Lead Triage

Asheville Ear Nose & Throat; Asheville (NC); On-site; USD 36,000 - 48,000; Full time

Job summary

Asheville Ear Nose & Throat is seeking a triage coordinator to act as a patient-physician liaison, handling medical questions, outbound referrals, and coordinating care through the EMR. The role focuses on clear communication, triage of patient needs, and timely forwarding of information to the appropriate physician.

Responsibilities include receiving patient calls, forwarding messages, scheduling follow-ups, pulling and uploading records, and ensuring all documentation and referrals are

Qualifications

• High school diploma or GED equivalent.
• 2 years of experience in a medical office preferred.
• Experience using EMR preferred.
• Clinical experience.

Responsibilities

• Receive calls from patients regarding medical questions, outbound referrals and testing, post-surgical concerns, or other needs. Communicate patient questions and gather history for physician review.
• Receive messages from patients via EMR messaging system and forward to MD or correct party.
• Schedule follow-up appointments as directed by doctors as needed.
• Pull records from hospital EHR and upload into patient charts prior to appointments.
• Send outgoing orders and referrals to facilities and ensure completion.
• Ensure office visit notes, imaging, and lab results are received and assigned to the appropriate physician.
• Call patients with results and relay any follow-up questions to physicians.

Skills

EMR navigation

Telephone triage

Written and verbal communication

De-escalation

Scheduling

Education

High school or GED

2 years medical office experience (preferred)

EMR experience preferred

Clinical experience

Tools

None

Job description

Job Summary

The triage coordinator will contribute to AENT by being liaisons between patient and physician through receiving calls with medical questions from patients, sending outgoing orders and referrals, and communicating with other coordinators to ensure excellent care for our patients.

Duties / Responsibilities

Patient Physician Liaison

• Receive calls from patients regarding medical questions, outbound referrals and testing, post-surgical concerns, or other needs. Converse with patients in a polite, pleasant, and efficient manner. Communicate patient’s questions and ask additional appropriate questions regarding the patient’s symptoms and medical history. Communicate these questions to their appropriate physician through the EMR (tasks).
• Receive messages from patients via EMR messaging system (“IntraMail”) and forward to MD as appropriate, or to the correct party.
• Schedule follow-up appointments as directed by the doctors as needed.
• Schedule follow up appointments for ER patients with the correct on call physician. Pull records from the Hospitals EHR system and upload them into the patient’s chart in ModMed prior to their appointment.

Sending Orders and Referrals

• Send outgoing orders and referrals to the correct facility and follow through to make sure each patient’s order or referral is completed appropriately.
• Ensure office visit notes, imaging reports, and lab and pathology results are received, imported into the patient’s chart and “tasked” to the appropriate physician in a timely manner.
• Call patients, as directed by MD, with results of pathology, imaging, or labs. Send messages to the physicians with any follow-up questions patients may have regarding results.

Department Responsibilities

• Discuss patient’s plan of care with other offices as needed per request of MDs.
• Send refill requests to physicians, received either by fax or by phone calls from patients, and ensure medications are prescribed to the appropriate pharmacy. Always follow up with patient once the prescriptions are called in or sent in by the physician and notate in the task.
• Complete prior authorizations for prescriptions as needed.
• Keep paper records of all outgoing tasks to ensure all patients are contacted back in a timely manner. If you are not receiving a response from a physician, walk to the MA station and ask the appropriate physician in person. If the answer is given verbally, notate the conversation in the task and close it.
• Check your sent faxes at the end of the day to ensure all items were successful. Resend or reach out to any offices that were unsuccessful.
• Check department teams’ tasks and buckets daily when they are absent to ensure items are not left.

Required Skills / Abilities

Skills:

• Skill in navigating EMR for check-in processes
• Skill in handling incoming phone calls and triaging appropriately.
• Skill in written and verbal communication.
• Skill in de-escalation.
• Skill in scheduling patients appropriately

Education / Experience

• HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION OR GED EQUIVALENT
• TWO YEARS’ EXPERIENCE IN A MEDICAL OFFICE (PREFERRED)
• EXPERIENCE USING EMR PREFERRED.
• CLINICAL EXPERIENCE

Physical Requirements / Mental Requirements / Work Environment

Work environment is fast paced but professional and friendly. Work requires movement throughout the office, sitting for periods of time, stooping, bending, and stretching for files and supplies. Employee will occasionally be asked to lift files or equipment weighing up to 30 pounds. Position requires manual dexterity sufficient to operate a keyboard, a computer, telephone, calculator, copier.