Oncology New Patient Coordinator

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About Duke University Hospital

Pursue your passion for caring with Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, which is consistently ranked among the best in the United States. The largest of Duke Health's four hospitals with 1062 patient beds, it features comprehensive diagnostic and therapeutic facilities, including a regional emergency/trauma center, an endo-surgery center, and more.

Occ Summary

The Oncology New Patient Coordinator (NPC) is an integral part of the patient care team and is responsible for patient registration, scheduling, coordination of care activities and record collection for new Oncology patients. Registration and scheduling includes patient identification, demographic and insurance updates, appropriate physician or service identification, visit type, utilizing scheduling guidelines and questionnaires.

This position requires independent decision making, critical thinking skills and excellent customer service in order to effectively schedule oncology patients with appropriate disease group and provider team in a timely manner. Full understanding of cancer staging, diagnosis and treatment is necessary to complete this job. The NPC is responsible for living Duke's values and demonstrating expected behaviors while contributing to creating a positive patient experience and building a positive work environment. The NPC will maintain a professional image over the phone and when representing their program.

Work Performed

• Scheduling First point of contact for patients, referring providers and care teams to coordinate oncology care.
• Oversee complex process often requiring multiple calls to the patient, referring physician, previous facilities/providers to request records and record review with the clinical team.
• Independently determine appropriate disease group, providers and type of appointments needed for all patients.
• Appointment coordination is necessary as many oncology patients will see multiple providers on their first visit, need diagnostics and additional visits such as genetics.
• This is identified prior to the patient coming for the first time.
• This work must occur in a stepwise fashion to ensure smooth transitions and minimize disruptions for new patients accessing Duke and have full understanding of the cancers, providers, scheduling guidelines and necessary records within disease group.
• Educate patients on cancer type, how cancer is diagnosed, how cancer is treated and different provider roles on their care team.
• Requires understanding of scheduling guidelines across the DUHS system as this position is responsible for scheduling oncology care at all locations.
• Receive and independently process all referrals to the Oncology access from different sources including phone, fax, e-mails, in-basket messages, and workqueue.
• Processing referrals may include creating new referrals in EPIC, working from a workqueue, registering new patient accounts, entering insurance information, scheduling and coordinating appointments, and sending out new patient packets.
• Apply knowledge of registration policies and procedures and use appropriate scripting.
• Correctly add/edit demographic and insurance information.
• Scheduling and coordination of appointments may include consults, procedures, studies, labs.
• Identify additional support services the patient may require during first visit including, but not limited to, social work, nutrition, palliative care and/or survivorship.
•  Follow guidelines and provider template processes by using scheduling algorithms/decision trees to schedule appointments.
•  Apply knowledge of scheduling policies and procedures (general and service/clinic specific), including self-pay and Medicaid out-of-county policy, VA Scheduling.
•  Record Coordination: Collect medical records for new patients prior to initial visit by following department policy and procedure.
• Contact referring provider and treating hospitals to obtain all previous medical records.
•  On average, this will be 4 institutions that will need to be contacted.
• Conduct a review process for all new patients to ensure all records are complete and accurate in a timely manner.
• Index all records into appropriate categories for review during Patient Review meetings and for providers.
• Determine what diagnostic tests and procedures have been completed. In addition, identify the necessary tests and procedures needed prior to new patient appointment. Coordinate orders with providers.
• Utilize PowerShare to request outside imaging and utilize eHealth record templates to request outside records, imaging and pathology when appropriate.
• Upload outside records to Epic and other appropriate systems as defined by providers in a timely manner and communicate any issues to providers prior to appointments.
• As part of the record collection process, will often need to place orders within EPIC to store outside images and/or interpret outside images in the Duke system.
• Place orders within EPIC to have outside pathology slides read by Duke Pathology department.
• Patient Review Coordinate and/or participate in daily/weekly new patient review meetings with disease group providers.
• Document patients, diagnosis and treatment information in Epic Flow Sheet to track all new patients and ensure all information is available for new patient visit.
• Generate daily flow sheet reports for review.
• Present patients for discussion, along with relevant health history and referral information.
• Provide necessary follow-up based on the patient review discussion.
• Additional Duties: Participate in departmental meetings related to new patient access in Oncology.
• Advise the supervisor as to the status of current activities and additional or expanded program requirements. Make recommendations for solutions to problems identified. 
• Maintain liaison with other programs within the Duke Oncology Access department to coordinate program business and to accomplish program objectives.
• Perform other related duties incidental to the work described herein

Minimum Qualifications

Education

High school diploma; Bachelor's Degree preferred

Experience

2 years of experience in a health care or health care scheduling position and 3 years of relevant work experience (call center, health care scheduling, financial clearance, customer service, education) required with no degree or an equivalent combination of relevant education and/or experience. -OR- With a Bachelor's Degree, 1 year relevant work experience in a health care or health care scheduling position.

Duke is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy and pregnancy related conditions), sexual orientation or military status.

Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends onthe robust exchange of ideas—an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.

Essential Physical Job Functions: Certain jobs at Duke University and Duke University Health System may include essential job functions that require specific physical and/or mental abilities. Additional information and provision for requests for reasonable accommodation will be provided by each hiring department.