Patient Advocate

Lakeland Behavioral Health System; Springfield (MO); On-site; USD 42,000 - 54,000; Full time

Job summary

Lakeland Behavioral Health System seeks a Patient Rights/Grievance Specialist to educate patients and families, guide complaint processes, and report threats to patient safety to the appropriate staff.

The role emphasizes collaboration with risk management and department managers to resolve concerns promptly, maintain logs, and participate in staff training on patient safety and advocacy.

Qualifications

• High school diploma or equivalent required.
• Associate or Bachelor's degree in a clinical field preferred.
• Experience in customer service or risk management preferred.
• Experience with behavioral health patients preferred.

Responsibilities

• Facilitate patient/family grievance process, including processing the complaint, forwarding to the appropriate manager and communicating the resolution to the complainant.
• Collaborate with appropriate staff to develop acceptable resolutions to potential complaints.
• Identify process deficiencies that result in potential threats to patient rights or patient safety.
• Maintain the complaint and grievance logs up to date.
• Collaborate with risk department and department managers to ensure patient concerns are dealt with in a timely and appropriate manner.
• May participate in new hire orientation on educating staff on patient safety and advocacy.
• Identify critical customer service needs and discuss with supervisor and medical staff.

Skills

Customer service

Communication

Risk management

Education

High school diploma or equivalent

Associate or Bachelor's degree in a clinical field preferred

Tools

CRM software

Job description

Purpose Statement

Support patient rights efforts through educating patients and families, guiding complaint/grievance processes and reporting unresolved threats to patient safety to appropriate staff.

Essential Functions

• Facilitate patient/family grievance process to include processing the complaint, forwarding to the appropriate manager and communicating the resolution to the complainant for resolution purposes.
• Collaborate with appropriate staff to develop acceptable resolutions to potential complaints.
• Identify process deficiencies that result in possible threats to patient rights or patient safety.
• Maintain the complaint and grievance logs up to date.
• Collaborate with risk department and department managers to ensure patient concerns are dealt with in a timely and appropriate manner.
• May participate in new hire orientation on educating staff on patient safety and advocacy.
• Identify critical needs with regard to customer service and discuss with supervisor and medical staff.

Other Functions

• Perform other functions and tasks as assigned.

Education/Experience/Skill Requirements

• High school diploma or equivalent required. Associate or Bachelor's degree in a clinical field preferred.
• Experience in customer service or risk management preferred.
• Experience with behavioral health patients preferred.

Licenses/Designations/Certifications

• CPR and de-escalation/restraint certification required (training available upon hire and offered by facility).
• First aid may be required based on state or facility.

Additional Regulatory Requirements

While this job description is intended to be an accurate reflection of the requirements of the job, management reserves the right to add or remove duties from particular jobs when circumstances (e.g. emergencies, changes in workload, rush jobs or technological developments) dictate.

We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all applicants for employment regardless of an individual’s characteristics protected by applicable state, federal and local laws.

AHPILOT