Community Health Worker

Position Summary:   The Community Health Worker (CHW) assists a chronic condition patient (predominately diabetics),   assigned by Heart City Health Center’s (HCHC’s) Quality Manager, with access to community resources, treatment plan compliance and self-management plans outside of the normal medical visit, ideally within the patient’s home.   Additionally, the CHW and the Marketing Coordinator organize community events open to the public and specifically focused on chronic disease awareness, education and management.  

Essential Functions:

1. Makes contact with the assigned chronic condition patient as determined necessary; evaluates patient status/progress and up-dates the Quality Manager every six months
2. Educates and helps the patient understand their chronic health condition and it’s contributing factors
3. Assists in medication management, treatment plan compliance and behavior modification goal efforts
4. Provides informal counseling and social support; encouragement, problem solving and coping skills
5. Assesses patient’s eligibility for services such as financial assistance, insurances and other programs in place to assist similarly-situated individuals; this is a coordinated HCHC effort including, patient financial services (PFS), Managed Care Coordinator (MCC) and Patient Care Coordinator (PCC) personnel.
6. Helps clients gain awareness of and access to community resources and agencies to meet identified needs   
7. Helps improve patient’s ability to effectively communicate with and ask questions of health care providers   
8. Helps identify and reduce cultural and socio-economic barriers between patients and health providers
9. Works closely and trains as necessary with the Center for Healing & Hope (Heart City Health Center’s (HCHC’s) contracted partner in the Health at Home endeavor (United Way 2014 grant)
10. Works closely with HCHC’s Marketing Coordinator to plan and promote community events open to the public and specifically focused on chronic disease awareness, education and management
11. Organizes, coordinates and/or conducts community events including but not limited to:

1. Group educational opportunities, such as cooking classes via Purdue Health extension
2. Group supermarket excursions to promote better food options, buying and eating habits for specific conditions
3. Exercise opportunities directly associated with chronic disease management and referrals for low cost exercise alternatives
4. Group support meetings for patients, families, caregivers and friends to share experiences, challenges and successes with managing their chronic condition(s); may be an online site referral, such as: https://www.patientslikeme.com

1. Enters data and produces various reports as needed or requested 
2. Adheres to HCHC’s policies and standards in regard to HIPAA and other privacy issues
3. Other duties as assigned

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

1. Familiarity with local community resources for patients with chronic disease
2. Ability to work independently (self motivating) and as a team member
3. Good time management skills; self evaluates the use of time and understands how others may be affected
4. Ability to build and maintain collaborative, therapeutic alliances with co-workers, providers, managers, patients, agency resource personnel and community members in general
5. Excellent communication skills; active listening as well as written and oral comprehension/communication skills; Gives full attention to what individuals are saying, understands the point being made, asks appropriate questions to gain better knowledge of situation(s) and repeats information to ensure understanding
6. Excellent customer service skills; actively seeks ways to assist internal and external customers within the scope of assigned duties
7. Good basic mathematical skills; uses a calculator or other means to accurately assist in financial matters
8. Good computer skills; Outlook, Windows, Microsoft Office applications; EMR exposure helpful
9. Cultural diversity awareness and skills; respects all people regardless of race, nationality or social standing
10. Problem sensitivity skills; empathetic/understanding
11. Deductive reasoning and problem-solving skills
12. Organized and detail-oriented
13. Bilingual (Spanish/English) language skills are helpful

Education, Experience and Licensure:

1. High School Diploma or equivalent (GED) required
2. Current and valid Indiana Driver’s license

Physical Demands: 

1. May sit and/or stand for long periods of time
2. Must be able to drive
3. Must be able to safely lift, carry and place materials weighing up to 50 lbs.
4. Must be able to see and hear within normal range with or without correction device(s)
5. Dexterity and hand to eye coordination as normally associated with operating office equipment, computers  and telephones

Working Conditions:

1. Variable locations for job performance include indoor and outdoor work environments
2. Professional, fast-paced office environment 
3. Possible exposure to unusual, unpleasant or hazardous environments within the community  
4. Risk of dangers associated with driving a vehicle and navigating traffic
5. Exposure to unpleasant odors, loud noises, extreme temperatures and unclean living conditions possible