Patient Advocate, Social Work, 20 Hours, Days

C100 UMass Memorial Medical Center, Inc.; United States; On-site; USD 62,000 - 112,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Signing bonus

Job summary

UMass Memorial Health is seeking a Human Rights Officer to serve as a liaison between patients/visitors and the organization, improving patient experience and ensuring adherence to patient rights.

The role involves investigating complaints, coordinating with Legal and Risk Management, and promoting a culture of respect across licensed psychiatric facilities. LICSW licensure and a healthcare background are preferred.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in a healthcare related field.
• Current Massachusetts LICSW licensure (preferred).
• Excellent writing, communication, mediation and facilitation skills.
• Experience handling patient complaints and data analysis.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with stakeholders to prevent and remediate patient complaints.
• Investigate, document and report patient concerns with regulatory awareness.
• Educate staff on best practices for patient rights and respectful care.
• Use data to identify opportunities for improvement across the organization.

Skills

Excellent writing skills

Communication

Mediation

Facilitation

Data analysis

Education

Master's degree in healthcare related field

Job description

Are you an internal caregiver, student, or contingent worker/agency worker at UMass Memorial Health? Exemption Status: Exempt Hiring Range: $62,004.80 - $111,633.60 (based on a full time schedule of 40 hours per week). Please note that the final offer will vary based on scheduled hours. Compensation for part‑time or reduced schedules will be prorated based on scheduled weekly hours, experience, skills, qualifications, and internal equity considerations. Schedule Details: Monday through Friday Scheduled Hours: 20 hrs per week Shift: 4 - Mixed Shift, 4.5 Hours (United States of America) Hours: 20 Cost Center: 10030 - 6201 Office Of Patient Advocacy This position may have a signing bonus available a member of the Recruitment Team will confirm eligibility during the interview process.

Everyone Is a Caregiver At UMass Memorial Health, everyone is a caregiver — regardless of their title or responsibilities. Exceptional patient care, academic excellence and leading‑edge research make UMass Memorial the premier health system of Central Massachusetts, and a place where we can help you build the career you deserve. We are more than 20,000 employees, working together as one health system in a relentless pursuit of healing for our patients, community and each other. And everyone, in their own unique way, plays an important part, every day.

Serves as a liaison between our patients/visitors and the organization. Responsible for collaborating with stakeholders across the organization to work towards the prevention and remediation of patient/visitor complaints and doing so in a timely and empathetic manner. Collaborates throughout the organization to help build a culture committed to our vision of improving the patient experience, patient‑centered care and a culture of respect. This position is also responsible for supporting patients at UMMMC licensed psychiatric facilities through their role as the Human Rights Officer.

I. Major Responsibilities

• 1. Maintains a close working relationship with clinical care teams across the organization to identify potential patient complaints before they arise.
• 2. Proactively rounds on patients/visitors to ensure a successful patient experience.
• 3. Liaison with patients/visitors to ensure care is consistent with expectations and facilitates resolution of inconsistencies.
• 4. Coordinates efforts with all necessary areas of the organization (especially: Legal, Public Relations/Marketing/Communications, Risk Management, Regulatory Affairs, etc.) to resolve complaints, and address issues to prevent future complaints.
• 5. Ensures suggestions and compliments from patients/visitors are submitted to the appropriate areas.
• 6. Responsible for investigating, resolving, documenting, communicating, and reporting patient/visitor compliments and concerns, and ensuring regulatory compliance. This includes collaborating with clinicians and drafting letters to patients and insurance carriers.
• 7. Arranges, mediates, and facilitates meetings between patients and/or staff to foster satisfactory resolution.
• 8. Must apply an extensive knowledge of clinical processes/systems and of the potential impact of patient complaints on legal, patients’ rights, ethical, political, public image concerns.
• 9. Collaborates with UMass Memorial Medical Center’s licensed psychiatric units’ staff to promote respect for the Human Rights of Patients and uphold the Six Fundamental Rights of Patients.
• 10. Provides education to staff regarding optimal approach to patient complaints.
• 11. Provides consultation to staff, as requested, to help address specific situation.
• 12. In partnership with the manager, uses documented data to identify areas of improvement across the organization.
• 13. Uses data to identify themes and trends; provides leadership with information on areas of opportunity throughout the organization and suggested improvements.
• 14. Respects diverse views and approaches, and contributes in maintaining an environment of professionalism, tolerance, civility and acceptance toward all employees, patients and visitors.

Standard Staffing Level Responsibilities

• 1. Complies with established departmental policies, procedures, and objectives.
• 2. Attends variety of meetings, conferences, seminars as required or directed.
• 3. Demonstrates use of Quality Improvement in daily operations.
• 4. Complies with all health and safety regulations and requirements.
• 5. Respects diverse views and approaches, demonstrates Standards of Respect, and contributes to creating and maintaining an environment of professionalism, tolerance, civility and acceptance toward all employees, patients, and visitors.
• 6. Maintains, regular, reliable, and predictable attendance.
• 7. Performs other similar and related duties as required or directed.

II. Position Qualifications:

License/Certification/Education: Required: 1. Master’s degree in a Healthcare related field. 2. Current Massachusetts Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) licensure. Preferred: 1. Experience/Skills: Required: 1. Minimum of 3 years clinical experience within their licensed field. 2. Previous experience in a hospital setting. 3. Participation in Human Rights Officer training using training materials offered by the Department of Mental Health. 4. Excellent writing skills to be used in documenting accurate case reports and in writing to patients on behalf of the institution. 5. Excellent communication, mediation, and facilitation skills. 6. Excellent oral presentation skills to be used in speaking to staff at all levels regarding patient issues. 7. Demonstrated experience with data collection and analysis. 8. Demonstrated ability to handle appropriately: sensitive, confidential information. 9. Skillful in interacting with all levels of the institution, showing good judgment in mediating patient complaints. 10. Travel is required to cross campus sites or associated sites as needed. Preferred: 1. Unless certification, licensure or registration is required, an equivalent combination of education and experience which provides proficiency in the areas of responsibility listed in this description may be substituted for the above requirements. Department‑specific competencies and their measurements will be developed and maintained in the individual departments. The competencies will be maintained and attached to the departmental job description. Responsible managers will review competencies with position incumbents.

III. Physical Demands and Environmental Conditions:

Work is considered sedentary. Position requires work indoors in a normal office or patient care environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. We’re striving to make respect a part of everything we do at UMass Memorial Health – for our patients, our community and each other. Our six Standards of Respect are: Acknowledge, Listen, Communicate, Be Responsive, Be a Team Player and Be Kind. If you share these Standards of Respect, we hope you will join our team and help us make respect our standard for everyone, every day. As an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer, UMass Memorial Health recognizes the power of a diverse community and encourages applications from individuals with varied experiences, perspectives and backgrounds. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, gender identity and expression, protected veteran status or other status protected by law. If you are unable to submit an application because of incompatible assistive technology or a disability, please contact us at [e-mail]. We will make every effort to respond to your request for disability assistance as soon as possible. At UMass Memorial Health, everyone is a caregiver. No matter their responsibilities or title, every employee or “caregiver” fills an important role for our patients and their families every day. Who is a caregiver? It’s not just the person who delivers the care. It’s all the people who make it work … and make it better.

Caregivers give everything that helps patients heal, from expertise to extra attention. They give clean, comfortable rooms. Fast, accurate answers. And an easier, less stressful experience. They give warm, reassuring smiles, and helping hands. We are more than 20,000 employees, working together as one health system in a relentless pursuit of healing for our patients, our community and each other. And everyone, in their own unique way, plays an important part, every day.