Registered Nurse - Intake (Santa Rosa)

Pay range: 60$ - 78$

DESCRIPTION OF POSITION:

To assess the needs of prospective patients and phone callers and ensure their referral to the service or resource to best address those needs.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Responds to telephone and face-to-face inquiries from persons seeking mental health care or information about mental health-related services.
• Through a systematic process of interaction with patients, the patient's significant others, and the appropriate health care providers, collects and analyzes data regarding the patient's physical, psychosocial, environmental, self-care, educational, spiritual, cultural and anticipated discharge needs; determines patient's alcohol or drug toxicity; identifies signs of withdrawal; conducts screenings or assessments to determine needs of treatment.
• The care and treatment of the patient are rendered in a competent manner and are based on current chemical dependency and psychiatric nursing/clinical knowledge and standards; care is evaluated against the goals and plan of care and is revised as needed and appropriate to the patient.
• Facilitates the patient's access to the appropriate level of care and setting.
• Establishes and maintains effective working relationships with patient services counselors and coordinators, intake department, physicians and health professional affiliates, healthcare facilities, and nursing staff.
• Demonstrates good skills in assessing client's crisis and clinical indicators via phone and in-person and documenting such on a call sheet and scheduling assessment as clinically appropriate.
• Prepares written report of assessment results in a timely manner (immediately following completed assessment) and includes recommendations for the level of care and treatment needs.
• Makes appropriate interventions during assessments, and crisis situations with clients, family/friends and other professional staff.
• Assesses need for involuntary hospitalization evaluation and contacts country crisis team, law enforcement or 5150 Certified employee as needed to ensure the safety of client and others.
• Enters the data of calls and assessments in the computer system in a timely manner.
• Assists clients who are not admitted into a program with follow-through of clinical referrals and recommendations.
• Provides pertinent clinical information to physician and program staff who will be reviewing the patient to ensure a smooth transition for the patient.
• Distributes documentation of admissions to the Business Office, Admitting Unit and the Utilization Review Department.
• Maintains knowledge of developmental tasks and sociological theories of pertinent age groups.
• Maintains knowledge of legal guidelines pertaining to Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA)/Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) and abuse/neglect reporting.
• Communicates with managed care organizations to obtain insurance pre-authorizations in a timely manner.
• Stays abreast of organization's programs and services.
• Participates in activities which enhance professional growth and development
• Performs related duties, as requested.
• Upholds the Organization’s ethics and customer services standards
• Cross train as Inpatient Registered Nurse and perform duties, as assigned, including but not limited to the following:

-          Proficiency in medication preparation and passing to patients in any location of the inpatient setting, including psychotropic and non-psychotropic medication.

-          Admission, discharge, progress notes and any additional required documentation.

-          Providing patient care by routinely demonstrating knowledge of mental health diagnosis, standard of care, evidence-based practice, high risks for mental health patients, National Patient Safety Goals and models of care.

-          Direct patient care and milieu management, including oversight of MHT’s and ancillary staff.

• Cross train in the processing of Referrals, including but not limited to the following:

-          Review of patient referral packet.

-          Interdisciplinary communication.

-          Adherence to the standards of Green-Yellow-Red light criteria.

-          Processing of insurance.

-          Proficiency in navigating electronic data entry systems.

Requirements

Physical Requirements:

While performing the duties of this job, this position is frequently required to do the following:

• Use standard office equipment and access, input, and retrieve information from a computer. Use computer keyboard with manual and finger dexterity and wrist-finger speed sufficient to perform repetitive