Psychiatric/Behavioral Health Care Coordinator

At Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center, we welcome diversity; we encourage, uplift, and are honored to serve people who have been historically underrepresented and underserved. Our mission is to provide high-quality, culturally appropriate healthcare to low-income residents of Washington and Yamhill Counties, with a special emphasis on seasonal and migrant farm workers and others with barriers to receiving healthcare. We strive to provide an inclusive environment that welcomes and values the diversity of the people we employ and serve.

If you are unsure whether you meet all of the required qualifications for this role but are interested and passionate about this potential position, we encourage you to apply.

Starting Hourly Rate of Pay: $26.9353/hr + DOE
Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:00pm. Some days 10:00am-7:00pm as determined by clinic hours

Job Summary: The Psychiatric and Behavioral Health Care Coordinator (PBHCC) assists with the coordination of care for behavioral health, mental health and addictions services and referrals. The PBHCC will work closely with the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP), the behavioral health services staff and with patients who are seeking internal mental health services, addictions services external to VGMHC and/or Medication Assisted Therapy (MAT) services at our sites.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Provide support to the Behavioral Health Team and PMHNP at VGMHC clinics.
• Monitor internal Behavioral Health and PMHNP referrals in a work queue to ensure that all patients referred from primary care to Behavioral Health Providers (BHPs) and PMHNP at VG are contacted and scheduled for an appointment.
• Scrub PMHNP’s schedule to ensure that Front Desk gives appropriate forms to patients and that interpreters have been ordered for non-English-speaking patients.
• Monitor referrals to external substance use treatment services, facilitate access to intake appointments and collect appropriate Releases of Information (ROIs).
• Collect ROIs from patients and obtain records from previous Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder (SUD) treatment providers.
• Verify that patients do not have any mental or behavioral health cases open with external providers after being scheduled with PMHNP and obtain prior authorizations for treatment when necessary.
• Communicate as needed with external community providers for coordination of care purposes and ensure communication and feedback to the VGMHC care team about the outcome of the referral.
• Monitor referrals and/or requests for patient intake into MAT services at VGMHC, track MAT panel reports for the risk of missed doses and coordinate with primary care and behavioral health providers to monitor MAT visits.
• Enter results of patient questionnaires (such as PHQ-9 and GAD-7) into PMHNP’s patients’ charts.
• Open and close PMHNP schedule to accommodate provider and patient needs. Outreach to patients and reschedule as necessary.
• Use PreManage to monitor Emergency Department utilization among the MAT panel group and current PMHNP patients and coordinate with the patient’s care team as needed for follow-up.
• Evaluate and assist patients with barriers they may face to accessing specialty mental health and addictions treatment referrals.
• Evaluate a patient’s motivation and readiness for change and entry into Behavioral Health and/or addictions services. Provide support and access to services along the patient’s continuum of readiness.
• Provide regular feedback on the referrals process to supervisor and participate in continuous improvement as necessary.
• Engage in relationship building with community partners and identify key point-people at each site to coordinate care and ensure completion of referrals.
• Participate in regular individual and team meetings with supervisor. Attend informational and clinical meetings and required trainings.
• Travel to PMHNP assigned sites in order to support provider.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

HIPAA Requirements The Psychiatric and Behavioral Health Care Coordinator will have access to PHI during the course of his/her work activities. Applying the minimum necessary standard of HIPAA, the designated record sets to which this position may have access include all sections of the medical record, patient demographic information in the practice management system, etc. This position is required to read the content of these records only to the extent needed to accomplish the assigned tasks.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Required:

• Cultural competency, bi-cultural proficiency and a desire to work within a community health setting and on behalf of disenfranchised communities.
• Proficiency in English and Spanish both written and spoken languages preferred.
• Commitment and alignment to Virginia Garcia’s mission, vision and values.
• Knowledge of human behavior, including the ability to evaluate motivation and readiness for treatment.
• Knowledge of best practices related to Behavioral Health Care Coordination services in a primary care setting.
• Ability to form collaborative relationships with key stakeholders both internally and externally with key partners.
• Knowledge of behavioral health and addictions services providers in Washington and Yamhill County.
• Ability to coordinate, collaborate and communicate well with others.
• Highly organized, motivated and able to demonstrate autonomy and independence.
• High degree of confidentiality and integrity as well as professional ethics, including dependability, reliability, accountability and responsibility.
• Familiarity with and ability to use EPIC.
• Valid driver’s license, reliable transportation, safe driving record and insurance coverage.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor degree in a behavioral sciences field or at least three years similar work experience in a healthcare or behavioral health setting.
• Experience providing direct services, particularly related to coordination of care between healthcare and behavioral health and/or addictions services providers.
• Experience within the Latino community preferred.

Behavioral Competencies:

Accountability

• Role model VG’s mission, vision, and shared values.

Customer-Focus

• Listen to the voice of the customer and strive to delight them by exceeding their expectations.

Teamwork

• If someone needs help, help them.

Initiative

• Be innovative, apply fresh ideas, and continuously improve how you do your work.

Confidentiality

• Maintain strict confidentiality and respect the privacy of others.

Ethical

• Demonstrate integrity, honesty, and stewardship in all encounters at work.

Respect

• Demonstrate consideration and appreciation for co-workers and patients.

Communication

• Demonstrate the ability to convey thoughts and ideas as well as understand perspective of others.

Physical Requirements

Percentage of time spent

• Standing: 20%
• Walking: 25%
• Sitting: up to 50%
• Reaching: 5%
• Must be able to lift/carry up to 20 lbs: Infrequent 20-40 lbs.

Office equipment used:

• Computer – Data entry and word processing
• Telephone, Fax, Copier, Scanner

Immunization:

Staff member must meet immunizations requirements as stated in VGMHC’s immunization policy.

Job descriptions represent a general outline of the essential and major job duties, functions and qualifications required. They cannot be all-inclusive and comprehensive due to the dynamic nature of work performed to accomplish VGMHC’s Mission.

VGMHC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. No person is unlawfully excluded from consideration for employment because of race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, sex, age, veteran status, marital status or physical challenges. The policy applies not only to recruitment and hiring practices, but also includes affirmative action in the area of placement, promotion, transfer, rate of pay and termination.