Social Worker

West Virginia University Health System - Martinsburg, WV

Full-time

Martinsburg, WV

Social Assistance

About the position

Provides social work services to patients, their families and/or significant others through counseling, emotional support, assisting with environmental needs, crisis intervention, and group leadership.

Responsibilities

• Complete a comprehensive assessment to develop a safe, realistic discharge plan of care appropriate for the patient, in consideration of psychosocial, emotional and financial needs, and in collaboration with the care management team and documents in the electronic medical record.
• Assess changes in the physician's plan of care and any impact on the discharge plan.
• Reviews discharge plan on an ongoing basis and communicates any changes to the appropriate party. Documents the discharge plan in the electronic medical record.
• Identifies potential problems with post-discharge care and/or initiates early referrals to promote proper utilization of hospital resources and timely transfer to the appropriate level of care.
• Assists the interdisciplinary team in identifying alternate methods and level of care when patient does not require acute hospitalization and takes appropriate action to minimize financial loss to the hospital and improve the quality of patient care delivery.
• Explore and collaborate with resources within the hospital and community to meet defined patient needs and refers patients and/or families to resources including but not limited to income assistance programs, transportation services, meal assistance, etc.
• Assess for signs and symptoms of abuse and/or neglect and make referrals to appropriate agencies.
• Assist in identifying a decision maker of medical (Health Care Surrogate) or if there is an existing Medical Power of Attorney designee and presence of a Living Will or other advance directive.
• Work with hospital legal counsel in pursuing and expediting guardianship, and/or conservatorship actions when necessary.
• Provides education and guidance to physicians, patient, family and other health care professionals about Medicare, Medicaid and other third party payers coverage issues and regulations.
• Communicates to case management leadership or designees and/or appropriate physician, medical staff director/peer review regarding deviations from expected norm, quality or appropriateness of care; length of stay issues; risk management issues.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in Social Work or related field.
• Licensed Social Worker (LSW) through applicable state where services will be performed for West Virginia and Ohio locations.
• Licensed Bachelor Social Worker (LBSW) through applicable state where services will be performed for Maryland locations.
• Two (2) years' social work experience.

Nice-to-haves

• Certification in Case Management.