Patient Navigator for The Wallace Medical Concern (Volunteer Postition)

The Wallace Medical Concern is a private nonprofit health care organization, established in 1984. Based on a mission and belief that everyone deserves concern, compassion and health, The Wallace Medical Concern has provided an open door to health care serving low-income and uninsured families who face barriers to care in communities throughout the Cities of Portland and Gresham in the State of Oregon for over 26 years. Through a network of over 300 volunteers at two sites, WMC serves as both a provider of “urgent care” and as an effective gateway to specialty services through referrals and partnerships with some of the area’s largest medical groups and health systems.

SCHEDULE
Mon - Fri 9:00-5:00pm
5-20 Hours per month (variable) 6 month commitment
TRAINING PROVIDED Patient Navigators will participate in several sessions of individual and group training. Individual training will take place online utilizing the Colorado Patient Navigator training website: www.patientnavigatortraining.org Navigators will be required to take the online training program. In addition, group training will focus on Program Overview, Patient Confidentiality, Building and Maintaining Trust, Health Literacy, and Cultural Sensitivity.
RESPONSIBILITIES

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
Facilitate patient healthcare
• Assess patient needs through the use of surveys and other tools to determine health access limitation and contact potential patients.
• Guide patients through the health care system and help patients arrive at their scheduled appointments on time and prepared.
• Facilitate connecting patients to specialty care, as needed.

Provide resources
• Provide assistance with social service resources (financial, transportation, food, etc.)
• Provide health education information as needed.
• Coach patients to become advocates for their own care.

Build awareness of patient navigator resources
• Facilitate interaction and communication with health care staff and providers.
• Assist in training new patient navigator volunteers.
• With assistance from patient services director, track patient interactions and outcomes to determine program effectiveness.

• Experience in the area of health education, public health, social work and/or case management is helpful.
• Excellent communication and writing skills.
• Work effectively in a team environment.
• Familiar with community resources
• A background check is required for this position
• Compassion
• Fluent in English, bilingual (Spanish) preferred
BENEFITS
• Opportunity to gain exposure to underserved populations
• Invaluable experience for future applications and/or resumes
• Collegial environment
• Opportunity to develop advocacy skills

Service Languages: Spanish