Behavioral Health Patient Placement Coordinator

When you join the growing BILH team, you're not just taking a job, you’re making a difference in people’s lives.

The Behavioral Health Patient Placement Coordinator serves as a key member of the BILH Behavioral Health Transfer Center, supporting the centralized coordination and placement of patients requiring inpatient behavioral health services. This office-based role is responsible for conducting comprehensive clinical reviews of referrals, facilitating admission decisions, and coordinating patient placement to ensure timely access to the most appropriate level of care.
Working collaboratively with inpatient behavioral health units, referring hospitals, providers, and community partners, the coordinator plays an integral role in optimizing bed capacity across the system while promoting exceptional patient outcomes, operational efficiency, and a seamless admission experience.
The Behavioral Health Patient Placement Coordinator serves as a clinical and operational liaison, ensuring adherence to regulatory standards, supporting patient-centered decision-making, and advancing system-wide efforts to streamline behavioral health admissions and transfers.

Job Description:

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS & RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Collaborate with referring hospitals, emergency departments, community providers, and other referral sources to obtain clinical information and coordinate patient transitions.
• Conduct clinical review of referrals and apply established admission, exclusion, and level of care criteria to determine placement options; escalate cases requiring physician, psychiatric or leadership review in accordance with established protocols.
• Coordinate and facilitate the admission process for accepted patients, ensuring timely and efficient placement across behavioral health services.
• Identify cases requiring additional medical or psychiatric review and facilitate escalation to the Director of Behavioral Health Admissions or other designated leaders as appropriate.
• Partner with behavioral health units across the system to optimize bed utilization, patient flow, and capacity management.
• Maintain real-time awareness of available and anticipated behavioral health capacity.
• Prioritize placement based on clinical need, level-of-care requirements, available capacity, and established system protocols.
• Identify barriers to placement and proactively facilitate resolution or escalation.
• Communicate placement status and outstanding requirements to referring teams.
• Support equitable distribution of appropriate patients across available system capacity.
• Accurately document referral status, clinical review, disposition, barriers, and communications.
• Participates in and leads quality improvement initiatives that enhance behavioral health patient access, placement efficiency, patient flow, and care coordination across the health system.
• Serve as a central resource and liaison for behavioral health placement inquiries from internal and external stakeholders.
• Maintain a thorough understanding of regulatory standards and ensure compliance with applicable requirements from organizations including DMH, DPH, The Joint Commission, payers, and other governing agencies.
• Promote a culture of quality, safety, and patient-centered care throughout the admissions and transfer process.
• Establish and maintain collaborative relationships with referral sources, payers, physicians, clinical teams, and hospital departments.
• Participate in the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of workflows and operational processes designed to enhance access to behavioral health services.
• Complete all required competencies, certifications, and annual training requirements, including CPR, risk management, and de-escalation training.
• Perform additional duties and responsibilities as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS & EDUCATION:

• Bachelor's degree in Nursing, Social Work, Psychology, Healthcare Administration, or a related field required.
• Experience in behavioral health, psychiatric services, patient access, care coordination, case management, transfer center operations, or related clinical settings preferred.
• Knowledge of behavioral health diagnoses, psychiatric admission processes, emergency behavioral health assessments, and managed care requirements preferred.
• Understanding of medical comorbidities and their impact on behavioral health treatment planning and placement decisions.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications and electronic medical record systems; Epic experience preferred.
• Exceptional communication, critical thinking, organizational, and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively across multidisciplinary teams and external partners.
• Strong commitment to patient-centered care, operational excellence, and continuous process improvement.

Competencies:

• Decision Making: Ability to make decisions that are guided by general instructions and practices requiring some interpretation. May make recommendations for solving problems of moderate complexity and importance.

• Problem Solving: Ability to address problems that are varied, requiring analysis or interpretation of the situation using direct observation, knowledge and skills based on general precedents.

• Independence of Action: Ability to follow precedents and procedures. May set priorities and organize work within general guidelines. Seeks assistance when confronted with difficult and/or unpredictable situations. Work progress is monitored by supervisor/manager.

• Written Communications: Ability to communicate clearly and effectively in written English with internal and external customers.

• Oral Communications: Ability to comprehend and converse in English to communicate effectively with medical center staff, patients, families and external customers.

• Knowledge: Ability to demonstrate full working knowledge of standard concepts, practices, procedures and policies with the ability to use them in varied situations.

• Team Work: Ability to work collaboratively in small teams to improve the operations of immediate work group by offering ideas, identifying issues, and respecting team members.

• Customer Service: Ability to provide a high level of customer service to patients, visitors, staff and external customers in a professional, service-oriented, respectful manner using skills in active listening and problem solving. Ability to remain calm in stressful situations.

Social/Environmental Requirements:

• Work requires close attention to detail for tasks to be accurately completed. Ability to take intermittent breaks during the work day as to not compromise the work.

• Works is varied every day and the employee needs to be adaptable to respond to these changes and use independent judgement and manage priorities.

• No substantial exposure to adverse environmental conditions.

• Health Care status: NHCW: No patient contact. – Health Care worker Status may vary by department

Sensory Requirements:

Close work (paperwork, visual examination), Monitor Use, Visual monotony, Visual clarity, Conversation, Telephone and Background noise

Physical Nature of the Job:Sedentary Work: Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally in carrying, lifting, pushing, pulling objects. Sitting most of the time, with walking and standing required only occasionally

This job requires constant sitting with computer monitor and keyboard use.  There may be occasional fine manipulation using one hand.

Pay Range:

$24.00 - $32.20

The pay range listed for this position is the base hourly wage range the organization reasonably and in good faith expects to pay for this position at this time. Actual compensation is determined based on several factors, that may include seniority, education, training, relevant experience, relevant certifications, geography of work location, job responsibilities, or other applicable factors permissible by law.  Compensation may exceed the base hourly rate depending on shift differentials, call pay, premium pay, overtime pay, and other additional pay practices, as applicable to the position and in accordance with the law.

As a health care organization, we have a responsibility to do everything in our power to care for and protect our patients, our colleagues and our communities. Beth Israel Lahey Health requires that all staff be vaccinated against influenza (flu) as a condition of employment.

More than 35,000 people working together. Nurses, doctors, technicians, therapists, researchers, teachers and more, making a difference in patients' lives. Your skill and compassion can make us even stronger.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled