Intake Clinician RN- FT Days

Summit BHC•Harlingen, TX

6d•Onsite

About The Position

The Intake Clinician RN performs the daily operations of patient intake and/or admissions. This may include screening, financial counseling, insurance verification, and assessment, either at or outside the facility, depending on patient or hospital needs. The role involves screening and assessing admissions to evaluate clinical and medical appropriateness, communicating this information to a physician for admission and level of care decisions. The Intake RN works closely with the business office, nursing, and clinical staff, as well as external parties, to ensure timely patient admissions and responds to admission inquiries.

Requirements

Graduation from an accredited school of nursing required.
Valid current RN license from the state or from a compact state, where applicable.
CPR and de-escalation and restraint certification required (training available upon hire and offered by facility).
One or more years' experience in mental health or substance use disorder admissions preferred.
Experience in clinical interviewing, patient assessment, referral, treatment planning, communicating with external review organizations or comparable entities.
Experience in the managed care pre-certification process, level of care assessments and utilization.
Outstanding interpersonal and interviewing and assessment skills.
Skill in telephone etiquette and paging procedures.

Nice To Haves

BSN preferred.

Responsibilities

Facilitates admissions and assessment processes for incoming patients.
Provides initial evaluation and initiates the integrated assessment, documenting patient symptoms, functioning, and needs.
Collaborates with other facility medical and psychiatric staff to ensure appropriate recommendations and admissions.
Communicates projected admissions to designated internal representatives in a timely manner.
Provides additional coverage for the Call Center Team, including answering phones, processing admission requests, reviewing and accepting patients, verifying insurance, and assisting with insurance pre-certifications during high-volume periods.
Ensures all medical admission documentation is gathered from external sources prior to patient admission and secures initial pre-authorization for treatment and admission.
Reviews patient charts to determine medical necessity and staffs each referral and assessment with the appropriate physician to obtain orders, recommendations, and DSM-V diagnosis, when appropriate.
Communicates treatment recommendations to and coordinates with other treatment teams.
May administer patients’ medications and follows all physician's orders in consultation with a psychiatrist and in accordance with established hospital and licensing agency protocols.
Educates patients on medication side effects, assesses effectiveness, questions compliance, and adjusts medications under psychiatrists' supervision as needed; monitors lab results to validate medication compliance.
May maintain accountability for the administration, recording, control, and security of medications, including narcotics.
Assures completion of Adverse Drug Reaction forms as necessary.
Maintains knowledge of the most common medications used for psychiatric patients.
Advocates for the lowest level of care consistent with the patient’s needs.
Coordinates admission and transfer between levels of care within the facility.
Assures thorough, accurate documentation is completed for all patients on each shift and facilitates the response to requests for services, including the initial response, assessment, referral process, designation of appropriate level of care, initiation/admission into services, and appropriate follow-up activity.
Responds to inquiries about the facility within facility policy timeframes.
Performs insurance benefit verifications, disseminating the information gathered to the patient, their families, and other appropriate facility staff.
Provides accurate and ongoing assessment of patient status in the admissions process.
Reviews client charts to determine medical necessity and staffs each referral and assessment with appropriate physician to obtain orders, recommendations, and DSM-V diagnosis, when appropriate.
Performs other duties as assigned, including assisting on patient unit.
May administer clients’ medications.
Follows all physician's orders in consultation with psychiatrist and in accordance with established hospital and licensing agency protocols.
Educates patients on side effects, and through discussions determines the effectiveness of education; questions compliance and adjusts medications under psychiatrists' supervision as needed; monitors lab results to validate medication compliance.
May maintain accountability of administration, recording, control and security of medications, including narcotics.
Assures completion of Adverse Drug Reaction forms as necessary.
Maintains knowledge of the most common medications used for psychiatric clients.