Assistant Director, Patient and Family Experience

Company: University of Washington
Location: Seattle
Posted on: May 3, 2025

Job Description:

If you are using a screen reader and experience any difficulty accessing our web pages, please call 206-543-2544 or email UWHires and we will be happy to assist you. jump to contentAssistant Director, Patient and Family ExperienceAssistant Director, Patient and Family ExperienceReq #: 245303Department: PSYCHIATRY AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCESJob Location: Seattle CampusPosting Date: 04/24/2025Closing Info: Open Until FilledOther Compensation:Shift: First ShiftBenefits: As a UW employee, you will enjoy generous benefits and work/life programs. For a complete description of our benefits for this position, please visit our website, click here.As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills, and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world.

UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits, and natural beauty. All of which has allowed the UW to be nationally recognized as a "Great College to Work For" for four consecutive years.

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences within the UW School of Medicine is the third largest clinical department within the School of Medicine with 330 full-time faculty members, 460 courtesy faculty members, and over 350 staff. Department faculty provide clinical services in 5 hospitals, 14 primary care locations, and several outpatient sites in addition to telepsychiatry consultations to more than 150 clinics in Washington and beyond. As the only academic psychiatry department serving the five state WWAMI region (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho), the Department's highly competitive residency training program is largely responsible for developing the mental health workforce in the Pacific Northwest. The Department's robust research portfolio totals $67 million in grants and contracts per year for projects ranging from clinical neurosciences to treatment development to health policy and population health. The Department is recognized as an international leader in developing, testing, and implementing Collaborative Care, an integrated care model increasingly seen as a solution for population-based mental health care. Other areas of excellence include Addictions, Autism, High Risk Youth, Neurosciences, and Trauma, and the Department is developing innovative new programs in Technology and Mental Health, Global Mental Health, Maternal and Child Mental Health, and Targeted Intervention Development. Psychiatry is the third largest department in the School of Medicine and the largest non-divisioned department. The overall annual operations funding from all sources is over $130 million.

The Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences within the UW School of Medicine currently has an outstanding opportunity for a Assistant Director, Patient and Family Experience.

This is a position with an expectation of being in the office 2-3 days per week.

POSITION PURPOSE

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences is recruiting for an Assistant Director of Patient and Family Experience (AD) across our Telepsychiatry and Patient and Caregiver Support programs. The AD provides operational support to clinically focused behavioral health access programs based in the Department and reports to the Director of Patient and Family Experience (DPFE). The AD is responsible for direct supervision of a team of Mental Health Navigators (MHN) (Program Coordinator classification) who staff the Department's provider to provider psychiatric consultation programs - the Psychiatry Consultation Line (PCL) and the Perinatal Psychiatry Consultation Line (Perinatal PCL) and the patient-facing Perinatal Telepsychiatry Clinic. The PCL operates 24 hours per day, while the other programs are available non-holiday weekdays during business hours. The AD works with Department faculty across all UW Medicine locations, as well as service chiefs, the Department Chair and Vice Chair. The AD collaborates closely with the DPFE to develop and implement new patient and family access and support programs based on department needs and funding.

In addition, the AD provides back up to the DPFE in triaging patient and/or family referrals for navigation and access to behavioral health care assistance. As such, this position requires the utmost discretion regarding patient privacy rules and regulations as well as strict adherence to ethical standards of clinical practice.

POSITION COMPLEXITIES

As requested, the AD will work with Department administrative and clinical leadership, IT, Communications and Marketing, and Finance, to support team programs. This includes managing day-to-day operations of all team programs including triaging callers who may be in behavioral health distress or crisis, maintaining clear operational protocols for all team members, ensuring contractually required deliverables, data sets, and reporting are met, and analyzing program data for trends and improvement opportunities. The AD will also assist in program marketing and outreach efforts including attendance at statewide conferences, participating in in-person and virtual presentations about the programs and other related efforts as assigned. At times, the AD will work with the department Chair, Vice Chairs, Chiefs of Service and Medical Directors to respond to requests for patient and/or family assistance that may originate from internal and external sources such as UW Deans, Board Members, faculty, and UW Medicine executive leadership. As part of this work, the AD will be expected to coordinate closely with both internal and external resources to ensure timely and accurate responses to requests for assistance. The AD will supervise a hybrid workforce based out of the Department's Health Sciences location.

POSITION DIMENSIONS AND IMPACT TO THE UNIVERSITY

Behavioral healthcare access is of increasing importance within the UW system and in the community. The department has expanded its clinical consultation, telepsychiatry and patient and family experience service areas. This growth includes state and federally sponsored contracts as well as philanthropically funded programming. The PCL and Perinatal PCL are state-wide programs, funded by the Washington legislature, intended to provide specialized psychiatric services to healthcare providers across Washington. The Family and Caregiver Training and Support (FACTS) Program is a more recent, philanthropically funded project intended to improve levels of engagement of family members and loved ones of the patients we serve across UW Medicine. The AD will participate in unit and departmental activities to help identify important gaps in care or challenges in coordinating services, help us to continuously improve and innovate in our clinical services and advocate for improving behavioral health services and access throughout UW Medicine, our community and our state.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Management of Navigator Staff (50%)

• Participate in all aspects of human resources processes including hiring, orientation, supervision, performance monitoring and evaluations.
  
