Job Description

The Patient Placement RN is responsible for coordinating and facilitating the safe, timely, and efficient placement of patients within the hospital. This role ensures appropriate bed assignment, supports optimal patient throughput, and collaborates with physicians, nursing staff, and ancillary departments to promote quality care and patient satisfaction.
This position serves as the central hub for the Hospital Medicine Service (HMS), coordinating referrals from Emergency Room physicians, community physicians, LSU, and other healthcare providers. The RN utilizes clinical expertise and comprehensive knowledge of hospital systems to triage patients, match them with appropriate teams, and ensure they are seen promptly. The role also promotes patient safety, prevents delays, and ensures continuity of care throughout the patient’s hospital course, including post-discharge.

Patient Placement & Throughput

• Coordinate patient admissions, transfers, and discharges to ensure efficient throughput and appropriate bed utilization.
• Triages referrals from ER physicians, community physicians, and other providers to HMS or LSU service teams.
• Matches the clinical needs of HMS acute care patients with the most favorable clinical environment and capacity.
• Maintains real-time awareness of hospital capacity, census, and bed availability; communicates with Bed Control and/or transfer center on pending requests.
• Ensures all placement requests are prioritized and processed in a clinically appropriate and timely manner.
• Publishes and adjusts HMS physician and nursing assignments daily, maintaining real-time knowledge of census, staffing, and projections.
• Coordinates Medicine City Call patients to appropriate providers
• Maintains knowledge of teaching service staffing, census, and cap limits

Coordination & Communication

• Acts as a liaison for internal and external requests for physician services.
• Appropriately delegates patient care activities to team members and participates in making and revising staff assignments to achieve maximum productivity.
• Exercise independent judgment in resolving throughput-related issues.
• Communicates and coordinates HMS services between numerous referring and receiving physicians.
• Maintains knowledge of HMS physician staffing, census limits, bylaws, and service-to-service interface agreements to prevent inappropriate referrals.
• Facilitates communication and collaboration between hospitals, providers, transfer centers, and transport teams.
• Enhances the ability to obtain pertinent medical records from transferring facilities, clinic offices, and external healthcare providers.
• Provides thorough handoffs to incoming hospital medicine physicians, summarizing census, patient assignments, referrals, and team needs.
• Performs prompt review of recent physician care to better direct patients to physicians who have recently seen the patient
• Enables hospitalists to see more patients in a shorter period, improving throughput, efficiency, and satisfaction.

Clinical Expertise & Patient Safety

• Demonstrates proficient knowledge of adult pathophysiology and disease processes.
• Tracks all patients from referral to discharge to ensure timely evaluation and assignment.
• Prepares cross-coverage materials for oncoming hospitalists to meet Joint Commission standards for handoff communication.
• Resolves post-discharge issues until patients re-establish care with primary/community providers.
• Participate in audits and incident reviews.
• Participates in quality improvement initiatives by utilizing standards, guidelines, and pathways for care delivery.
• Facilitates staff training, orientation, and competency validation

Operational & Financial Oversight

• Manages the global HMS census, including admits, consults, transfers, discharges, and deaths.
• Provide guidance and support during complex patient placement decisions.
• Ensures primary care providers are notified of their patients’ admissions and discharges.
• Address and resolve conflicts between departments or staff regarding patient placement or prioritization.
• Supports compliance with Core Measures and Value-Based Purchasing requirements.
• Assists with ensuring billing accuracy by coordinating admission status (inpatient vs. observation) between HMS and hospital systems.
• Resolve conflicts between departments or staff in a timely and professional manner.
• Provides operational and clinical insight for HMS to internal and external stakeholders.
• Manages and coordinates HMS-related work order requests to maintain clinical efficiency.
• Analyze data trends and recommend evidence-based strategies to enhance patient flow.
• Ensure patient-centered decisions that balance clinical needs with operational efficiency.
• Escalate concerns appropriately while maintaining a collaborative and solution-focused approach.
• Performs other duties as assigned
  

Experience:
2 years nursing experience in an acute setting such as critical care, hospital medicine, or patient flow.

Education:
Associate's or Bachelor's degree or 5 years experience in critical care, hospital medicine, or patient flow.

Licensure/Certification: Current unrestricted Louisiana RN license