Patient Access Specialist - Access Center

UTMB Health•Webster, TX

2d•Onsite

About The Position

The Patient Access Specialist represents UTMB to callers and creates a nurturing, competent, and confident atmosphere for people contacting the Access Center. The role determines callers’ needs and helps them navigate multiple functions and departments while providing professional, empathetic, and efficient service. The position supports appointment scheduling, patient registration, referrals, physician consultation requests, and the resolution or escalation of patient concerns. It also helps facilitate the consumer online appointment request system and works with Access Center nursing staff to identify and resolve urgent patient issues. The role requires knowledge of UTMB’s clinical departments, locations, contacts, scheduling procedures, and relevant institutional and clinic guidelines. Specialists use multiple software and media applications to manage patient information and support patient care, while enforcing UTMB regulations and guidelines. The position is onsite Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and includes holidays. Employees may qualify for hybrid and/or remote scheduling after successfully completing training and meeting performance expectations.

Requirements

Associate’s degree and no experience required; an equivalent combination of relevant education and experience may be considered.
Ability to provide high-level customer service while handling a high volume of calls and multitasking.
Ability to assess caller needs, concerns, and call priority and determine appropriate solutions or escalation.
Knowledge of appointment scheduling processes and clinic guidelines, or ability to learn them.
Ability to communicate professionally and empathetically and support accurate triage.
Ability to use software applications and multiple media systems to manage patient information and facilitate care.
Ability to obtain and update patient demographic and insurance information.

Nice To Haves

Previous experience in a healthcare setting.
Previous experience in a high-volume call center environment.

Responsibilities

Provide high-level customer service for the 24/7, 365-day-a-year Call Center.
Answer a high volume of calls while multitasking and using available resources to schedule appointments and assist callers.
Communicate positively and professionally, providing callers with an empathetic and reassuring experience.
Analyze caller concerns and determine the appropriate course of action to address or resolve them.
Schedule appointments for UTMB clinics, and cancel or reschedule appointments according to patient needs and clinic guidelines.
Communicate callers’ requests and determine appropriate solutions.
Escalate patient concerns and issues using defined processes.
Preregister patients as required; obtain and update patient demographic and insurance information to help ensure accurate records.
Work with Access Center nursing staff to identify and resolve urgent patient issues.
Listen to and restate caller concerns to support accurate triage and effective communication.
Facilitate physician consultation requests and assist with patient referrals when appropriate.
Use AMCOM, EPIC, Invision, CECC, and other applications to store and manage patient information and facilitate care.
Use multiple media applications together to resolve caller concerns, applying each system appropriately and following UTMB regulations and guidelines.
Maintain knowledge of institutional clinical departments and resources, locations, contact information, scheduling and area-specific guidelines, personnel resources, age-specific and disease-process-specific guidelines, and basic consumer health plan guidelines.
Understand clinic procedures and scheduling processes across clinic areas, educate callers, and use software to make appointments.
Apply critical thinking to determine call priority and support nursing intervention.
Expedite callers’ concerns to appropriate individuals to enhance customer confidence.
Support the consumer online appointment request system.
Perform related duties as required.