Communications Operator

St. Luke’s Health-Memorial paves the way for quality innovative health care in East Texas and provides more than a quarter of a million patient services each year. With hospitals in Lufkin Livingston and San Augustine St. Luke’s Health-Memorial provides millions of dollars in charity care and community support each year.

Performs customer service functions by providing call-processing services for St. Luke’s Health Memorial in centralized call processing operations, serving patients, personnel, medical staff, residents, and the public. Assists customers in obtaining information and services. Provides emergency and disaster alerting. Monitors equipment and performs routine maintenance and trouble-shooting tasks. Assists with clerical tasks as assigned. Maintains patient safety through attention to detail, equipment safety checks, adherence to department policies, and effective communication with peers and providers. Displays professional, safe conduct in all interactions. Maintains positive working relationships with staff, other departments, physicians and peers. Displays conduct in support of St. Luke’s Health Memorial Mission & Vision.

Position Responsibilities:

• Displays professional, engaging conduct and excellent customer service skills.
• Assist customers in obtaining information, and services.
• Displays excellent telephone manners and handles all calls in an expeditious manner.
• Answers telephone calls promptly (less than three (3) rings) and provides help to customer or finds someone who can.
• Obtains complete and accurate information & routes calls to appropriate individual/section. Takes messages accurately & distributes within 15 minutes to appropriate individual.
• Maintains a professional personal appearance and an orderly and professional work area; complies with dress guidelines.
• Collaborates with all levels of personnel and physicians to utilize effective customer service skills to provide assistance and handle problem situations.
• Demonstrates skills and ability to operate department equipment, and performs operational tasks, including Pager exchanges.
• Demonstrates skills and ability to process diverse requests for information including incoming and outgoing calls, as well as emergency/disaster alerting.
• Demonstrates skills and ability to activate organizational and departmental emergency plans, including but not limited to Fire Emergency Plan, Internal & External Disasters, and weather alerts, as required.
• Demonstrates skills and ability to operate emergency communications equipment including telephone and paging notification systems.
• Demonstrates skills and ability to document technical and operational problems.
• Provide accurate documentation of work performed; provide timely and accurate information and reports to co-workers and management levels, summarizing problems and solutions.
• Accurately and effectively plan, organize, and control assigned tasks and responsibilities, leading to high productivity, quality, and responsiveness.
• Assists the Senior Telecommunications Representative, and/or Manager in maintaining and updating department databases, including the St. Luke’s Health Memorial Market Directory, for call processing and paging, as well as locator information for physicians, employees, patients, and on-call personnel.
• Maintains an orderly work area, ensuring that equipment, supplies, parts, etc. are stored in cabinets, closets, or other designated areas.
• Develops and maintains knowledge and understanding of information technology, including operating systems, telecommunications, and networking.
• Communicates with others professionally and diplomatically; maintains cooperative efforts with all staff/departments.
• Demonstrates sound judgment in the ability to organize workflow.
• Adheres to St. Luke’s Health Memorial policies, including but not limited to “CHI Values & Ethics at Work”, HIPPA, PHI, ePHI, Privacy Rule, and confidentiality.
• Maintains safe work habits; adheres to safety rules; immediately reports any unsafe condition; immediately reports any incident / injury.
• Supports department-based goals and contributes to the success of the organization. Complies with hospital policies and procedures; attends required in – services, education and training.
• Performs duties in accordance with that of hospital policies and procedures, and regulatory agency guidelines.
• Wears identification badge and clocks in appropriately.
• Demonstrates a willingness to follow the chain of command, regularly channels suggestions, criticisms and complaints to the appropriate person.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Disclosure summary:

The above statements reflect the general details considered necessary to describe the essential functions of the job as identified, and shall not be considered a detailed description of all work requirements that may be inherent in position.

Education And Experience Required:

• High School Diploma/GED
• Zero (0) to one (1) year of experience in call processing, dispatching, paging, and customer service.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Knowledge and understanding of telecommunications equipment and services including; Windows based software, preferably E-mail, Excel, Word, integrated tele messaging equipment, etc.
• Must have the ability to resolve problems and have excellent communication skills, telephone customer service, and interpersonal skills.
• Must be able to multi-task and maintain a positive attitude.
• Will sometimes be asked to serve on a project team that contributes to the improvement of morale and department performance.
• Provides recommendations for improvements, as well as contributions towards making the improvements.