Oncology New Patient Coordinator

Duke Careers•Durham, NC

About The Position

At Duke Health, we're driven by a commitment to compassionate care that changes the lives of patients, their loved ones, and the greater community. No matter where your talents lie, join us and discover how we can advance health together. About Duke University Hospital Pursue your passion for caring with Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, which is consistently ranked among the best in the United States. The largest of the four Duke Healthhospitals with 1062 patient beds, it features comprehensive diagnostic and therapeutic facilities, including a regional emergency/trauma center, an endo-surgery center, and more. General Description of the Job Class The Oncology New Patient Coordinator (NPC) is an integral part of the patient care team and is responsible for patient registration, scheduling, coordination of care activities and record collection for new Oncology patients. Registration and scheduling includes patient identification, demographic and insurance updates, appropriate physician or service identification, visit type, utilizing scheduling guidelines and questionnaires. This position requires independent decision making, critical thinking skills and excellent customer service in order to effectively schedule oncology patients with appropriate disease group and provider team in a timely manner. Full understanding of cancer staging, diagnosis and treatment is necessary to complete this job. The NPC is responsible for living Duke's values and demonstrating expected behaviors while contributing to creating a positive patient experience and building a positive work environment. The NPC will maintain a professional image over the phone and when representing their program.

Requirements

High school diploma
2 years' experience in a health care or health care scheduling position and 3 years' relevant work experience (call center, health care scheduling, financial clearance, customer service, education) required with no degree or an equivalent combination of relevant education and/or experience.
With a Bachelor's Degree, 1 year relevant work experience in a health care or health care scheduling position.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's Degree preferred

Responsibilities

First point of contact for patients, referring providers and care teams to coordinate oncology care.
Oversee complex process often requiring multiple calls to the patient, referring physician, previous facilities/providers to request records and record review with the clinical team.
Independently determine appropriate disease group, providers and type of appointments needed for all patients.
Appointment coordination is necessary as many oncology patients will see multiple providers on their first visit, need diagnostics and additional visits such as genetics. This is identified prior to the patient coming for the first time. This work must occur in a stepwise fashion to ensure smooth transitions and minimize disruptions for new patients accessing Duke
Have a full understanding of the cancers, providers, scheduling guidelines and necessary records within disease group.
Educate patients on cancer type, how cancer is diagnosed, how cancer is treated and different provider roles on their care team.
Requires understanding of scheduling guidelines across the DUHS system as this position is responsible for scheduling oncology care at all locations.
Receive and independently process all referrals to the Oncology access from different sources including phone, fax, e-mails, in-basket messages, and workqueue. Processing referrals may include creating new referrals in EPIC, working from a workqueue, registering new patient accounts, entering insurance information, scheduling and coordinating appointments, and sending out new patient packets.
Apply knowledge of registration policies and procedures and use appropriate scripting. Correctly add/edit demographic and insurance information.
Scheduling and coordination of appointments may include consults, procedures, studies, labs.
Identify additional support services the patient may require during first visit including, but not limited to, social work, nutrition, palliative care and/or survivorship.
Follow guidelines and provider template processes by using scheduling algorithms/decision trees to schedule appointments. Apply knowledge of scheduling policies and procedure (general and service/clinic specific), including self-pay and Medicaid out-of-county policy, VA Scheduling.
Collect medical records for new patients before initial visit by following department policy and procedure.
Contact the referring provider and treating hospitals to obtain all previous medical records. On average this will be 4 institutions that will need to be contacted.
Conduct review process for all new patients to ensure all records are complete and accurate in a timely manner.
Index all records into appropriate categories for review during Patient Review meetings and for providers.
Determine what diagnostic tests and procedures have been completed. In addition, identify necessary tests and procedures needed prior to new patient appointment. Coordinate orders with providers.
Utilize PowerShare to request outside imaging and utilize eHealth record templates to request outside records, imaging and pathology when appropriate.
Upload outside records to Epic and other appropriate systems as defined by providers in timely manner and communicate any issues to providers prior to appointments.
As part of the record collection process, often will need to place orders within EPIC to store outside images and/or interpret outside images in the Duke system.
Place orders within EPIC to have outside pathology slides read by Duke Pathology department.
Coordinate and/or participate in daily/weekly new patient review meetings with disease group providers.
Document patients, diagnosis and treatment information in Epic Flow Sheet in order to track all new patients and ensure all information is available for new patient visit.
Generate daily flow sheet reports for review.
Present patients for discussion, along with relevant health history and referral information.
Provide necessary follow up based on patient review discussion.
Participate in departmental meetings related to new patient access in Oncology.
Advise supervisor as to the status of current activities and additional or expanded program requirements.
Make recommendations for solutions to problems identified.
Maintain liaison with other programs within the Duke Oncology Access department to coordinate program business and to accomplish program objectives. Perform other related duties incidental to the work described herein