Most job seekers find Interviews one of the stressful aspects of the hiring process. However, being prepared can make you feel confident during the interview. This article provides you with 25 potential patient care coordinator interview questions along with how best to respond to them.
1. Why Are You Interested In This Role?
I have recently graduated with a Masters’s degree in health management. I have previously worked as an auxiliary nurse for 3 years and as a healthcare assistant for 2 years. During this time I gained a lot of experience in scheduling, organizing, and managing all aspects of patients’ healthcare treatment and maintenance. I improved and developed many skills that are helpful in this career such as communication, organization, time-management, and listening skills. I have recently been looking for an environment where I can put my skills, experience, education, and qualities into practice. Having gone through your job posting for this role, I feel that I have everything that you are looking for from the candidates.
2. What Are The Roles Of A Patient Care Coordinator?
A patient care coordinator schedules organize and manage all aspects of patients’ healthcare treatment and maintenance. Their duties include:
- Assisting patients complete paperwork
- Communicating about a patient treatment plan to the healthcare team
- Educating patients concerning options and resources that can enable them to manage their health
- Motivating staff to retain high standards of patient care at work
- Outlining and implementing staff’s work schedule
- Holding regular meetings with the care team
- Ascertaining that all patients have been accounted for in the patient care program
- Keeping patients’ records and staff schedules
- Making sure that every worker in the care team gets a balanced workload
- Performing quality assurance checks
- Keeping up the healthcare team up to date with the latest trends in the health setting
3. What Are The Qualities That A Patient Care Coordinator Need To Be Successful?
A patient care coordinator must systemize a care plan for many patients at once. He or she coordinates several healthcare workers with their different schedules. To succeed in this role, they must have strong organizational and time management skills. They also need very strong written and oral communication to effectively expedite and facilitate patient understanding of medical needs. A top-notch patient care coordinator must possess a high level of confidentiality and respect for the patient. He or she must have the ability to work under pressure and demonstrate compassion and care to patients.
4. What Major Challenges Did You Face During Your Last Role? How Did You Manage Them?
When I first got a job as a patient care coordinator, It was hard for me to manage the emotional stress associated with getting patients and staff to understand healthcare plans as well as the demanding workload. It was difficult for me to keep emotional boundaries with patients. This affected me mentally and when I realized that this was becoming too much, I sought help from a counselor who advised me to attend self-care therapies such as yoga, workshops, and seminars. I also joined professional forums on social media that helped me to alleviate stress as well as promote positivity and gratitude. I follow this advice up-to-date and it has helped to manage my emotions as far as this job is concerned.
5. Describe Your Daily Routine As A Patient Care Coordinator?
I begin my day by checking through my emails and voice messages to see whether there is anything that requires my urgent intervention. Then I embark on my daily routine including:
- Visiting patients as I check on the care they have been given
- Recording patients’ details and documenting them accordingly
- Creating and rearranginghealth care plans
- Communicating between patients, staff, and family
- Handling patient education and case management
- Designing patients’ goals as well as monitoring their progress
- Recruiting, training staff as well as developing schedules
- Maintaining patient quality care and confidentiality
6. Describe Briefly About Your Experience?
I have 6 years of experience performing a similar role at a referral hospital in our district. During this time, I have gained a lot of experience in ensuring that patients understand what they need to do to receive proper medical care. I can perfectly advocate for patients and communicate well with other healthcare providers. Besides, I have developed strong communication and organizational skills which I believe will be of great help in this role. I work with a high level of respect and confidentiality for the patients as well as guiding them with compassion. I will demonstrate my complete understanding of healthcare procedures and practice in this role should you offer me the opportunity.
7. What Kind Of Strategies And Mindset Are Required For This Role?
As a patient care coordinator, you should know the rights of your patients and understand how important they are. To succeed in this role, you will need to listen to patients and respect and compassion even as you adhere to the rules set by your employer. A patient care coordinator must be able to bring together different specialists whose help is needed by patients. From time to time, you will need to monitor and evaluate the care being delivered to the patients.
