Registered Nurse - Intake

At Oceans Behavioral Hospital Waco, healing is our focus. We are passionate about helping adults and seniors manage the challenges associated with anxiety, depression and other mental health issues. Utilizing proven, innovative and progressive therapies, our qualified professionals strive to promote long-term wellness through a range of inpatient and outpatient psychiatric counseling and treatment options.

The Intake Clinician receives and responds to call inquiries for potential admissions and generalized questions. The Clinician obtains the required information to facilitate admissions and makes referrals for persons who are not appropriate for admission to the facility. The Clinician reviews pending admissions daily to ensure that clinical, financial, insurance, and administrative information has been accurately obtained and acted upon. The Intake Clinician completes Level of Care Assessments for any patient in need of evaluation within Intake. The Clinician works collaboratively with referral sources, community members, patients, the provider, and interdepartmentally to ensure the facility’s mission of providing exemplary patient care and customer service is upheld. The Clinician maintains the ability to provide excellent customer service to internal and external customers. The Clinician displays the ability to effectively listen, process received information, and express ideas verbally and in writing. The Clinician ensures that confidentiality of hospital employees and patient information to meet HIPAA and hospitals standards is upheld. The Clinician shows the ability to initiate action, take personal responsibility, suggest improvements, and solve problems within the scope of the position without being asked. The Clinician shows an understanding and complies with government regulations, regulatory and accreditation requirements, and hospital policies. The Clinician shows the ability to complete assigned work in an acceptable manner, in the time allotted, with minimal prompting or reminders.

Essential Functions:

1. Admissions Process
   • Processes request for admission from outside referral agencies and from within the community
   • Maintains ability to review clinical packet for criteria in alignment with the capability and capacity of the facility
   • Maintains understanding of Admission and Exclusionary Criteria
   • Maintains understanding of EMTALA
   • Ensures that prior authorizations are obtained for admissions
   • Organizes information of patient’s current needs and provides a succinct clinical presentation to admitting physician
   • Completes Level of Care Assessments/Evaluations
   • Collaborates with On-Call Provider to determine appropriate disposition for the patient
2. Communication
   • Handles sensitive information appropriately and acts in a fair and honest manner consistent with the Company’s Code of Conduct including reporting and violations
   • Builds and maintains communication processes to ensure efficient and effective transmission of information
   • Works collaboratively with all departments to create an environment that supports the facility’s mission
   • Ensures current state and federal regulatory and standards related to communication of incidents are met
   • Demonstrates timely communication of information to appropriate leadership channels commensurate with situation
3. Customer Focus
   • Interacts with patient, family members, external entities and internal staff professionally and respectfully
   • Adheres to systems and processes that promotes a high level of commitment to anticipating, understanding and meeting the needs of patients, family, and other employees
   • Demonstrates an understanding of the community’s continuum of behavioral health resources
   • Acts to preserve patient and family dignity and safety
4. Values Diversity
   • Takes measures to gain the perspectives from persons having diverse opinions, motivations, abilities, and ethnic and/or cultural backgrounds
   • Show appreciation for gender, race, age, and other differences
5. Documentation
   • Completes required Admission documentation within electronic medical record and through internal web-based systems
   • Documentation for medical records and reports is timely, legible, thorough, and in required format
   • Adheres to documentation standards for the department and facility in compliance with regulatory requirements
   • Documentation as required including inquiry calls, assessments, managed care data, etc.
6. Other duties as assigned.