Cardiology Care Navigator
Description
Patient Navigation
· Coordinate the patient journey from referral through completion of diagnostic testing and follow-up care.
· Ensure patients are scheduled for recommended imaging and follow-up appointments before leaving the clinic whenever possible.
· Serve as the primary point of contact for non-clinical patient coordination.
· Monitor patients requiring cardiac CT, cardiac MRI, stress echocardiograms, PET, SPECT, and other cardiovascular diagnostic procedures.
· Track patients throughout the imaging process to ensure completion.
Imaging Coordination
· Review imaging work queues daily.
· Coordinate imaging appointments with Radiology and Cardiology.
· Ensure imaging orders contain all required documentation.
· Coordinate with authorization staff to ensure insurance approvals are completed.
· Escalate scheduling or authorization delays.
· Coordinate rescheduling of cancelled or missed imaging appointments.
· Maintain tracking lists for outstanding imaging studies.
· Maintain and actively manage imaging waitlists to maximize imaging capacity.
· Review daily provider schedules to identify patients needing imaging or follow-up before leaving clinic.
· Coordinate same-day scheduling opportunities to fill cancellations.
· Monitor imaging scheduling turnaround times.
Follow-up Coordination
· Schedule provider-recommended follow-up appointments.
· Monitor follow-up work queues to ensure patients are not lost to follow-up.
· Contact patients who miss appointments, cancel appointments, have incomplete imaging, require repeat testing, or need ED/hospital follow-up.
· Track outstanding imaging orders and coordinate completion.
· Monitor referral leakage and coordinate appropriate follow-up.
· Coordinate surveillance and repeat imaging based on provider recommendations.
Patient Communication
· Contact patients regarding appointments, preparation requirements, scheduling, and follow-up.
· Reinforce procedure instructions provided by nursing staff.
· Answer non-clinical questions and route clinical concerns appropriately.
· Encourage adherence to care plans and scheduled testing.
Coordination with Clinical Staff
· Collaborate with physicians and nursing staff to ensure patients receive pre-procedure instructions, medication instructions, laboratory requirements, and preparation materials.
· Notify nursing staff of patients requiring clinical outreach or education.
Care Gap Management
· Manage referral, imaging, recall, ED follow-up, hospital discharge, missed appointment, incidental finding, surveillance imaging, and waitlist work queues.
· Ensure timely patient outreach and appointment completion.
Program Growth and Service Line Development
· Increase completion rates for advanced cardiac imaging.
· Reduce delays from provider order to completed imaging.
· Reduce no-show and cancellation rates.
· Maximize imaging utilization through proactive scheduling.
· Monitor referral conversion and imaging volumes.
· Support outreach to referring providers and new cardiovascular service initiatives.
· Support population health and surveillance imaging programs.
Reporting and Performance Monitoring
· Maintain dashboards and tracking tools for outstanding imaging orders, referrals, follow-up appointments, and work queues.
· Provide weekly and monthly reports to clinic leadership and providers on outstanding tasks, turnaround times, completion rates, no-shows, referral conversion, waitlist utilization, and operational barriers.
· Present findings during operational, provider, and quality meetings.
· Recommend workflow improvements based on trends and performance data.
Documentation
· Document all patient outreach and coordination activities in the electronic medical record.
· Maintain tracking spreadsheets, dashboards, and operational reports.
Quality Improvement
· Participate in quality improvement initiatives, workflow redesign, and departmental meetings.
Minimum Qualifications
· Associate's degree preferred.
· Three years of healthcare experience preferred.
· Experience in cardiology, ambulatory operations, patient access, scheduling, referral coordination, or care coordination preferred.
· Experience with Cerner or comparable electronic medical record preferred.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
· Excellent organizational and communication skills.
· Strong customer service and interpersonal skills.
· Knowledge of medical terminology, referral management, and insurance authorization processes.
· Ability to manage multiple priorities independently.
· Proficiency with Microsoft Office and EMR systems.
Additional Responsibilities
· Participate in departmental meetings and special projects.
· Cross-train to support ambulatory cardiology operations as needed.
· Perform other duties as assigned.
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