8. What Is The Biggest Challenge You Foresee In This Job?
The biggest challenge that I foresee in this job is dealing with specialists. Most of the specialists are great to collaborate with but others are hard to deal with. This becomes difficult for a patient care coordinator to bring in different specialists who can attend to the needs of patients. However, this can be dealt with if the top management of the facility negotiate terms with specialist and formalize them in writing.
9. How Do You Stay Motivated At Work?
I love helping patients to understand what they need to do to receive proper treatment. I have learned how to actively listen to patients and staff concerns including how to effectively communicate with them. Through this, we have been able to create a good environment for us to work in. An environment where everyone feels respected and appreciated. This brings about the morale for work. Besides, I have learned a lot of healthcare procedures and practices that enable me to effectively play my role as a patient care coordinator.
10. Describe A Time You Failed In This Role And The Lesson You Learned?
When I was new in this profession, the facility didn’t have enough specialists for every area in which our patients needed help. We would ask them to go and look for those services elsewhere. Seeing the frustration of patients made me have a talk with the upper management. We agreed to be outsourcing specialists that were lacking in our facility. We signed agreements with different specialists regarding payments, when to refer patients, records to be exchanged, and when the patients return to the facility. This improved patient care from 43% to 77% as per the survey that was recently conducted in our facility last month. This taught me that no challenge can not be solved if one is determined.
11. Why Do You Feel You Are Qualified For This Role?
Besides being a compassionate and respectful patient care coordinator, I hold a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s degree in health management. Previously, I have been a patient care coordinator in a hospital setting for 6 years. During this time I have gained many skills such as organizational, time management, communication, listening, and planning skills. I can work under pressure and effectively plan a manageable schedule for team members. I have also learned procedures and best practices to help me perform this role effectively. In the course of working as a patient care coordinator, I have gained a lot of experience in ensuring that patients understand what they need to do to receive proper medical care. Should you offer me this opportunity, I will perfectly advocate for patients and communicate well with other healthcare providers.
12. Share With Us Your Greatest Achievement
In the course of working as a patient care coordinator, I have interacted with different specialists in healthcare programs through attending seminars, workshops, and training. I also keep myself updated with the latest development in the health sector. This has helped me to bring together different specialists on board based on the patients’ needs. Whenever a patient visits our facility, he or she can be checked by a specialist in that area.
13. Briefly Describe How You Have Made It Easier For Patients To Access The Care They Need
When I got employed as a patient care coordinator, patient scheduling was being done manually. Patients would encounter busy signals and long on-hold times that were difficult to navigate. This was bringing frustrations to our patients. I thought of how I could make it easy for patients to schedule an appointment. I introduced software that allowed scheduling of the appointment by email. After conducting a pilot test, it was found to have reduced the burden at the front desk as well as decreased on-hold times and busy signals. Thus the whole system made it easier for patients to access the care they need.
14. What Advice Would You Give To A Nurse Who Has Difficulties Showing Empathy To Patients?
I would educate the nurse about the importance of demonstrating empathy towards a patient. I believe that it is a necessary part of any physician-patient relationship. It is what creates an alliance between a physician and a patient for it assures patients that their physicians care.
I would also give tips on how to show empathy such as looking a patient in the eye when scheduling an appointment with them, carefully listening to them, minding their body language when talking to a patient, etc.
15. As A Patient Care Coordinator, How Would You Help To Resolve A Conflict Between A Patient And A Health Provider?
I would listen to both parties about the cause of the conflict without taking sides. I would be careful not to interject when one party is talking. From the discussion, I would use my analytic and problem-solving skills to make an informed decision that would be best for the patient’s care. I would also help the patient and the health provider to understand each other’ s concerns to ensure that their relationship does not break from the incident.
16. How Would You Respond If A Patient With Late-Stage Alzheimer’s Thought You Were One Of Their Loved Ones While You Were Administering Care?
