Patient Navigator

Job Summary:

The Patient Navigator is responsible for providing emotional, educational, and social support to individuals at high risk for HIV and/or individuals living with HIV who may have mental health, substance abuse, or homelessness issues.  They are responsible for engaging, informing, supporting, and empowering those who are eligible for services and who would like to receive HIV treatment or prevention services.  They are also responsible for assisting in the intake process by gathering documentation and by providing administrative support in order to expedite service delivery.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Assists in identifying African American patients (age of 18 or older) who are at high risk for HIV, newly diagnosed with HIV, lost to HIV follow-up care, or virally unsuppressed.
• Welcomes clients into the agency and provides orientation/education regarding the agency and its services.
• Accompanies clients to medical, mental health, substance abuse treatment or social service appointments in order to improve attendance.
• Helps clients to schedule medical appointments and follows up with providers to ensure clients attend appointments.
• Contacts clients to verify and/or remind them of appointments with other departments or other agencies.
• Provide emotional support to patients around topics such as disclosure options and dealing with stigma.
• Provide emotional and educational support to patients who have mental health, substance abuse and homelessness issues.
• Serves as mentor regarding interaction with medical providers, helping patients prepare for visits and then debriefing what happened, depending on patient need.
• Provides educational support to clients to enhance their knowledge and understanding of medication protocols, side effects and adherence.
• Monitors client adherence as needed.
• Educates new clients on the process and what to expect from the HIV service delivery system.
• Maintains and submits required documentation.
• Maintain patient confidentiality and comply with all federal and state health information privacy laws.
• Meets standards for documentation requirements, data submission and maintains client charts.
• Provide outreach and follow-up activities on- and off-site.
• Attend all required meetings and clinical supervision sessions.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications/Requirements:

EDUCATION:

• High school diploma, or comparable years of qualifying educational/work experience.

LICENSES/CERTIFICATIONS

• Must have valid driver’s license.

EXPERIENCE:

• Experience working with at-risk populations and performing outreach.
• Knowledge and training in HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention are preferred.

 SKILLS:

• Computer literate in word processing, email, and ability to navigate the internet.

 COMPLEXITY:

• The ability to perform highly detailed work with sustained attention and care while providing/obtaining information on numerous inquiries is paramount to success in this position.

 PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
• Occasional stooping. Frequent standing.  Constant walking, sitting, climbing, reaching high/low levels, finger movement, feeling, speaking clearly, hearing conversationally, and seeing far and near.

WORK ENVIRONMENT:

• The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
• Occasionally required to work in confined space.

 MENTAL DEMANDS:

• The mental demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
• Frequent variety of unrelated tasks. Constant calculating, interrupted work, a variety of interrelated tasks, and use of sustained concentration, reasoning, judgment, resourcefulness, analytical ability, and ingenuity

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