Lead Social Worker

Phoenix Children's Hospital•Phoenix, AZ

4d•Onsite

About The Position

This position provides leadership, coaching, and mentoring for social work staff; provides services for patients and families to assigned areas; is available to assist staff in problem resolution and staffing situations; escalates issues as necessary; is responsible for day-to-day program operations and, is responsible for managing staffing coverage to assigned areas to meet acuity needs. The position provides support and assistance to staff in the course of daily operations, ensures compliance with established hospital and departmental missions, policies, procedures, and all applicable regulations and standards and to achieve Department goals. This position reports to the Manager of Social Services or designee.

Responsibilities

Monitors daily operational activities in assigned work areas to confirm workflow effectiveness, to assist staff with problem resolution and trouble-shooting issues, and to manage compliance with regulatory and licensing requirements
Provides guidance, mentoring, and direction to help staff achieve optimal outcomes for patients and families and results in ongoing staff development.
Recommends changes to improve Department goals, and assists in implementing approved protocols, policies, and guidelines
Provides coaching, mentoring and leadership to assist staff in achieving optimal outcomes in a cost-effective manner. Monitors for appropriate resource use. Ensures timeliness of care and promptly escalates issues as necessary to prevent delays in care or in admission/discharge
Participates in hospital and departmental operational initiatives to improve care.
Functions as part of a leadership team with the Social Work Supervisor and the Social Services Manager on operational changes, quality improvement and/or productivity issues for the Social Work Department
Functions as an Allscripts Care Management (ACM) super-user.
Rotates on-call responsibilities with other assigned staff.
Monitors staff coverage and responsible for adjusting coverage as needed to meet the needs of the organization. Coverage may be modified to address acuity needs, census fluctuations, proactively address possible delays in care, and/or to avoid delays in discharge.
Coordinates work activities of assigned staff to ensure achievement of established goals, objectives, and outcomes
Participates in the orientation of new staff to the organization, department, and to department policies and procedures
Provides performance feedback when performance appraisals are completed.
Monitors consistency and timeliness of documentation across the social work department
Completes clinical record documentation in a timely manner, including delineation of treatment goals, therapeutic interventions, coordination of care activities, treatment recommendations, etc. to assist colleagues and medical team, as required by facility procedures.
Completes handoff documentation to Social Work Department per Department procedures
Facilitates and communicates with the patient/family and interdisciplinary staff to identify and resolve complaints about care and/or potential barriers to discharge.
Completes clinical record documentation as required by facility procedures in a timely manner.
Participates in hospital and department operational and quality improvement initiatives.
Proactively evaluates systems and practices to identify opportunities for quality improvement and for change that improves efficiency, financial stewardship or effectiveness.
Responds to communication within a timely manner.
Excellent communication skills with all internal and external customers.
Provides excellent service in interactions with all customers, i.e. coworkers, patients, visitors, physicians, volunteers, etc.
Develops plans and coordinates effective treatment interventions, develops comprehensive treatment plans, designs and implements therapeutic interventions
Cultivates and maintains effective interaction/ communication with members of the medical staff, nursing staff, case managers, peers and families to facilitate care coordination provide and continuity of care between inpatient and outpatient.
Develops treatment goals and objectives of disciplines involved in patient care, plans and coordinates effective treatment interventions, develops and implements discharge planning
As necessary, initiates and/or attends care conferences, interdisciplinary team rounds, and/or critical incidents/stress debriefings
Refers cases identified as risk management issues, peer review issues, or quality issues to appropriate departmental units.
Conducts or facilitates individual, group and family therapy meetings to assess and treat chemical dependency, mental health and/or family system issues.
Reviews open patient records to assure compliance with policy and procedures and delivery of services per treatment plan.
Develops home contracts, level contracts, goals and objectives, according to patient and family need.
Maintains professional competency by regularly participating in a variety of educational programs and in services, reviewing relevant professional publications, participating in community based committees related to service line responsibilities, and/or participating in professional societies to ensure ongoing awareness of current methodologies, practices and philosophies as applied to the patient care population.
Maintains current knowledge of community and other resources networks to meet patient and family needs, provides relevant resources, and assist, as necessary with connecting the patient/ family to the relevant resources.
Transplant social workers receive ongoing education in the field of transplantation.
Participates fully in Clinical Supervision, as applicable, in accordance with Board of Behavioral Health Examiners requirements.
Performs miscellaneous job related duties as requested.