WHAT DOES AN ADMISSIONS SPECIALIST DO?
Published: Nov 20, 2024 - An Admissions Specialist establishes and manages recruitment territories in collaboration with senior admissions leaders, ensuring targeted and strategic outreach. Coordinates social media efforts on platforms like Instagram and Twitter, and maintains the admissions website to ensure current and prospective students receive updated and relevant information. Acts as a liaison for IT projects, processes admission data, monitors application files, and provides counseling and educational instruction to prospective medical school students.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Admissions Specialist
1. Admissions Specialist Duties
- Interdepartmental Liaison: Be a liaison between clinical and administrative staff.
- Customer Interaction: Listening to customers’ needs and making appropriate recommendations regarding the proper place in list of services.
- Program Promotion: Promoting treatment programs and world-class clinicians.
- Value Communication: Communicating the value of programs and how important it is to seek help for addiction.
- Appointment Coordination: Scheduling and confirming appointments in a professional and timely manner.
- Admission Management: Responsible for meeting with new patients and families at the time of admission, completion of admission paperwork, and completion of the Post-Acute Admission Clerical Process.
- Team Coordination: Responsible to work effectively with the Interdisciplinary team to coordinate social services and transition planning for each patient.
- Referral Management: Responsible for completing patient referrals as directed and in compliance with all state and federal regulations.
- Family Communication Coordination: Coordinates family communication as directed by the clinical care team to ensure appropriate delivery of the team's recommendations and to assist patients and families with care transitions.
- Documentation Management: Responsible for completing all documentation related to the admission and discharge transition processes including assessments, progress notes, care plans, NOMNC, and social history.
- Counseling and Education: Responsible for providing counseling and education to and for any patient or family member in order to identify any personal or social needs or concerns.
- Committee Participation: Actively participates in committees/meetings as assigned by the Director of Patient Transitions.
2. Admissions Specialist Details
- System Maintenance: Actively participates in the maintenance of 24/7 daily systems to maximize patient flow and optimize bed capacity across the enterprise.
- Communication Support: Supports centralized communications between referring and accepting provider services.
- Capacity Monitoring: Monitors future admissions and discharges to determine impact on patient flow, resources, and enterprise capacity.
- Collaborative Coordination: Communicates and collaborates with Access Nurse and Admission Specialist staff in triage, prioritization, and all bed assignment activities associated with accurate patient transfer and placement needs.
- Departmental Collaboration: Collaborates with nursing and other ancillary departments to maximize day-to-day patient and bed flow management.
- Operational Leadership: Preparing for and leading bed meetings, monitoring, interacting with, and ensuring accuracy of electronic patient placement systems data, providing backup for patient placement discussions and decisions across the enterprise.
- Standardization Implementation: Utilizes standardized patient placement processes across all areas of responsibility. Assigns locations/beds for patients.
- Information Dissemination: Communicates hospital census information.
- Data Accuracy: Corrects reported census errors and acts as a resource to ensure accurate census and patient charges.
- Regulatory Compliance: Implements HIPAA privacy regulations and Patient Bill of Rights and acts as a resource for others in the organization.
- Emergency Preparedness: Oversees emergency and electronic back-up methods and procedures to support patient flow.
- Process Improvement Feedback: Provides feedback to the supervisors related to process delays.
- Strategic Planning: Meets regularly with Transfer Center team members to discuss, problem-solve, and develop mitigation strategies related to improvement of patient flow.
- Strategic Engagement: Actively engages in daily implementation of strategic goals as they relate to capacity management, patient flow, and department development.
- Policy Support: Interprets and supports policies, procedures, and safety standards to facilitate daily operations.
- Relationship Building: Develops and promotes long-term relationships with referring facilities.
- Direct Support: Provides direct support to Admission Specialist II and Access Nurse.
3. Admissions Specialist Responsibilities
- Customer Service Excellence: Provides high-quality customer service by meeting and exceeding the expectations and requirements of internal and external clients.
