Hospital Liaison

Job Summary

The Hospital Liaison works directly under the Hospital Liaison Supervisor in the Crisis Department. This person is responsible for providing clinical oversight, advocacy, and care coordination for individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis as soon as a crisis request is initiated. The Hospital Liaison consults daily with OCHN’s designated crisis providers to move individuals along the crisis continuum to the appropriate level of care resource. This position typically works 8:30am-5:00pm but this position may have after hours responsibility as needed.

Essential Functions

• Serve as the primary liaison between OCHN, direct service providers, hospital Emergency Departments (ED) and inpatient behavioral health units.
• Support the contract management of the acute care/hospital network.
• Provide clinical oversight, linkage, advocacy, coordination, and monitoring for individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis.
• Assist individuals in accessing necessary crisis services as medically appropriate and in the least restrictive environment.
• Monitor network capacity and adequacy.
• Coordinate with crisis providers to monitor ease of access to acute services.
• Provide technical assistance and oversight to providers of crisis intervention services and crisis focused treatment to people served.
• Establish and maintain constructive working relationships with acute care/EDs and community partners.
• Interact and provide informal face-to-face assessments for individuals experiencing a mental health crisis at local ED’s or on site at the crisis building.
• Assist with discharge planning from inpatient behavioral health care providers and meet with individuals in the hospital setting.
• Provide short-term, solution focused, supportive, crisis counseling to individuals and/or families as necessary.
• Interact with multiple community partners including clinical teams at hospitals and ED’s, local shelters and basic need resources, placements and outpatient treatment staff.
• Facilitates meetings with crisis screeners, ED staff, psychiatric acute care providers, MDHHS, and outpatient clinicians to address barriers to admission, diversion options, clinical/placement concerns, and treatment/discharge options.
• Support strategies to comply with state, federal, CARF, NCQA, and HEDIS regulations/initiatives.
• Provide/support training to community partners and network staff related to acute/crisis services and best practices.
• Intersect with other internal OCHN teams on a regular basis.
• Co-facilitate the Hospital Liaison Meeting and assist the Crisis team with sharing community resources and presenting relevant topics.
• Represent OCHN on relevant committees.
• Additional duties as assigned.

Job Requirements and Qualifications

Education:

• Master’s degree in healthcare related field required.

Training Requirements (licenses, programs, or certificates):

• Clinical licensure required (RN, LPC, LLP, LP, LMSW, LMFT, etc.)

Experience Requirements:

• Minimum of two years’ experience working in the human health and service field.

Preferred Experience:

Job Specific Competencies/Skills:

• Interpersonal Skills
• Strong written and oral communication
• De-escalation
• Problem-solving skills
• Organizational skills

Knowledge Requirements:

• Knowledge of medically necessary criteria for acute care behavioral health treatment
• Knowledge of the Michigan Mental Health Code
• HIPPA
• Medicaid Manual
• Knowledge of the clinical care process- crisis continuum (screening, crisis assessment, treatment planning, case management and continuing care)
• Knowledge of the practices and principles of psychological, emotional, and social assessment and diagnosis

Oakland Community Health Network’s Core Competencies:

• Interacting with others in a way that gives them confidence in one’s intentions and those of the organization; demonstrating loyalty to the organization and its mission and values; maintaining social, ethical, and organizational norms; firmly adhering to codes of conduct and ethical principles. (Integrity/Building Trust)
• Making customers and their needs a primary focus of one’s actions; developing and sustaining productive customer relationships, recognizing that the ultimate customer is the person served. (Customer Focus)
• Actively identifying new areas for learning; regularly creating and taking advantage of learning opportunities; using newly gained knowledge and skill on the job and learning through their application. (Continuous Learning)
• Setting high standards of performance for self and others; assuming responsibility and accountability for successfully completing assignments or tasks; self-imposing standards of excellence in addition to consciously adopting organizational standards of excellence. (Work Standards)
• Clearly conveying information and ideas through a variety of media to individuals or groups in a manner that engages the audience and helps them understand and retain the message. (Communication)

Other Information

Special Information (Travel required, physical requirements, etc.):

• Must have available means of transportation to and from OCHN and for required offsite meetings or site visits.
• Must be available for meetings and events which may occur outside of standard office hours.
• Work performed primarily in an office environment.
• Hybrid (onsite/remote) work schedule available.

Additional Information

• The ideal candidate must be able to complete all physical requirements of the job with or without a reasonable accommodation.

OCHN is committed to building a diverse team and fostering an inclusive and equitable culture. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer that embraces and encourages our employees' differences. This includes (but is not limited to) ability, age, color, family type, gender expression and identity, individual expression, medical conditions, national origin, pregnancy, race, religion, sexual orientation, veteran status, and all other diverse and wonderful characteristics.