Senior Acute Mental Health Flow Lead

North Island - Waikato Hamilton; Hamilton; On-site; NZD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is seeking an Acute Services Flow Coordinator to act as the senior clinical interface between Emergency Departments and Acute Mental Health Services across Waikato. You will oversee clinical presentations, support timely patient flow, and enhance data accuracy and workforce capability.

You will lead improvements, influence pathways, and deliver targeted education across district sites including rural EDs, contributing to equitable, patient‑centred care.

Qualifications

• Advanced mental health assessment and clinical decision‑making for high‑risk presentations.
• Experience working across acute mental health and Emergency Department settings.
• Strong quality improvement and analytical capability using audit data to identify trends.
• Ability to provide clinical leadership, specialist advice and targeted education.
• Commitment to timely, accurate and patient‑centred care with equity and Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations.

Responsibilities

• Provide advanced oversight of mental health presentations across Waikato EDs, including rural sites, and proactively identify and support the management of ED breaches.
• Appropriate liaison with rural emergency departments including AVL assessment where indicated.
• Lead review of mental health ED presentations to improve coding accuracy, documentation, data integrity and consistency.
• Provide advanced clinical assessment, specialist advice and decision‑making support in complex or high‑acuity presentations. Facilitate crisis assessments where indicated.
• Lead audit, analysis and quality improvement activity, monitoring breach patterns, coding accuracy and performance against key indicators including ED 6‑hour targets.
• Deliver targeted education and work collaboratively with ED and Acute Mental Health Services to strengthen pathways, escalation processes and district‑wide practice.

Skills

Advanced MH assessment

Clinical decision-making

Quality improvement

Analytical capability

Clinical leadership

Equitable care

Job description

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is seeking an Acute Services Flow Coordinator to act as the senior clinical interface between Emergency Departments and Acute Mental Health Services across Waikato. You will oversee clinical presentations, support timely patient flow, and enhance data accuracy and workforce capability.

You will lead improvements, influence pathways, and deliver targeted education across district sites including rural EDs, contributing to equitable, patient‑centred care.