- Customer Needs Analysis: Understands customer’s needs and uses this information to prioritize what the organization must do to fulfill them.
- Professional Competence: Consistently demonstrates competency in all aspects of the position, including a strong commitment to ethical practice, completes work with integrity in an efficient and effective manner.
- Service Improvement: Develops and contributes ideas to enhance the quality of service provided in the department and organization.
- Professional Appearance: Presents a professional appearance in business casual attire appropriate to the setting.
- Productivity and Efficiency: Meets or exceeds established work deadlines, uses time and resources appropriately, meets production goals and objectives.
- Program Coordination: Coordinate efforts to develop and implement successful pre-college programs (e.g., summer, weekend, and other special programs) in line with enrollment targets.
- Program Management: Oversee application process to pre-college programs and produce all applicable data reporting.
- Vendor Relationship Management: Manage relationships with external vendors for services related to outreach initiatives.
- Outreach and Recruitment: Conduct considerable local outreach including travel to high schools to meet with prospective/current students, counselors, and parents.
- Admissions Assistance: Assists with application review during peak reading periods.
- Scheduling and Information Management: Scheduling for all locations, answering questions about clinics such as treatment, medications use to treat patients, services provided and other questions pertaining to facility and patient care.
- Communication Skills: Proper communication etiquette, (Voice, tone, knowledge of practice, fast pace).
- Schedule Management: Monitoring schedule changes and being able to add or remove patients as necessary for adequate flow of schedule.
- Data Management: Properly record and gather data for scheduling new patients.
4. Admissions Specialist Accountabilities
- Policy Compliance: Reviews and evaluates new and returning student applications to determine admissibility for certificate, undergraduate, and graduate programs based on University policies and processes.
- Decision-Making: Reviews and renders admissions decisions for students.
- Document Management: Ensures all documents related to admissions process are managed, maintained, and on file in accordance with departmental deadlines and procedures.
- Process Management: Document management, transcript processing, and other admissions processes.
- Eligibility Assessment: Conduct or facilitate program-specific eligibility reviews to determine eligibility into graduate programs.
- Student Classification: Identify provisional students accurately for the Admissions Committee.
- Committee Collaboration: Participate in a weekly review of Admission Committee student decisions.
- Inbox Management: Assist with managing the department inbox.
- Administrative Support: Provide administrative and operational support to the Director of Admissions.
- Reporting: Complete and submit department reports under the direction of the Director of Admissions.
- Training Coordination: Ensure that staff have received all required trainings.
- Scheduling and Staff Management: Assist with scheduling, and FTE management (overtime and meal-pen alerts).
- Verification Processing: Complete verification of benefits/pre-certifications.
5. Admissions Specialist Functions
- Territory Management: Establish and maintain recruitment territory in conjunction with Dean for Admissions, Associate Director of Admissions, and other admissions personnel.
- Outcome Reporting: Report recruitment outcomes related to virtual and on-ground visits with prospective candidates and advisors from premedical school programs within designated territory.
- Social Media Coordination: Coordinate social media management using Instagram and Twitter platforms.
- Website Maintenance: Maintain and update SSOM Admissions website.
- IT Liaison: Act as the primary liaison during IT projects between the Office of Admissions and Loyola’s IT team.
- Data Processing: Execute data processing for reports, marketing materials, and other data requests.
- File Monitoring: Monitor and process file movement for the Review Committee.
- Committee Participation: Serve as ex-officio member of the Executive Committee on Admissions.
- Admissions Counseling: Help with counseling and advising potential applicants on admissions requirements through on-campus informational sessions, re-applicant counseling, and phone, email, and walk-in inquiries.
- Educational Instruction: Provide instruction to potential medical school applicants through an educational summer program.
- Patient Qualification: Qualify patients based on admissions criteria.
- Crisis Management: Handle high-stress calls with patients who may be in crisis.
- Call Routing: Route calls from qualified patients to admissions team.
- Administrative Support: Perform general administrative work such as filing and data entry.