ACO Palliative Care Navigator

Baptist Health Arkansas; Little Rock (AR); On-site; USD 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

Baptist Health Arkansas is seeking a Palliative Care Navigator to coordinate upstream palliative services for ACO patients. The role involves goals-of-care conversations, advance care planning, and seamless transitions across inpatient, outpatient, and post-acute settings.

The Navigator works under clinical direction within Population Health Services, ensuring timely recognition of palliative and hospice needs and acting as a continuous contact for patients and teams.

Qualifications

• Must hold an active, unencumbered Arkansas license as RN or LMSW.
• BSN preferred for RN candidates; LCSW preferred for Social Work candidates.
• Minimum 2 years of clinical or patient-facing healthcare experience required.
• Experience with palliative care, hospice, oncology, transitions of care, or care management preferred.
• Experience conducting goals-of-care and advance care planning conversations preferred.

Responsibilities

• Identify ACO-attributed patients on a readmission trajectory and provide upstream palliative navigation.
• Facilitate goals-of-care conversations, advance care planning, and coordinated transitions.
• Serve as a single contact across inpatient, outpatient, and post-acute settings to address palliative and hospice needs.

Skills

Clinical navigation

Palliative care experience

Communication skills

Documentation skills

Education

Arkansas RN license

LMSW license (CSWE-accredited)

Tools

Epic

Population health analytics

Job description

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Summary:

The Palliative Care Navigator is a clinical navigator within the Population Health Services Organization, accountable to the ACO. The Navigator proactively identifies ACO-attributed patients on a readmission trajectory and delivers upstream palliative navigation — goals-of-care conversations, advance care planning, and coordinated transitions — for readmitted patients, rather than waiting for an inpatient palliative consult to be initiated. Operating under assigned clinical direction and PHSO operational supervision, the Navigator serves as a single, continuous point of contact across inpatient, outpatient, and post-acute settings to ensure palliative and hospice needs are recognized and addressed in a timely manner.

Other information:

• Active, unencumbered license in the State of Arkansas as either a Registered Nurse (RN) or a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) from a CSWE-accredited program is required.
• Registered Nurse candidates: Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) preferred. Social work candidates: Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) is preferred.
• A minimum of 2 years of clinical or patient-facing healthcare experience is required. Experience in palliative care, hospice, oncology, transitions of care, or care management is preferred.
• Experience conducting goals-of-care and advance care planning conversations preferred.
• Strong interpersonal, communication, and documentation skills; ability to manage workload and prioritize independently.
• Familiarity with accountable care organizations, value‑based care, or population health initiatives is preferred.
• Proficiency with Epic or comparable population health analytics platforms is preferred.
• Advanced certification in hospice and palliative care or case management (e.g., CHPN, APHSW-C, CCM) preferred.

This job will be authorized80.00 hours bi-weekly.

Today, Baptist Health is Arkansas' most comprehensive healthcare organization with more than 250 points of access that include 11 hospitals, urgent care centers, a senior living community, and over 100 primary and specialty care clinics in Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma.