WHAT DOES A CARE COORDINATOR DO?

The Care Coordinator manages non-nursing aspects of patient care, ensuring the execution of care plans by reviewing and supporting order entries, medication refills, and patient education. This role involves handling lab orders, scheduling, and follow-ups, managing medication refill requests, and coordinating patient education on medical device usage. Additionally, this position's responsibilities include coordinating hospital admissions, cell collections for bone marrow transplants, and administering necessary post-transplant immunizations.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Care Coordinator

1. Care Coordinator Duties

  • Communication & Response Management: Responds timely to voice mails and EPIC in-basket messages based on the priority of the patient process.
  • Patient Interaction & Escalation: Prioritizes and responds to patient/caregiver questions via MyChart, phone, email, and fax regarding scheduling and care issues within scope; escalates all issues outside scope as appropriate.
  • Documentation Accuracy: Documents legibly, concisely, correctly, and completely to ensure team members can accurately assess the status of patients’ progress.
  • Clinical Procedure Adherence: Uses approved clinical resources and follows procedures appropriately.
  • Assessment & Planning Documentation: Compiles yearly team summary delineating team assessment and plan for all cleft craniofacial patients per ACPA guidelines; routes yearly team summary to primary care physicians and patients/caregivers.
  • Data Monitoring & Updates: Monitors department tracking tools and provides providers with real-time updates as appropriate.
  • Process Improvement Implementation: Initiates and implements processes to facilitate continual improvements related to data collection.
  • Conference & Meeting Support: Runs audiovisual equipment for weekly team conferences and quarterly teamwork meetings.
  • Medical Photography Management: Takes photos of each cleft patient at yearly team visits according to protocol and uploads photos into the patient chart.

2. Care Coordinator Details

  • Acute Care Management: Managing patient's acute care health requirements in a professional and safe manner.
  • Treatment Coordination: Establishing, monitoring, and coordinating patients' treatment plans, utilizing virtual technology and in partnership with home visiting provider team.
  • Patient Education: Educating patients about their condition and connecting patients with their health care providers.
  • Risk Management: Identifying/escalating to direct line manager and actively managing clinical risks.
  • Compliance Management: Managing compliance in line with relevant discipline and industry codes, competencies, standards, and acts.
  • Confidentiality Maintenance: Maintaining staff and consumer confidentiality according to professional standards.
  • Information Processing: Recording and processing clinical and administrative information in an accurate and timely manner.
  • Professional Development: Developing and maintaining professional competence through self-education.
  • Team Support: Supporting clinical team and acting as a role model.
  • Care Participation: Participating in care work as and when necessary is a requirement of this role.

3. Care Coordinator Responsibilities

  • Community Engagement: Build trusting relationships with the community teams to gain their commitment, reliability, and flexibility.
  • Support Allocation: Assign the right support workers to the service users in line with their requirements.
  • Role Modeling: Act as a role model for all employees, being approachable and available as well as being consistent in all actions and decisions.
  • Staff Experience Enhancement: Create a positive experience for new and existing staff members.
  • Staffing Coordination: Assist the Registered Manager and recruitment team in ensuring there are sufficient staff to meet the demands of the service.
  • Employee Reviews: Conduct regular reviews with employees and Service Users.
  • Feedback Facilitation: Hold regular staff and service user meetings to provide and receive feedback.
  • Complaint Management: Ensure complaints and suggestions are positively actioned and dealt with correctly.
  • Regulatory Compliance: Adhere to all CQC regulations and raise standards of care where possible.

4. Care Coordinator Job Summary

  • Clinical Care Coordination: Responsible for coordinating and managing the non-nurse aspects of the patient's clinical care process.
  • Care Plan Oversight: Reviews the plan of care to ensure it is being executed correctly.
  • Clinical Support: Works with the provider in clinic by providing support with order entry, AVS preparation, medication refills, and provides non-nursing support and education to the patient and family.
  • Order Management: Places lab and scheduling orders and follows up with patient to communicate appointment time.
  • Communication Management: Monitors the Epic Inbasket for messages that need attention from the patient, providers, and RNC and handles messages within certification scope.
  • Refill Management: Monitors Epic for refill requests and manages appropriately.
  • Patient Education: Provides education and documents patients' glucose meter use and pulse reading.
  • Authorization Handling: Performs authorizations and refill requests for Celgene products.
  • Immunization Administration: May administer post-transplant immunizations when needed.
  • Referral Coordination: Ensures patients follow through with outside referrals to other specialties, labs, and diagnostic imaging.
  • Hospital Coordination: Coordinates hospital admission and cell collection with inpatient and ancillary services needed for the bone marrow transplant patient and donor.

5. Care Coordinator Accountabilities

  • Patient Education: Provides program information and education to patients, family members, and referring physician office staff.
  • Multidisciplinary Collaboration: Participates in multidisciplinary patient conferences, providing information on patients' status to support decision-making related to patients' processes.
  • Communication Coordination: Acts as a communication link with physicians, referring physician offices, inpatient teams, and the Ambulatory Oncology clinic.
  • Information Accuracy: Provides accurate patient information.
  • Responsive Communication: Responds to voice mail and email messages based on the priority of patient process but with no more than a two-day turnaround time for response.
  • Meeting Attendance: Attends MD/department team meetings as appropriate.
  • Patient Triage: Triage and responds to patient questions in MyChart, phone calls, emails, and faxes regarding scheduling or care issues within the scope or escalate to RNC.
  • Clinical Coordination: Responsible for tasks such as arranging satellite clinics, works with TC to ensure patient results and orders are completed, monitored, and updated in EPIC.
  • Care Planning: Attends weekly huddles with provider and RNC to develop and review the plan of care with the care team.
  • Service Coordination: Orders and schedules ancillary services and procedures and communicates to the patient.