Discharge Planner Team Lader
About The Position
The discharge planner team lead is responsible for providing frontline leadership and coordination for the discharge planning team while maintaining alignment with organizational goals, regulatory requirements, and patient flow priorities. This role serves as a critical link between hospital leadership and frontline staff, translating strategic direction into the daily operational practice period. The team lead collaborates closely with department leadership to support staffing models, workflow efficiency, quality initiatives, and performance improvement efforts. By maintaining situational awareness of unit activity, patient throughput, and discharge barriers, the team proactively identifies trends, escalates concerns, and partners with leadership to implement solutions. In addition to clinical and operational responsibilities, the team lead promotes consistency and practice, reinforces policies and expectations, and supports a culture of accountability, collaboration, and patient-centered care. The role balances hands-on support with leadership collaboration to ensure safe, timely, and effective transitions of care while advancing departmental and organizational objectives.
Requirements
- High school diploma or GED.
- One to three (1-3) years of community resource involvement experience.
- Must meet additional state/local requirements as appropriate.
- Ability to read and comprehend simple instructions, short correspondence, and memos.
- Ability to write simple correspondence.
- Ability to effectively interview patients/clients and accurately record medical information.
- Ability to effectively present information in one-on-one and small group situations to clients, and other employees of the organization.
- Ability to effectively relate pertinent information with medical and social service professionals.
- Work requires the ability to communicate orally and to hear or communicate with patients, families, colleagues and community stakeholders.
- Must be comfortable working and serving in a diverse and inclusive environment, and operating in a collaborative, shared leadership environment with supervision where applicable.
- Must possess a personal presence that is characterized by a sense of honesty, integrity, and caring with the ability to inspire and motivate others to promote the philosophy, mission, vision, goals, and values of Ellis Medicine.
- Should be able to push/pull, lift/move 15 lb., be able to perform moderately difficult manual manipulations such as using a keyboard, writing, and filing for extended periods of time, must be able to perform tasks which require hand-eye coordination such as data entry, typing and using photo copiers.
- Mobility requirements may include the ability to be stationary at a workstation for a prolonged period of time in addition to being able to squat or be mobile for a reasonable length of time and distance.
- Communication requirements include the ability to comprehend the spoken English language in addition to being able to communicate and read the English language.
Responsibilities
- Serve as the primary point of contact for the discharge planning team
- Provide daily guidance, mentoring, and support
- Assist with onboarding, training, and ongoing competency development
- Monitor workloads and assist with assignment distribution to ensure equitable coverage
- Address workflow issues, escalate barriers, and support problem resolution
- Ensure discharge plans are safe, patient centered, and aligned with regulatory requirements
- Promote timely discharge planning to support patient flow and reduce avoidable delays
- Provide secondary review as needed
- Serve as a liaison between the discharge planning team and leadership
- Participate in interdisciplinary rounds and performance discussions as needed
- Inshore documentation meets hospital, regulatory, and accreditation standards.
- Monitor key performance indicators (length of stay, readmissions, discharge timeliness)
- Support audits, quality initiatives, and process improvement efforts
- Reinforce policies, procedures, and best practices
- Provide coverage for discharge planners as needed during high census or absences
- Maintain a working knowledge of daily patient flow and discharge barriers
- Model professionalism, accountability, and patient-centered care
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
Education Level
High school or GED
