Community Health Worker Position – Penn Medicine

Posted by Penn Medicine on November 13, 2018

Are you a trusted member of your community?
Have you ever helped a family member or friend to get health care services?
Are there things harming your community’s health that you feel passionate about changing?
…If the answer is yes, this may be the job for you!

Location: Penn Center for Community Health Workers, Penn Medicine

Work hours: 8:30am-5pm Monday through Friday. Occasional evening and weekend hours may be required.

General Job Statement:

Every day, we care for low-income patients in our hospitals and primary care clinics. We try our best to keep them feeling well so that can live their lives to the fullest. But life can be tough and lots of things can keep people from staying healthy and from getting better when they are sick. Patients have worries such as: “How will I get to the pharmacy to get my prescriptions filled?”, “Who will watch my children while I go to the doctor?” and “Will I have food, transportation and housing?”

We believe that community-health workers (CHWs) have the skills and experience to understand what low-income patients are going through and help them get through difficult times. CHWs are people who come from the communities they serve. In the IMPaCT program, CHWs act as caring neighbors to help patients address the social and medical problems that lead to poor health. The goal is to help patients out with the tasks of getting medical care, working on health goals (arranging care, filling medication prescriptions, planning healthy meals or finding time to exercise), and to help them deal with the social issues that keep them from staying healthy.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Great with people! Able to build strong relationships
• Comfortable with home visits and outreach
• Ability to use good judgment in meeting job responsibilities
• Open to feedback and able to complete responsibilities on time
• Must have two references from prior or current supervisor
• Must successfully pass a background check and pre-employment physical exam
• Must be willing to work full-time
• Must be proficient in MS Word and computer data entry

**Please contact us by fax, mail or email only. We are unable to accept applications in-person**

Preferred Qualifications:

• Long-time resident of West or Southwest Philadelphia and good knowledge of the resources of these communities.
• Prior experience as an outreach worker.

Key Duties & Responsibilities:

• Attend a month-long paid training program
• Meet patients in the primary care clinic or hospital and conduct a needs assessment, including helping patients to set health goals
• Make weekly follow-up calls and home visits to patients
• Motivating patients to meet their health goals
• Helping patients with social issues like homelessness, substance abuse and hunger
• Assist patients with organizing their records, making follow-up appointments, and filling their prescriptions
• Help patients fill out applications for Medical Assistance and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program)
• Work with other CHWs and staff to create a directory of community resources (e.g. foodbanks, housing assistance programs, childcare resources, etc.) in West and Southwest Philadelphia.
• Document each patient encounter in detail
• Prepare reports and documents as needed or requested.
• Attend a weekly group meeting with other CHWs, and program supervisors
• Other duties as reasonably assigned.

Application Process:

Applications can be found on our website at: http://chw.upenn.edu/employment-opportunities/. Please submit your materials to our Administrative Assistant, Chanel Ortiz (contact information below). If your application is selected, you will be contacted for an interview.