Description
JOB PURPOSE OR MISSION: Provides patients with appropriate assessment, referral and discharge planning necessary to encourage and enable them to gain appropriate help for psychiatric, chemical dependency and/or social service-related problems.Provides individuals and patient referral agents/agencies with information that enables patients to gain access to appropriate psychiatric and medical care. Develops and maintains professional community relationships.Job is performed appropriatelyfor the age population served, as defined in the department's scope of service.
PERFORMANCE CRITERIA
CRITERIA A:Everyday Excellence Values - Employee demonstrates Everyday Excellence values in the day-to-day performance of their job.
PERFORMANCE STANDARDS:

• Demonstrates courtesy and caring to each other, patients and their families, physicians, and the community.
• Takes initiative in living our Everyday Excellence values and vital signs.
• Takes initiative in identifying customer needs before the customer asks.
• Participates in teamwork willingly and with enthusiasm.
• Demonstrates respect for the dignity and privacy needs of customers through personal action and attention to the environment of care.
• Keeps customers informed, answers customer questions and anticipates information needs of customers.

CRITERIA B:Corporate Compliance- Employee demonstrates commitment to the Code of Conduct, Conflict of Interest Guidelines, and the GHS Corporate Compliance Guidelines.
PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

• Practices diligence in fulfilling the regulatory and legal requirements of the position and department.
• Maintains accurate and reliable patient/organizational records.
• Maintains professional relationships with appropriate officials; communicates honesty and completely; behaves in a fair and nondiscriminatory manner in all professional contacts.

CRITERIA C:Personal Achievement- Employee demonstrates initiative in achieving work goals and meeting personal objectives.
PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

• Uses accepted procedures and practices to complete assignments. Uses creative and proactive solutions to achieve objectives even when workload and demands are high.
• Adheres to high moral principles of honesty, loyalty, sincerity, and fairness.
• Upholds the ethical standards of the organization.

CRITERIA D:Performance Improvement- Employee actively participates in Performance Improvement activities and incorporates quality improvement standards in his/her job performance.
PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

• Optimizes talents, skills, and abilities in achieving excellence in meeting and exceeding customer expectations.
• Initiates or redesigns to continuously improve work processes.
• Contributes ideas and suggestions to improve approaches to work processes.
• Willingly participates in organization and/or department quality initiatives.

CRITERIA E:Cost Management- Employee demonstrates effective cost management practices.
PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

• Effectively manages time and resources
• Makes conscious effort to effectively utilize the resources of the organization - material, human, and financial.
• Consistently looks for and uses resource saving processes.

CRITERIA F:Patient & Employee Safety- Employee actively participates in and demonstrates effective patient and employee safety practices.
PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

• Employee effectively communicates, demonstrates, coordinates and emphasizes patient and employee safety.
• Employee proactively reports errors, potential errors, injuries or potential injuries.
• Employee demonstrates departmental specific patient and employee safety standards at all times.
• Employee demonstrates the use of proper safety techniques, equipment and devices and follows safety policies, procedures and plans.

JOB FUNCTIONS
ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS include, but are not limited to:

1. Receives inquiry calls from individuals and agencies seeking access for behavioral services.

PERFORMANCE STANDARDS:
Accurately documents all intake/inquiry calls.
Provides appropriate referrals and/or places follow-up calls.

1. Schedules and conducts initial in-person assessment for individuals seeking access to behavioral services.

PERFORMANCE STANDARDS:

• Conducts face-to-face Behavioral Health assessments of patients presenting in Emergency Department in need of psych services, as identified by ED staff.
• Provides crisis intervention and discharge planning.
• Conducts BHU consults to the medical floors as indicated.
• Documents assessment data accurately.
• Consults on-call psychiatrist as indicated.
• Completes insurance precertification and admission paperwork for behavioral unit.

1. Refers individuals not appropriate for admission to community resources as directed by staff psychiatrist.

PERFORMANCE STANDARDS:

• Initiates contact with community resources as appropriate.
• Accurately documents referrals in appropriate logs daily.

1. Assembles and reports data regarding department functions.

PERFORMANCE STANDARDS:

• Prepares and submits accurate daily reports of activity.
• Collects and reports special data sets as requested by director.

1. Orients/trains/serves as a resource for employees.

PERFORMANCE STANDARDS:

• Serves as a mentor to new employees.
• Completes orientation checklists with new employees.
• Serves as a resource to admission staff in complex admissions.
• Provides feedback to director on employees in workgroup.
• Manages workgroup activities in support of department/hospital/system performance improvement.
• Provides crisis intervention and discharge planning to Emergency Department and admissions specialists.

1. Collects and reports referrals and admission data as required, while monitoring the effectiveness of the hospital's admission process.

PERFORMANCE STANDARDS:

• Monitors conditions in the hospital which adversely affect the admissions process, and reports these conditions as appropriate.
• Proposes new policies & procedures that will make the admission process smoother and more efficient.

1. Assists with medical social service needs in the ED as needed, within scope of practice.

PERFORMANCE STANDARDS:

• Conducts face-to-face social service consults for patients in need of community services, including shelter, detox, DME, access to primary care, medication, home health, transportation, etc.
• Provides appropriate referrals and discharge planning.
• Provides face-to-face assessment of children, adults, and the elderly as identified by ED staff to be potential victims of abuse; reports suspected cases according to established regulations and standards.
• Assists ED staff with trauma cases and access to morgue as needed.
• Documents findings accurately and according to established regulations and standards.

1. Performs other duties as assigned

PERFORMANCE STANDARDS:

• Represents Baton Rouge General at community collaborative initiatives as indicated or assigned.

HIPAA REQUIREMENTS:
Maintains knowledge of and adherence to all applicable HIPAA regulations appropriate to Job Position including but not limited to: Medical records w/o limitation both paper and electronic, patient demographics, lab and radiology results, patient information related to surgery or appointment schedules, medical records related to quality/data, information related to patient location, religious beliefs and/or public health records, patient financial information and/or 3 rdparty billing.
SAFETY REQUIREMENTS:
Maintains knowledge of and adherence to all applicable safety practices appropriate to Job Position including but not limited to: Incident reporting, handling of wastes, sharps and linen, PPE, exposure control plans, hand washing, patient identification, monitors or observes patients, and monitors clinical alarms.
Requirements
EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS
2 years related mental health/chemical dependency treatment experience in a psychiatric setting in direct patient care role and/or in a social service role preferred.
EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS
Master's Degree
SPECIAL SKILL, LICENSE AND KNOWLEDGE REQUIREMENTS
Current Louisiana licensure as LCSW, LMSW, CSW, or LPC.
Knowledge of DSM IV Diagnosis Criteria preferred.