Job Summary

The Discharge Call Nurse makes telephone contact with patients 24-48 hours after discharge from either the FHN Emergency Room or the hospital. The focus of this role will be to evaluate patient education, identify trends that may require improvement in practice, improve patient quality of care, determine patients’ compliance with discharge instructions, and assess overall impressions of hospital performance as well as improve the patient experience. This role will also provide additional education and scheduled follow-up phone calls to identified high-risk groups as determined by criteria from various Administrative Teams.

Job Responsibilities

• Provides patient and family education, including discharge instructions, as needed
• Demonstrates physical assessment skills
• Assesses discharged patient’s physiological, psychosocial, environmental, and spiritual needs
• Monitors staff for active involvement and behavior conducive for continued improvement in patient satisfaction
• Assists in development and revision of standards of nursing practice, policies and procedures, patient education information, flow sheets, orientation manuals, skills checklist, and others, as needed
• Applies critical thinking skills with discharged cases. Remains self-directed
• Attends hospital meetings to stay abreast of hospital status, events, and changes; to share concerns and ideas
• Demonstrates an understanding of costs as they relate to quality and efficiency
• Promotes quality patient care and clinical practices through collaboration with patient care team and physicians
• Provides input toward the integrated performance management process, patient satisfaction, and performance improvement
• Fosters communications with physicians regarding discharged patients
• Follows up on staff/family/physician issues in a timely manner; documents on appropriate forms (i.e., Incident Report, Confidential Communication, etc.) as indicated
• Participates in unit performance improvement and committee representation and supports core measures procedures for admission and discharge
• Communicates with patient, family, caregivers, and staff to promote maximum benefit care
• Documents each call with all pertinent information along with interventions performed
• Performs other duties as assigned

Requirements

Education: Associate’s Degree (BSN preferred)

Required Experience: 2-5 years of job related experience

Populations Served:

While performing this job, the employee may care for patients in the following age groups.

• No direct responsibility to treat or are for patients

While performing this job, the employee does not care for patients in the following age groups.

• Neonate (<30 days)
• Infant (<1 year)
• Early Childhood (1 year and <5 years)
• Late Childhood (5 years and <13 years)
• Adolescent (13 and <17 years)
• Young Adult (17 to <30 years)
• Middle Adult (30 years to <60 years)
• Older Adult (>60 years)
• Serves patients in areas other than direct patient care