Patient Advocate

The Patient Advocate supports and assists patients and families across the UCLA Health System. Listens with empathy and caring, then researches, problems solves and advocates, ensuring that patients are assured that their concerns are addressed. When handling volatile, sensitive or politically charged situations, the Patient Advocate exercises judgment, diplomacy and an in-depth understanding of the organizational structure and dynamics to ensure that appropriate individuals are involved. Utilizes strong negotiation, facilitation, written and oral communication skills to ensure that patients/families are provided with the best possible response and solution to their complaints. Assesses complaints/grievances and then prepares them for review by committees including medical staff, Risk Management, Quality/Safety, and Hospital Administration. Uses limit setting and behavioral redirection skills when necessary to ensure that behavior of patients or families do not violate rights of other patients or staff. Assists clinical managers and physicians in developing patient behavioral contracts or in separating patients from a clinical practice.

• Demonstrated ability to independently establish goals, and priorities
• Demonstrated skill at de-escalating and diffusing challenging situations.
• Strong negotiation, facilitation, written and oral communication, and cultural awareness skills
• Superior organizational skills to oversee multiple simultaneous cases and with varying and rolling deadlines
• Ability to be highly flexible in an environment where goals and priorities change frequently
• Ability to compose detailed written and verbal responses to patient concerns with the highest degree of grammatical accuracy, sentence syntax, and content accuracy
• Excellent interpersonal and collaboration skills sufficient to develop and maintain successful partnerships with colleagues at all levels of the organization.
• Competent in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Highly service-oriented attitude and proven flexibility
• Demonstrated success working collaboratively with administrators, directors, physicians, clinicians, patients and staff.
• 2 years minimum customer interfacing