Patient Registrar

Mercyhealth Wisconsin and Illinois•Freeport, IL

11d•$17 - $28

About The Position

The Patient Registrar supports patient access and registration across emergency department, urgent care, inpatient, and outpatient settings. The role provides compassionate, professional service in fast-paced and high-pressure healthcare environments, while maintaining accurate patient records and supporting efficient daily operations. The Patient Registrar greets and assists patients, visitors, and customers; performs patient arrivals, check-ins, admissions, and pre-registration; collects and verifies demographic, insurance, guarantor, and billing information; obtains required signatures and documents; and helps coordinate patients with appropriate units and services. The role also supports emergency prioritization, patient communication, cash handling, work-queue resolution, telephone inquiries, visitor tracking, and department operations during downtime or disaster situations. This position is scheduled for 36 hours per week on the night shift. It may require alternate shifts, weekends, and overtime during peak periods. Some independent judgment is required, with alternatives limited by standard practices or procedures. The position has no supervisory responsibilities.

Requirements

High school graduate or equivalent preferred.
One to two years of customer service experience required.
Knowledge of computer systems, including navigation, typing, and data entry.
Detail-oriented, with strong oral and written communication skills.
Strong problem-solving, conflict-management, time-management, and stress-management skills in emotionally demanding situations.
Ability to exercise good judgment and independent decision-making within standard practices or procedures.
Ability to work independently and collaborate in a team environment.
Interpersonal skills to obtain needed patient information and communicate it to partners and providers.
Willingness to adapt to frequent changes in duties and workload.
May be required to work alternate shifts, weekends, and overtime during peak periods.

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of third-party payors.
Medical terminology.
EPIC knowledge.

Responsibilities

Greet patients, visitors, and customers warmly, anticipate their needs, and remain calm and helpful in difficult or emotionally demanding situations.
Participate in team-building, continuous quality improvement, educational activities, and Mercyhealth initiatives.
Provide shadowing and training to new partners.
Arrive patients to the emergency department and urgent care; sign in or check in hospital outpatient visits; and admit surgical and direct-admit patients.
Identify patients needing immediate care through visual assessment, prioritize registration based on symptom severity, monitor waiting-area conditions, and alert the triage RN when reassessment may be needed.
Schedule and check in hospital outpatient laboratory patients.
Use required patient identifiers to select the correct electronic medical record and reduce privacy, medical, and duplicate-record errors.
Enter patient complaints or symptoms in the appropriate severity order and complete required arrival information in the electronic medical record.
Generate patient armbands, face sheets, and labels; verify information before promptly applying armbands during traumas or other chaotic situations.
Gather and enter demographic, guarantor, and billing information into EPIC; obtain required signatures and documents for inpatient and outpatient registrations.
Verify and update insurance information; identify emergency-department patients with out-of-network insurance and complete related paperwork and account notes.
Identify uninsured patients and work with patient financial counselors to facilitate self-pay services; identify appropriate primary and secondary payees; and complete Medicare Secondary Payer Questionnaires as required.
Collect applicable copayments, self-pay payments, and, in some cases, service prepayments.
Assist in coordinating patients into the appropriate unit and notify other departments at hospital locations when patients have arrived.
Assist outside EMS/EMT agencies with patient arrivals and provide billing paperwork.
Perform pre-admission and pre-registration functions and provide admission information, including a VIP Folder when needed.
Obtain Medicare admission-form signatures within required timeframes and secure and return patient valuables according to Mercyhealth policy.
Support hospital staff during EPIC downtime or disaster mode and assist nursing staff with transportation vouchers and payment for transportation services.
Maintain an accurate cash drawer and close and balance it at the end of each shift according to cash-handling policy.
Manage work queues to resolve registration errors and support timely patient billing.
Determine when interpreter services are needed and use them effectively.
Log, answer, return, and transfer incoming telephone inquiries and make outbound calls as needed.
Monitor security cameras and door-entry systems and communicate relevant information to appropriate staff, patients, or visitors.
Address questions and concerns promptly, identify appropriate resources, and use service-recovery skills to resolve problems or service breakdowns.
Remain flexible and reliable as duties and workload change; manage the work schedule to complete tasks and assignments on time.
Maintain a friendly, approachable, professional demeanor and appearance.
Complete travel-screening questionnaires for patients, visitors, and customers entering the facility, and track patient visitors as appropriate under current hospital guidelines.
Provide directions and help or escort patients and visitors to the correct area.
Support coworkers within and across departments and communicate clearly and promptly with leadership, charge nurses, physicians, and partners.
Notify leadership of unusual occurrences or situations requiring leadership attention or action.
Use organizational and departmental resources efficiently and follow local, state, and federal healthcare regulations.
Perform light cleaning of registration, lobby, and waiting-room areas.
Complete required educational courses and perform other duties as assigned.