When interacting with patients that deal with extreme memory loss and confusion, I try to keep in mind that it isn’t necessarily important that they are fully aware of their surroundings as long as they are in good spirits. I’d feel honored that the patient had a good enough impression of me to mistake me for a loved one. I’d interact with them in a friendly way without contradicting them while still maintaining a professional demeanor. I would record the interaction in their records so that other members of the care team were aware of how their condition was progressing.
17. As A Patient Care Coordinator, How Would You Handle A Situation Where A Patient Refused Care?
I would approach patients who refuse care calmly to find out why. I would listen to them calmly without interrupting them as they describe their concerns. I believe that Showing them this respect can make them cooperate and feel comfortable with me. This also helps in building trust between patients and myself. I would then take them through the steps involved in their treatment including how they will benefit from it.
18. What Is The Difference Between A Medical Scheduler And A Care Coordinator?
The two areas may seem interrelated but, they are different roles. Medical schedulers set and confirm appointments at a specific institution while the care coordinator manages everything regarding patients’ care plans. The medical scheduler works only with patients who require an appointment while the care coordinator works with all patients. Additionally, a medical scheduler may at times refer patients to a care coordinator for further assistance.
19. Kindly Take Me Through How You Organise Your Staff Rota?
I believe in creating a fair staff rota because it can help employee attentiveness, engagement, and well-being. This makes staff feel valued and not overworked. That is why I think about how I can make things fair for every member of staff when creating the rota by asking about their availability. However, I know that not everyone will have the shift he or she want all the time. Thus, I consider how I can rotate shifts to allow everyone to take part in a shift pattern that works for them. Additionally, I do not hand shifts out at the last minute to allow room for flexibility as well as to enable employees to plan themselves before the shifts.
20. What Do You Consider As Key Principles Of Professionalism To Follow When Interacting With Patients?
As a patient care coordinator, I believe that it is essential to treat patients respectfully. I actively and carefully listen to what patients say to ensure that they feel heard. In my opinion, this is an important aspect while interacting with patients. Then, I try my best to offer them help as per the guidelines set by the facility.
21. Describe The Health Information Software Programs You Have Worked With In Your Previous Role
I have had experience working with a variety of health information software programs such as those with patient scheduling tools, intuitive data checks, significant use in reporting, and other features. Mostly, I have been using HER software in updating, correct, and create information. I am a quick learner and I believe that I will adapt to the system that your facility is using.
22. How Do You Motivate A Team To Achieve High Standards?
I believe that employee motivation is very important in health care practice. I have realized that motivated employees are attentive to patients and their needs. I use different strategies to motivate a team including:
- Demonstrating that I trust my employee by allowing an open communication as well as letting them make independent decisions on their job schedule
- Focusing on training and growth of my employees
- Motivating individuals rather than the team
23. What Is Greatest Strength In Relation To This Role?
I have strong interpersonal and communication skills that enable me to interact well with patients and other staff. This helps me build a good rapport with my patients that makes serving them become fun and interesting. In addition, my ability to organize enables me to meet deadlines ahead of the scheduled time.
24. What Do You Do To Maintain And Update Your Skills As A Patient Care Coordinator?
I keep training to maintain my certifications, it helps me stay sharp in my skills as well as learn new ones once they become available. I always participate in departmental training programs including taking the required classes. Additionally, I research to familiarize myself with new developments in this field. Whatever knowledge I acquire, I use it to become more effective in my work.
25. Why Do You Want To Leave Your Current Job?
My current job has been rewarding in terms of my career growth. However, I feel that I need to grow further in my career. The way to do this is to find better opportunities. I consider this job as one of those opportunities. I also feel that I’m ready for more complex challenges and these will make me grow the more.”
Conclusion
Use these questions and answers to prepare adequately for your next interview. You simply need to demonstrate to the interviewer that you have relevant knowledge and skills by answering every question correctly.
