Patient Intake and Referral Specialist

Overview

The Care Coordination Specialist is a key contributor within the Home Healthcare Care Coordination model, ensuring that each referral moves efficiently from receipt to a completed start of care (SOC). This role drives throughput by coordinating all referral components—orders, documentation, authorizations, scheduling, and communication—serving as the operational hub between sales, intake, scheduling, and clinical teams. The Care Coordination Specialist uses critical thinking, prioritization, and communication expertise to deliver a seamless experience for patients, families, and referring partners. This position operates as a care logistics specialist, ensuring readiness, accuracy, and timely activation of services rather than functioning as a transactional data processor.

Responsibilities

Leads the end-to-end referral process by obtaining necessary orders, documentation, authorizations, and ensuring each referral progresses efficiently into a start of care (SOC).

Develops and maintains ongoing communication with patients, families, pharmacies, providers, and the care team to ensure timely responses and coordinated care.

Manages all SOC paperwork, documentation, and recordkeeping to maintain full regulatory and home health compliance.

Champions the scheduling workflow by coordinating with PODs according to the POD charter, managing clinician calendars, and adjusting schedules to optimize patient care and provider efficiency.

Collaborates with audit and compliance teams, identifying gaps, resolving exceptions, and supporting corrective actions as needed.

Manages operational workflows, referral queues, and documentation accuracy while providing education and guidance to patients and families throughout the coordination process.

Ensures high-quality, service-oriented interactions with families, referral sources, and partners, focusing on referral conversion, readiness, and an exceptional customer experience.

This job description is not meant to be exhaustive and may be modified as needed. Employees may be assigned other related duties to meet organizational needs.

 

Key Performance Indicators:

• Referral response time
• Referral-to-admission cycle time
• Referral-to-admit conversion rate
• Family/referral-source satisfaction

Qualifications

• Highschool diploma/GED or equivalent required; bachelor's degree preferred
• in lieu of a bachelor's degree, a minimum of 4 years work experience in healthcare or related field is required
• Demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced, multidisciplinary environment with competing priorities.
• Excellent communication skills for interacting with patients, families, referral partners, and clinical teams.
• Strong organizational and multitasking abilities with high attention to detail.
• Proficiency with electronic health records, referral management systems, and general computer applications.
• Scheduling experience strongly preferred.

Required Licensure/Certifications

None