Comm Center Rep

J  o  b    D  e  s  c  r  i  p  t  i  o  n

JOB INFORMATION

Effective Date:

8/1/2021

Entity:

Wisconsin

Job Code:

440015

Job Title:

Comm Center Rep

Exemption Status:

Non-Exempt

Management Level:

Individual Contributor

JOB SUMMARY

Communication Center Representatives within the Paging and Message Center are the first people to greet and work with new and existing patients, referring physicians, vendors and the public inquiring about general information related to UW Health's services, programs, and staff via phone.  As such, outstanding customer service skills, compassion and empathy are critical in this role.  This position is also at the center of all internal messaging and paging services, pager administration, on call schedule maintenance for the hospital's approximately 300 separate primary care, specialty care, and clinical/operational services. A strong level of professionalism is needed as they make frequent contacts and build rapport with stakeholders from all departments in the organization The Communication Center also functions as the afterhours, weekend and holiday clinical answering service for UW Health patient and clinic services, Group Health Cooperative and Access Community Health. This includes operating as the back-up during clinic emergencies and outages. Additionally, the Communication Center Representative provides emergency line services for the entire UW Health enterprise which requires the ability to act quickly and accurately in a critical environment when executing codes which are often life or death situations.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES

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Act as emergency dispatchers for UW Health by providing emergency line services that include code blue, stat, heart attack, stroke, as well as over 80 other medical or operational codes. This includes gathering information from distressed callers, determining, and assessing the correct type of code, executing overhead announcements, sending list pages accurately, and confirming response team arrival multiple times a shift. Additionally, this may include organizing responders to the Healthcare Command Center, recording broadcast messages, and creating banner alerts. Ask questions to interpret, analyze and anticipate the caller’s situation as to resolve problems, provide information, dispatch emergency services, or refer callers to other agencies.

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Facilitate urgent medical communication between physicians and patients needing care/medical advice. This involves working with the patient to determine the appropriate service based on their medical need and navigating through 650+ on call schedules to determine the appropriate physician to be contacted. Following paging protocol, follow escalation procedures when unable to reach an on-call provider ensuring 100% response to all patients.

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Take an average of 120 – 150 calls per shift which vary in complexity. Types of calls can range from patients with suicidal ideations, taking critical lab results, receiving organ transplant offers, contacting on-call providers, etc.

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Serve as front line triage for technical issues, which includes conducting paging system tests, individual pager and equipment troubleshooting, determining problem complexity, and escalating when necessary.

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Responsible for the strict maintenance and understanding of patient confidentiality guidelines (HIPAA) when receiving and directing patient information calls. Detailed knowledge of inpatient and outpatient functions utilizing UW Health’s computerized electronic medical record system, Healthlink, including the determination of patient whereabouts, demographic information, and discharge status. Extensive knowledge of the various unit locations and functions within the hospital and the specific guidelines governing visitors, calls and deliveries to each unit is required.

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Use active listening skills, deductive reasoning, and a database of over 48,000 entries to provide directory information and other assistance regarding the staff, clinics, services, office hours and any other general information requested.

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Send patient messages, confirm, and cancel appointments on nights, weekends and holidays for all UW Health clinics using guidelines established by each clinic, making scheduling services available to the customer on a 24-hour basis.

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As an on-call administrator, the Communications Center Representative must input assigned on call schedules and make day to day changes requested by departments. On call schedules are provided in different formats by departments to ensure that a qualified physician or staff member is available 24 hours, for each area of responsibility.

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Respond to radiological alarm notifications to ensure that safe conditions are maintained.

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Represent the organization to our patient population, government, and other external sources.

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Assist in providing training to new staff.

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Provide continuous input to supervisors on ways to provide a better level of service without a corresponding increase in costs.

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Maintain the integrity of paging billing services by contributing to the continued accuracy of our database.

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Participate on departmental project teams when requested.

ALL DUTIES AND REQUIREMENTS MUST BE PERFORMED CONSISTENT WITH THE UW HEALTH PERFORMANCE STANDARDS.

X

Non-Clinical

JOB REQUIREMENTS

Associate's Degree

in Healthcare, Information Technology, Business, or related field (2 years of relevant work experience may be considered in lieu of degree)

Required

Associate's Degree

or Bachelor’s degree in Healthcare, Information Technology, Business, or related field strongly

Preferred

Experience in a large automated call service center and familiarity with at least one form of call processing software

Preferred

1 year

of experience in a medical, call center, or customer service environment

Preferred

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Demonstrated ability to provide excellent, compassionate customer service

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Knowledge of and proficient computer usage ability, including various software programs such as Microsoft Office, data base management and spread sheets

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Ability to remain calm during stressful situations

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Basic knowledge of medical terminology

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Effective interpersonal communication and team skills in a complex organizational setting

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Ability to think independently and demonstrate effective problem-solving skills

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Knowledge of and/or experience with paging protocols preferred

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Capable of staying current on all hospital policies relating to patients, employees and visitors

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Provide full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times

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Social awareness: Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do

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Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem

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Knowledge of the processes of each of the departments, clinics and physicians we answer for afterhours

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS/WORKING CONDITIONS

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Sedentary: Ability to lift up to 10 pounds maximum and occasionally lifting and/or carrying such articles as dockets, ledgers and small tools. Although a sedentary job is defined as one, which involves sitting, a certain amount of walking and standing is often necessary in carrying out job duties. Jobs are sedentary if walking and standing are required only occasionally and other sedentary criteria are met.

Up to 10#

Negligible

Negligible

☐

Light: Ability to lift up to 20 pounds maximum with frequent lifting and/or carrying of objects weighing up to 10 pounds. Even though the weight lifted may only be negligible amount, a job is in this category when it requires walking or standing to a significant degree.

up to 20#

Up to 10# or requires significant walking or standing or requires pushing/pulling of arm/leg controls.

Negligible or constant push/pull of items of negligible weight

☐

Medium: Ability to lift up to 50 pounds maximum with frequent lifting and/or carrying objects weighing up to 25 pounds.

20-50#

10-25#

Negligible-10#

☐

Heavy: Ability to lift up to 100 pounds maximum with frequent lifting and/or carrying objects weighing up to 50 pounds.

50-100#

25-50#

10-20#

☐

Very Heavy: Ability to lift over 100 pounds with frequent lifting and/or carrying objects weighing over 50 pounds.

Over 100#

Over 50#

Over 20#

Other - list any other physical requirements or bona fide occupational qualifications not indicated above:

Note: The purpose of this document is to describe the general nature and level of work performed by personnel so classified; it is not intended to serve as an inclusive list of all responsibilities associated with this position.