs Coordinator

Vanderbilt University Medical Center • Nashville, TN

1d

About The Position

In your pivotal role as Decedent Affairs Coordinator, you will facilitate the deceased patient process, assisting with legal reporting, supporting families, and ensuring timely and appropriate disposition of remains. Strong customer service and compassion will be required for this role, as you will be dealing with physicians, nurses and families of the deceased. This is a night shift position with required hours from 6:30 PM - 7:00 AM CST. This role also requires work every 3rd weekend and every 3rd holiday. . DEPARTMENT SUMMARY : The Office of Decedent Affairs at Vanderbilt University Medical Center is here to answer questions and provide information about the release of the deceased loved one, death certificates, the medical examiner or autopsy. We will also help make decisions that best fit the loved ones' needs during this difficult time. We ensure paperwork is completed correctly and that the deceased is released to the funeral home or crematory that they've chosen. For more information, please visit https://www.vanderbilthealth.com/patient-resource/office-decedent-affairs.

Requirements

• TECHNICAL CAPABILITY: Mentoring & Coaching (Novice): Demonstrates high levels of training and mentoring expertise in challenging and complex situations. Often takes a lead role in highly pressurized situations when there is a need to achieve training results. Consistently provides training and mentoring in a creative and imaginative manner while setting a standard for others. Knows how to use failure as a learning process in a constructive way, replacing contention and conflict with enthusiasm and confidence. Personalizes the impact of behavior on performance and assignments. Has a proven track record of providing constructive suggestions, facilitating implementation of programs and improvements, recognizing achievements individually and reinforcing success.
• Quality Management (Novice): Developing a systematic process of checking to see whether a process or service is meeting specific requirements.
• Process Improvement (Novice): Identifies, analyzes and improves upon existing business processes for optimization and to meet standards of quality.
• Networking (Novice): Build relationships through industry contacts, professional organizations and individuals.
• Peer Leadership (Novice): The ability to show leadership and influence people of equal rank in an effort to accomplish team goals.
• Organizational Impact: Executes job responsibilities with the understanding of how output would affect and impact other areas related to own job area/team with occasional guidance.
• Problem Solving/ Complexity of work: Analyzes moderately complex problems using technical experience and judgment.
• Breadth of Knowledge: Has expanded knowledge gained through experience within a professional area.
• Team Interaction: Provides informal guidance and support to team members.
• Supporting Colleagues:- Develops Self and Others: Invests time, energy, and enthusiasm in developing self/others to help improve performance e and gain knowledge in new areas.- Builds and Maintains Relationships: Maintains regular contact with key colleagues and stakeholders using formal and informal opportunities to expand and strengthen relationships.- Communicates Effectively: Recognizes group interactions and modifies one's own communication style to suit different situations and audiences.
• Delivering Excellent Services:- Serves Others with Compassion: Seeks to understand current and future needs of relevant stakeholders and customizes services to better address them.- Solves Complex Problems: Approaches problems from different angles; Identifies new possibilities to interpret opportunities and develop concrete solutions.- Offers Meaningful Advice and Support: Provides ongoing support and coaching in a constructive manner to increase employees' effectiveness.
• Ensuring High Quality: - Performs Excellent Work: Engages regularly in formal and informal dialogue about quality; directly addresses quality issues promptly.- Ensures Continuous Improvement: Applies various learning experiences by looking beyond symptoms to uncover underlying causes of problems and identifies ways to resolve them. - Fulfills Safety and Regulatory Requirements: Understands all aspects of providing a safe environment and performs routine safety checks to prevent safety hazards from occurring.
• Managing Resources Effectively: - Demonstrates Accountability: Demonstrates a sense of ownership, focusing on and driving critical issues to closure.- Stewards Organizational Resources: Applies understanding of the departmental work to effectively manage resources for a department/area.- Makes Data Driven Decisions: Demonstrates strong understanding of the information or data to identify and elevate opportunities.
• Fostering Innovation:- Generates New Ideas: Proactively identifies new ideas/opportunities from multiple sources or methods to improve processes beyond conventional approaches.- Applies Technology: Demonstrates an enthusiasm for learning new technologies, tools, and procedures to address short-term challenges.- Adapts to Change: Views difficult situations and/or problems as opportunities for improvement; actively embraces change instead of emphasizing negative elements.
• Responsibilities:
• Certifications:
• Work Experience:
• Relevant Work Experience Experience Level: 1 year
• Education: Bachelor's

Responsibilities

• Manage deaths for all Vanderbilt Health System locations. Responsibilities include taking report, ensure documentation is complete, ensures outside agency reporting has been completed (Medical Examiner, Donor Service), confirms next of kin notification, coordinate disposition.
• Death Certificate Administration –Starts the state Death Certificate, completes demographic information, ensures physician completes appropriate sections of the certificate and certifies. Assigns certificate to the funeral home crematory specified by the next of kin or files with state. Assist physicians to submit notarized affidavit to change information on a state death certificate.
• Documentation audits/ quality -Confirms accuracy of morgue logs. Monthly audits of morgue badge swipe reports to ensure morgue security. Confirms accuracy of death disposition in patient EMR. Perform documentation audits to ensure all death documentation is complete and correct.
• Coordinates Vanderbilt sponsored cremations for infants/fetuses including required permits and documentation. Schedule appointments and return cremains to family. Provide families with information about obtaining state Death Certificate
• Coordinate with other departments and agencies to ensure families can schedule a meeting with individuals when they have questions following the death of a patient. Issue permit for transport of decedent across state lines
• Coordinate cultural and religious customs requests surrounding the release of decedent to the funeral home or crematory
• Serves as morgue attendant – Oversee the handling and storage of deceased individuals in accordance with legal and ethical standards.
• Train, and mentors new Decedent Affairs staff on processes, responsibilities, and reporting requirements. Developing and maintaining education and resource information on hospital procedures, and workflows.
• Overall departmental management when the Associate Director is unavailable or otherwise needs assistance. Assists Associate Director with staffing, scheduling, reporting, and communication needs.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees