Health Unit Coordinator Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

This post provides in-depth information on the health unit coordinator job description, including the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities they commonly perform.

It also highlights the major requirements that you may be asked to meet to be hired for the health unit coordinator role.

What Does a Health Unit Coordinator Do?

The health unit coordinator is responsible for the smooth operation of a hospital’s health unit, including assigning work to health workers.

They are to ensure efficient and effective use of resources allocated to health units by the ministry of public health through budgeting units.

The health unit coordinator job description involves ensuring that all certifications and licenses are current (e.g., certificates from training institutions).

It also entails overseeing the operation of health services, such as family planning.

Health unit coordinators ensure that health workers in the division follow the rules and policies (e.g., 10-hours break) issued by their employer and comply with the applicable laws.

This position is in charge of registering and overseeing the implementation of health activities undertaken by their colleagues in health units or other hospitals where they are sent to work (e.g., lectures organized by different institutions, training short courses organized by employers).

The Health unit coordinators are also responsible for all matters relating to hospital staff (e.g., hiring, promotion, demotion, transfer).

They maintain good relations with all health units (e.g., Joint Boards and hospitals), and the patients to be serviced by them, especially those not treated by the hospital (such as those treated in public dispensaries).

One of the tasks of the health unit coordinator is maintaining good relations with the community, especially those of the patients served by their department. 

Additionally, the health unit coordinator carry out regular inspections of the facilities, instruments, and equipment in their department, including supervising the removal of waste materials and medical waste generated in their department. 

Another duty of the health unit coordinator is that they ensure that all health workers in their unit meet the required qualifications, including carrying out regular on-the-job training of the staff (e.g., annual or biannual national health workers training).

The health unit coordinator work description also involves supervising the performance of all health personnel in the ministry’s regions and, where appropriate, in all provinces. 

They ensure that all aspects of their department are properly organized and managed, including efficient management of manpower, proper use of resources (health manpower).

Health Unit Coordinator Job Description Sample/Example/Template

The health unit coordinator job description involves the following duties, tasks, and responsibilities:

• Assigns and monitors the health units
• Credentialing nursing staff and physician assistants
• Coordinates hospital screening and medical procedures to provide a smooth flow of healthcare delivery throughout the facility
• Maintains staffing and provides necessary staffing levels to ensure continuity of care in cases where healthcare-related emergencies arise or if quality assurance is required by state or federal government agencies or accrediting bodies
• Maintains a comprehensive array of services that are age specific, gender specific, disease specific, and activity specific, with determination to meet the need of diverse patient populations
• Oversees outpatient services provided at the health care facility
• Ensures that all equipment and supplies are available, clean, and correct
• Develops, maintains, and administers a health unit budget
• Administers required transactions to meet the needs of the facility
• Maintains hospital databases and reports on patient demographics, services rendered, and procedures performed, etc.
• Adheres to all applicable laws and regulations, including but not limited to federal anti-discrimination laws that might protect patients or co-workers from abusive practices by health unit staff or other personnel at the facility
• Ensures compliance with health department request for data/information related to patient safety.

Health Unit Coordinator Job Description for Resume

If you are making a new resume or CV as someone who has worked before as a health unit coordinator or are presently working in that role, then you can make a compelling Professional Experience section for your resume by applying the sample health unit coordinator job description provided above.

You can express the duties and responsibilities that you have performed or are presently performing as a health unit coordinator in your resume’s Professional Experience by applying the ones in the above job description example.

This will show to employers/recruiters that you have been effective on the health unit coordinator role, which can greatly boost your chances of being hired for the new position, especially if the new job that you are seeking requires someone with some health unit coordinator work experience.

Health Unit Coordinator Requirements: Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities for Career Success

Here are major requirements that you may be expected to meet to be hired for the health unit coordinator job:

• Minimum of high school diploma or its equivalent; one (1) year of related experience (preferably nursing experience)
• At least a current State Certificate of Nursing or its equivalent
• At least two (2) years in health care administration prior to applying for the position
• Ability to communicate effectively across a variety of cultures, with sensitivity to cultural and group differences, and experience communicating with persons with a wide range of abilities, physical conditions and resources
• Demonstrated knowledge of federal, state, and local government regulations relating to health care
• Experience working with local health departments, hospital and nursing organizations
• Effective interpersonal skills, including oral and written communications skills
• Experience in collaborating with others in order to provide services to meet individual needs
• Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively with internal departments within the facility, including administrative/clinical staff, nurse managers, physician assistants, pharmacists and other medical professionals in order to make referrals as needed
• Experience providing quality assurance and monitoring patient safety practices.

Health Unit Coordinator Salary

A health unit coordinator’s average compensation is $37,608 (glassdoor.com) and $58,032 (payscale.com).

According to Indeed, the best paid locations are Minneapolis, MN, $62,884; Dallas, TX, $61,748; Phoenix, AZ, $60,434; Milwaukee, WI, $59,680; and Pittsburgh, PA, $59,569 per year.

According to Zippia, there are around 52,143 health care unit coordinators now employed in the United States.

Women make up 84.0% of all health care coordinators, while men make up 16.0%.

A hired health care coordinator is 44 years old on average.

White (70.6%) is the most common ethnicity among health care coordinators, followed by Black or African American (10.0%), Hispanic or Latino (9.0%), and Asian (8.0%).

Conclusion

This post is helpful to individuals interested in the health unit coordinator career who want to learn about the work they do.

It is also useful to recruiters/employers who need to make a detailed job description for the health unit coordinator position in their organizations.

They can apply the health unit coordinator job description sample provided on this page in making one.