• Ensure timely action on staff leave requests, timecards, and managing coverage calendar, and ensuring adequate staffing levels for necessary shift coverage for planned and unplanned absences.
  
• Assist in the day-to-day management, supervision and training of team of navigator staff to ensure programs are positioned to meet deliverables and service level agreements.
  
• Serve as a point of escalation for cases involving potential clinical risk and/or safety concerns. Escalate safety, management and personnel concerns to DPFE in a timely fashion.
  
• Contribute to the development and maintenance of program processes and workflows. In close coordination with DPFE and other program leadership, may make edits or updates to existing standard operating procedures.
  
• Develop and maintain procedures and systems to support hybrid work arrangements for program staff. This includes coordination with Department IT, UW Medicine IT and UW Medicine Telecom to ensure staff have functional workstations and being available to problem-solve interruptions and/or failures related to these technologies.
  
• Ensure all team members have adequate training and ongoing access to relevant electronic systems including EPIC (UW Medicine's electronic medical record system), Provider One (Washington State's Medicaid Management Information System), SharePoint, and serve as the team's content matter expert for all of these systems.
  
• Ensure continued clinical and administrative competency of staff via personalized and timely performance evaluations, including individualized performance improvement coaching as indicated.
  
• Maintain familiarity with union contract provisions and ensure compliance with requirements therein.
  
• Perform related duties as requested to anticipate and support growth of our telepsychiatry and patient and family support programs.
  
  Program Development and Support (30%)
  
  
• Collaborate closely with DPFE to establish and achieve program goals and to develop new and innovative programs that expand patient and family access and support programming across UW Medicine. This includes developing new programs as requested to support service and departmental goals.
  
• Coordinate with relevant stakeholders to develop and maintain program guides, procedures and training manuals.
  
• Provide accurate and timely reporting to funders, including being part of the development and maintenance of program database(s).
  
• Ensure data integrity and accuracy via regularly scheduled audits using key performance indicators to determine staff training needs and to ensure appropriate staffing levels.
  
• In close collaboration with DPFE, complete monthly, quarterly and annual reports including inter-rater reliability (IRR) activities.
  
• Adjust to evolution of program technologies and attend relevant trainings, remote or in-person, as needed or requested by program leadership.
  
• Provide backup to DPFE on behavioral health clinical case triage to include patient access and navigation assistance throughout UW Medicine and in the community.
  
• Attend all relevant program meetings including all UW Medicine program sites and community based.
  
• Serve as an ambassador for Patient and Caregiver Support, telepsychiatry and consultation programming by actively engaging in regular marketing and promotion efforts. This may include social media, staffing exhibitor booths at conferences across Washington State, developing informational materials, and fielding general inquiries.
  
• Observe principles of data security and patient confidentiality including safeguarding PHI according to UW Medicine and HIPAA requirements.
  
• Maintain ethical standards in the performance of duties and in interactions with program callers and colleagues.
  
  Professional development (20%)
  
  
• Participate in individual, team and program goal setting.
  
• Complete all required training including annual safety review, HIPAA and Compliance modules, EPIC, and others to continually improve skills and stay current with program operations.
  
• Actively engage in regularly scheduled supervision and participate in ongoing professional development and education.
  
  Supervisory Responsibilities
  
  Will provide direct supervision of all mental health navigator staff who operate on a hybrid telework arrangement.
  
  MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
  
  
• Master's degree in social work, nursing, psychology, or a related field AND a minimum of 2 years of experience in a health care or behavioral health care setting; OR an equivalent combination of education and experience.
  
  Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license/certification/registration.
  
  DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
  
  
• Current/active professional certification or license in a relevant clinical field (e.g., LICSW, LMHC, RN).
  
• Three years of experience in a health/behavioral health care setting including at least one year of supervisory experience.
  
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with supervisor or manager on program innovations and perform duties with a high level of professionalism, sensitivity and confidentiality.
  
• Prior experience in clinical triage including working with families of patients receiving or seeking behavioral healthcare services.
  
• Experience working with the public or representing an organization to other organizations.
  
• Experience with data management, quality improvement and quality assurance activities, meeting contract deliverables and reporting requirements.
  
• Ability to work effectively both as a team member and collaborator with DPFE but also work independently with minimal supervision.
  
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain relationships with a wide variety of constituents.
  
• Documented excellence in customer service for a diverse customer base.
  
• Demonstrated ability to take initiative, set and change priorities, creatively solve problems, and exercise good judgment.
  
• Knowledge of the UW Medicine clinical services.
  
• Proficiency in the use of EPIC (electronic medical record systems), MS Word, MS Excel, PowerPoint, MS Outlook, Zoom, Red Cap, SharePoint, and Tableau.
  
  Application Process: The application process may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process. These assessments may include Work Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others. Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select "Apply to this position". Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment, you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your "My Jobs" page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are access ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.Committed to attracting and retaining a diverse staff, the University of Washington will honor your experiences, perspectives and unique identity. Together, our community strives to create and maintain working and learning environments that are inclusive, equitable and welcoming.To request disability accommodation in the application process, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 or dso@uw.edu .Applicants considered for this position will be required to disclose if they are the subject of any substantiated findings or current investigations related to sexual misconduct at their current employment and past employment. Disclosure is required under Washington state law .
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Keywords: University of Washington, Bellingham , Assistant Director, Patient and Family Experience, Executive , Seattle, Washington