Patient Advocate

Westchester Medical Center; Town of Mount Pleasant (NY); On-site; USD 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

Westchester Medical Center seeks a Patient Advocate to act as liaison between patients, families, and ambulatory services, ensuring patient-centered care adheres to regulatory guidelines and the organization’s mission.

Under the Senior Director, Patient Advocacy, the role supports complaint handling, service facilitation, and patient rights education, fostering de-escalation and collaborative problem-solving across care teams.

Qualifications

• 6-8 years of experience in patient advocacy, patient experience or customer service.
• Bachelor’s degree in counseling, advocacy, or related healthcare discipline, or equivalent combination of experience and education.
• Superior customer-service and communication skills with emphasis on de-escalation.
• Conversant with evidence-based best-practice advocacy standards and HIPAA knowledge.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with professionals and clinical staff.

Responsibilities

• Advocates for patient needs, including complaints, service facilitation, and language/special needs services.
• Handle calls to the Ambulatory Patient Experience Line and escalate as needed.
• Educate practice staff regarding patient advocacy to enhance the patient experience.
• Resolve patient complaints in a timely manner in collaboration with leadership.
• Track patient complaints and follow up to ensure resolution.
• Maintain proficiency with Patient Rights, HCAHPS, and regulatory requirements.

Job description

Job Summary:

The Patient Advocate is the liaison between the patients, families, and WMCHealth Medical Practices/Ambulatory Services, to ensure that patient-centered care complies with all local, state and federal regulatory guidelines and reflects the organization’s mission and goals. Under the supervision of the Senior Director, Patient Advocacy, WMC, an incumbent of this class ensures high-quality advocacy services; assuring patients of their rights as delineated in the Patient Bill of Rights, effective and expedient complaint management, service facilitation and service recovery.

Responsibilities:

• Advocates for the patient’s needs, including complaints, conflicts, service facilitations, advanced directives, proxy, language and special needs services.
• Handle all calls to WMC Health Ambulatory Patient Experience Line to include escalation to practice leadership team and clinical leadership.
• Provides education to practice staff regarding patient advocacy and to enhance the patient experience.
• Work with practice leadership to resolve any patient complaints, including response to the patient, in a timely manner.
• Responsible for the tracking of all patient complaints/inquires to WMC Health Ambulatory Patient Experience Line.
• Conducts required follow-up to resolve complaints, and service facilitation.
• Maintains proficiency with Patient Rights, HCAHPS, and other regulatory requirements and, if requested, can educate others.
• Provides education related to HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) to patients and staff
• Performs related tasks to ensure the effective and efficient delivery of services.
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications/Requirements:

Experience:

6 -8 years of experience with a focus on patient advocacy, patient experience and/or customer service.

Education:

A Bachelor’s degree in counseling, advocacy, or a related healthcare discipline, or an equivalent combination of experience and education may be substituted for degree requirement.

Licenses / Certifications:

Other:

• Superior customer-service and communication skills with emphasis on de-escalation
• Conversant with current evidence-based best-practice advocacy standards, research and competencies in the field of patient advocacy in a high-acuity health care network;
• Proven problem-solving skills, ability to make effective decisions, and be understanding and supportive of patients
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with a wide variety of professionals and clinical staff.
• Sound professional judgment; maturity; empathy; keen sensitivity; flexibility; dependability.
• Bilingual in Spanish a plus