Registered Nurse, Patient Navigator - Full Time

Mercyhealth•Riverside, IL

About The Position

The RN Patient Navigator coordinates and facilitates patient care to ensure appropriate services and efficient resource utilization, improve coordination across the healthcare continuum, and contribute to better patient satisfaction and outcomes. The role provides compassionate, culturally sensitive, holistic nursing care in a clinical setting in support of Mercyhealth’s nursing mission, practice values, and strategic plan. The Patient Navigator provides case management, advocacy, and care coordination to hospital patients across a variety of settings, supporting seamless transitions and helping minimize delays and readmission risk. The position involves assessing patients’ coordination and discharge-planning needs, developing individualized plans for continuing care, making referrals to post-hospital providers, and collaborating with the care team to support timely discharge, complete patient education, and appropriate follow-up. The role also includes patient and family education about chronic conditions, clinical review under the Utilization Management Plan, and interventions to address financial risks to patients and the organization. This is a full-time, 40-hour-per-week, Monday–Friday day-shift position. Weekend and holiday work or on-call duty may be assigned. The role works independently with minimal guidance and has no supervisory responsibilities.

Requirements

Graduate of an accredited nursing program.
BSN, or upon hire an agreement to enroll in an accredited BSN completion program.
Current Registered Nurse license in the state of practice.
BLS/CPR certification required within 90 days.
Ability to work independently with minimal guidance.
Skilled in using voicemail and phone features.
Ability to use available technology for language interpretation.
Expert knowledge of Allscripts Care Management program and Epic EMR.
Ability to use Microsoft Outlook and basic knowledge of Excel and Word.
Ability to toggle easily between computer applications.
Ability to work or be on call on weekends and holidays as assigned; on-call duty requires accessibility by pager or cell phone and prompt response to pages by phone.
May require specific years of applicable experience to qualify, per department guidelines.
May include a color-blind test, per department guidelines.

Nice To Haves

Case Management Certification (ACM) preferred.
Certification within three years in a specialty approved by the CNO or designee, such as Case Management, Med/Surg, or Diabetic Education.

Responsibilities

Provide case management, advocacy, and care coordination to hospital patients in a variety of settings to support seamless care transitions and minimize delays or readmission risk.
Conduct early patient assessments through case-finding and referral to identify coordination and discharge-planning needs.
Develop individualized, patient-focused plans to meet continuing care needs.
Refer patients to post-hospital care providers using knowledge of community resources.
Collaborate with the healthcare team to ensure timely discharge, complete patient education and instructions, and appropriate follow-up.
Educate patients and families about chronic disease conditions using current clinical nursing knowledge.
Collaborate with staff nurses and physicians to ensure core-measure elements are met before discharge.
Conduct clinical reviews according to the Utilization Management Plan.
Identify and intervene in situations that pose financial risk to the patient or organization.