Social Work Manager - Care Coordination

The Social Work Care Coordination Manager is responsible for overseeing the coordination of social work care coordination for patients in either the inpatient or outpatient setting. The manager ensures the delivery of high-quality, patient-centered care while optimizing operational efficiency. The Manager plays a pivotal role in managing staff, streamlining workflows, and ensuring adherence to healthcare standards and regulations.

Essential Job Statements

Leadership: Supervises and mentors a team of social work staff, including team leads, fostering professional development and ensuring effective team collaboration. Manages Human Resources activities for direct repots in regard to: recruiting and selection; hiring and termination, training, development, mentoring, counseling, and performance evaluation and management. 

Clinical Operations: Oversees the day-to-day implementation of clinical workflows to ensure efficiency, effectiveness, compliance, and standards of care. Fosters the implementation of protocols for seamless patient transitions across the health system to ensure high quality patient outcomes. 

Staff Management: Cultivates a culture of safety by developing and maintaining staff schedules, ensuring adequate coverage for all shifts and units.  Manages paid time off requests, ensuring that staffing levels remain sufficient to meet patient care needs. Oversees the use of agency staff, coordinating with external agencies to fill staffing gaps and ensuring that all temporary staff are properly oriented and integrated into the team. 

Patient-Centered Care: Manages care transition programs, intake or discharge planning, and working with managed care companies and community partners. Must ensure frontline staff tailors social work care coordination to individual patient needs, focusing on quality, accessibility, and equity.  

Patient Advocacy: Ensures unit level care coordination planning templates/processes/procedures meet patients’ needs, addressing concerns and barriers to care proactively. 

Communication: Serves as the primary liaison between frontline staff and Director. Fosters bidirectional communication to ensure that aggregated patients, family, clinicians, and other stakeholders are represented during care design processes. Through collaboration with fellow care coordination leaders, the continuity of care is enhanced by streamlining communication between inpatient and outpatient teams. 

Regulatory Compliance: Ensures all social work processes comply with local, federal, and organizational regulations and standards. 

Performance Monitoring: Conducts regular meetings with the social work team to review performance metrics, identify gaps, and develop action plans for improvement. These meetings will focus on analyzing key performance indicators, discussing challenges, and implementing strategies to enhance care delivery and operational efficiency. 

Budget Management: Collaborates with the Director to manage department budgets, ensuring efficient resource allocation. 

Performs other duties as assigned and/or participates in special projects to support the mission of VCUHS and department. Provides assistance to team members. Accepts alternate assignments as required.

Patient Population 

Demonstrates the knowledge and skills necessary to provide equitable care appropriate to the age of the patients served on their assigned unit.    

Demonstrates knowledge and related competencies of the principles of growth and development of the life span and possesses the ability to assess data reflective of the patient's status and interprets the appropriate information needed to identify each patient's requirements relative to their age, specific needs and to provide the equitable care needed as described in departmental policies and procedures. 

Neonates (0-4 weeks)  

Infant (1-12 months)  

Pediatrics (1-12 years)  

Adolescents (13-17 years)  

Adults (18-64 years)   

Geriatrics (65 years and older)  

Employment Qualifications 

Education Required: 

Masters Degree in Social Work from a Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) accredited program 

Education Preferred: 

N/A 

Licensure Required: 

LCSW licensure is required; however, LMSW candidates may be considered exclusively for Inpatient and Emergency Department positions.

BLS certification required 

Licensure Preferred: N/A 

Certification Required: N/A 

Certification Preferred: N/A 

Minimum Qualifications 

Years and Type of Required Experience 

Five (5) years of social work experience in a medical setting to include two (2) years in a lead or supervisory role. Previous work experience identifying and utilizing community resources. 

Other Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Required: 

Required frequent visibility on all shifts and weekends to enhance staff communication and monitor staff effectiveness. 

Must be available (or able to delegate) to staff for consultation 24/7. 

Strong knowledge of care coordination principles, healthcare regulations, accreditation requirements, best practices in care coordination and patient advocacy. 

Excellent communication, leadership, and organizational skills. 

Proficiency in healthcare software and data analysis tools. 

Other Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Preferred: N/A 

Working Conditions 

Periods of high stress and fluctuating workloads may occur.     

General office environment.     

May be exposed to physical altercations and verbal abuse. 

Required to car travel to off-site locations, occasionally in adverse weather conditions.  

May be exposed to high noise levels and bright lights.     

May be exposed to limited hazardous substances or body fluids. *     

May be exposed to human blood and other potentially infectious materials. *       

May have periods of constant interruptions.      

* Individuals in this position are required to exercise universal precautions, use personal protective equipment and devices, and learn the policies concerning infection control.  

Physical Requirements   

Physical Demands: Lifting/ Carrying (0-50 lbs.), Push/ Pull (0-50 lbs.), Bending  

Work Position: Sitting, Walking, Standing  

Additional Physical Requirements/ Hazards    

Physical Requirements: Manual dexterity (eye/hand coordination), Hear alarms/telephone/tape recorder, Repetitive arm/hand movements, Finger Dexterity, Acuity - far, Acuity - near   

Hazards: Use of Latex Gloves

Mental/Sensory – Emotional     

Mental / Sensory: Strong Recall, Reasoning, Problem Solving, Hearing, Speak Clearly, Write Legibly, Reading, Logical Thinking 

Emotional: Fast-paced environment, Steady Pace, Able to Handle Multiple Priorities, Frequent and Intense Customer Interactions, Noisy Environment, Able to Adapt to Frequent Change 

EEO Employer/Disabled/Protected Veteran