Referral Coordinator- WTO

Job Description

 

Position Summary

The Referral Coordinator is responsible for overseeing and coordinating all incoming patient referrals to the orthopedic practice. This position serves as a primary point of contact between the practice, referring providers, patients, and internal clinical teams to ensure referrals are received, processed, scheduled, and communicated in a timely manner.

The Referral Coordinator will actively track referrals from receipt through scheduling to help ensure patients do not experience unnecessary delays in care and that referral opportunities are not lost to competing practices. This role will work closely with scheduling, phone operations, providers, and clinical teams to identify the appropriate provider and facilitate timely patient access.

In addition, the Referral Coordinator will help strengthen relationships with referring providers through consistent communication, follow-up, and community outreach.

 

SHIFT AND SCHEDULE

Full Time, Monday- Friday, 8:00am-5:00pm

 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Referral Management and Patient Access

• Manage and coordinate all incoming referrals to the orthopedic practice, including electronic, faxed, telephone, and other referral sources.
• Review referrals for completeness and ensure necessary patient information, medical records, imaging, insurance information, and other documentation are obtained.
• Determine the appropriate orthopedic provider or specialty based on the patient's diagnosis, condition, and provider-specific scheduling guidelines.
• Work closely with each physician and clinical team to facilitate timely appointments and identify options for patients who require expedited evaluation.
• Assist in resolving referral or scheduling barriers that may delay patient care.
• Identify urgent referrals and communicate with the appropriate clinical team when additional review or expedited scheduling is needed.

Referral Tracking and Retention

• Maintain an accurate tracking process for all incoming referrals from receipt through scheduling and completion.
• Follow up on patients who have not been successfully contacted or scheduled.
• Identify trends in referrals that are being redirected, declined, or lost to competing practices and escalate concerns to leadership.
• Monitor referral volumes and referral sources to identify changes in referral patterns.
• Assist leadership in evaluating referral leakage and opportunities to improve patient retention and access.

Referring Provider Communication

• Serve as a primary resource for referring physician offices regarding referral status and scheduling.
• Communicate with referring offices once patients have been scheduled and provide appointment information as appropriate.
• Follow up with referring offices when additional records, imaging, authorizations, or clinical information are needed.
• Ensure referring offices receive consistent communication and have a reliable point of contact within the orthopedic practice.

Phone Operations Support

• Assist staff with questions regarding incoming telephone referrals, provider specialties, scheduling guidelines, and appropriate patient placement.
• Help troubleshoot referrals that do not clearly fit established scheduling criteria.
• Provide education and updates to scheduling and phone staff regarding referral processes and provider-specific scheduling requirements.

Community and Provider Outreach

• Participate in outreach efforts to strengthen relationships with current and potential referring providers.
• Conduct periodic visits to referring physician offices to introduce services, gather feedback, identify concerns, and ensure offices understand how to efficiently refer patients to the practice.
• Educate referring offices regarding orthopedic services, provider specialties, new providers, scheduling processes, and available patient access options.
• Work with practice leadership to identify opportunities to grow referral relationships within the community.
• Gather feedback from referring offices regarding their experience with the referral and scheduling process and communicate opportunities for improvement to leadership.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• High school diploma or equivalent required.
• Previous experience in a physician practice, referral coordination, scheduling, medical office, patient access, or healthcare setting preferred.
• Orthopedic or specialty practice experience strongly preferred.
• Knowledge of medical terminology and healthcare referral processes preferred.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage and track a high volume of referrals.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong customer service and relationship-building skills.
• Comfortable conducting outreach and meeting directly with referring physician offices.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTSTo perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential responsibility satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individualswith disabilities to perform the essential functions. The individual must be able to:    • Stand, walk, sit, stoop, reach, lift, see, speak and hear. Lifting is limited to 35 lbs. for clinical staff and to 50 lbs. for non-clinical staff. The individual must use an assisted-liftdevice or get another individual(s) to assist with the lift that is over these maximum limits.