JOB SUMMARY: 

Provides leadership to the health care team in areas of coordination of post-acute care services and provision of psychosocial support services to patients and families. Serves as a resource for the health care team on appropriate and timely utilization of acute care level services and length of stay. Assists with departmental operations and improvement projects.

• Systematically gathers pertinent information utilizing a broad scope of sources whereby needs can be identified and plan of care can be determined based on the identified needs.
• Develops psychosocial database, assessment, and plan of intervention with regard to identified patient and family needs utilizing all available sources of information.
• Participates in inter-disciplinary and inter-agency collaborative efforts to identify and modify post acute care needs. Incorporates social, cultural/ethnic, emotional and spiritual aspects of the patient and family into the discharge/psychosocial assessment and the plan of care; demonstrates competency in knowledge base of community resources to address identified needs.
• Provides crisis intervention and counseling services to assist patient and family with their emotional needs and adjustment to the medical episode.
• Documents assessments, intervention plans and outcomes in accordance with departmental guidelines and Hospital policies. Collaborates with Case Management staff, care providers and third party payors to ensure that all appropriate services and resources are utilized in a timely and efficient manner.
• Actively organizes discharge rounds on assigned units and assists with documenting all pertinent information in the medical record.
• Maintains timely communications with third party payor representatives to identify discharge needs and available resources. Seeks out members of the treating team to identify most efficient plan to progress care and offers to assist with identification of resources to facilitate the plan of care.
• Educates the treating team on appropriate bed utilization, length of stay, alternate level of care and denials of payment.
• Demonstrates the ability to organize and prioritize work load to accommodate the needs of the Hospital, unit and department.
• Demonstrates understanding and practice of the values, standards and beliefs of the social work profession.
• Participates in pertinent staff development/continuing education activities to meet licensure requirements.
• Provides leadership and creativity in unit and departmental based program development and performance improvement projects.
• Accepts the shared governance philosophy and actively engages in peer review, staff work groups and other Hospital or departmental committees.
• Displays effective communication skills that address the needs of all co-workers and customers by interfacing with them in considerate, constructive manner with the primary goal of meeting the vision and mission of the Hospital and department.
• Demonstrates evidence of understanding and compliance with the social work professional code of ethics.

REQUIREMENTS: 

• Bachelor in Social Work is required
• LBSW license in MD required
• 3 years of experience required; 5+ years of experience preferred