Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Urgent Care Coordinator

🎯 Role Definition

The Urgent Care Coordinator is a patient-centered operations leader who ensures safe, efficient, and compassionate urgent care delivery. This role combines clinical intake oversight, administrative coordination, staff scheduling, patient flow management, and operational compliance to maximize clinic throughput and patient satisfaction. The coordinator partners with providers, nursing staff, front-desk teams, and operations leadership to implement protocols, troubleshoot daily barriers, and continuously improve clinic performance using data-driven approaches.

This position is ideal for candidates with ambulatory or urgent care experience, strong electronic health record (EHR) proficiency, and demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams under time-sensitive conditions. SEO keywords: urgent care coordinator, urgent care operations, clinic coordinator, patient flow, EHR, ambulatory care.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Medical Receptionist / Front Desk Representative with experience in ambulatory settings
Medical Assistant (CMA / RMA) who has supported urgent care clinical operations
Patient Access Representative or Scheduling Specialist with experience handling high-volume clinics

Advancement To:

Urgent Care Clinic Manager or Site Manager
Ambulatory Operations Manager or Regional Clinic Operations Lead
Practice Administrator or Director of Patient Access

Lateral Moves:

Triage Coordinator or Clinical Triage Lead
Patient Services Supervisor
Care Coordination / Case Management roles

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Oversee day-to-day urgent care clinic operations to ensure efficient patient flow, including front-desk intake, triage prioritization, rooming, discharge, and follow-up coordination, while maintaining a high standard of patient experience and safety.
Coordinate clinician schedules, support staff shifts, and on-call rotations in collaboration with nursing leadership to maintain adequate coverage and rapid throughput during peak periods, holidays, and unexpected provider absences.
Serve as the primary point of contact for triage escalations and clinical workflow bottlenecks—rapidly assessing situations, reassigning resources, and communicating time-sensitive updates to providers and patients.
Manage patient registration and insurance verification processes, ensuring accurate demographic and payer data capture, pre-authorization initiation when needed, and minimizing claim denials due to front-end errors.
Maintain and optimize electronic health record (EHR) templates and workflows for urgent care visits, working with clinical informatics to improve documentation, order sets, and computerized provider order entry for efficiency and compliance.
Implement and enforce HIPAA, OSHA, and state-specific regulatory requirements across all clinic operations, including patient privacy, infectious disease control, waste disposal, and workplace safety policies.
Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) such as door-to-provider time, length of stay, left-without-being-seen (LWBS) rates, patient satisfaction scores, and billing capture to identify performance gaps and lead targeted improvement initiatives.
Train, mentor, and onboard new front-office staff, medical assistants, and float clinical personnel on urgent care-specific protocols, customer-service expectations, triage guidelines, and EHR workflows.
Coordinate patient communication channels (phone triage, secure messaging, appointment reminders) to reduce no-shows, manage urgent appointment demand, and ensure clear, compassionate patient instructions for testing and follow-up.
Maintain clinic supply and medication inventories—tracking controlled substances, emergency equipment, vaccines, and PPE—performing regular audits and placing purchase orders to prevent stockouts.
Assist with point-of-care testing (e.g., rapid influenza, strep, COVID-19 antigen), ensuring proper documentation, quality control, and timely communication of results to ordering providers and patients.
Lead daily huddles and debrief sessions with clinical teams to review census, anticipate bottlenecks, assign roles, and capture continuous improvement ideas from staff on patient flow and safety.
Coordinate referrals and outpatient follow-up—communicating with specialty clinics, arranging imaging or lab services, and ensuring appropriate documentation and patient instructions for continuity of care.
Manage patient complaints and escalations by investigating incidents, working with clinical leadership to resolve clinical or service issues, documenting outcomes, and implementing corrective actions to prevent recurrence.
Support coding and billing accuracy by reviewing charge capture processes, educating staff on procedure documentation requirements (CPT/ICD-10), and collaborating with revenue cycle personnel to address discrepancies.
Ensure infection prevention practices are followed, including isolation protocols, environmental cleaning schedules, and staff immunization tracking for compliance with health system policies and public health guidance.
Facilitate staff competency assessments and annual training compliance (CPR, BLS, OSHA bloodborne pathogen training), tracking certifications and coordinating renewals as necessary.
Maintain accurate daily, weekly, and monthly operational reports and deliverables for area leadership, including census summaries, staffing variances, quality metrics, and regulatory audit readiness.
Participate in and lead quality improvement projects aimed at reducing wait times, optimizing triage algorithms, enhancing patient satisfaction, and improving overall clinical throughput using Lean/Six Sigma principles when available.
Act as liaison to supply chain, facilities, and IT teams to coordinate equipment repair, clinic setup changes, EHR issues, and telehealth integration to minimize operational disruption.

Secondary Functions

Support periodic audits and accreditation preparations (e.g., Joint Commission, state-level ambulatory audits) by collecting documentation, coordinating staff interviews, and remediating identified gaps.
Assist with community outreach and education efforts—representing the clinic at health fairs, employer partnerships, and urgent care referral networks to drive clinic visibility and appropriate utilization.
Analyze patient feedback and online reviews, synthesizing insights and recommending targeted staff coaching or process changes to proactively improve patient experience.
Create and maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs), quick reference guides, and training materials for front-desk, triage, and clinical rooming workflows.
Collaborate with billing and coding teams on denial trend analysis and process changes to improve first-pass payment rates and reduce accounts receivable days.
Support telehealth scheduling and hybrid visit workflows, ensuring appropriate patient triage for virtual versus in-person care and documenting telehealth encounters per policy.
Coordinate specialty outreach for high-utilizer patients and assist with care navigation to reduce unnecessary repeat urgent care visits and improve continuity with primary care.
Contribute to staff scheduling systems and workforce planning initiatives to optimize labor productivity while maintaining safety and quality standards.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Proficiency with electronic health records (EHR) systems common in urgent care (e.g., Epic, Cerner, Athenahealth, NextGen) — ability to build and optimize templates and workflows.
Strong front-office and registration systems experience, including appointment scheduling platforms and patient eligibility/benefits verification tools.
Working knowledge of medical terminology, CPT/ICD-10 coding basics, and charge capture processes relevant to urgent care visits and procedures.
Familiarity with triage protocols and acuity scoring systems used in ambulatory urgent care settings.
Experience with quality and performance metrics (door-to-provider time, LWBS, patient satisfaction) and basic reporting tools (Excel, Tableau, Power BI).
Understanding of HIPAA, OSHA, CLIA, and state-specific regulatory requirements for ambulatory clinics.
Inventory and supply chain management for clinical supplies, medications, and PPE with experience tracking controlled substances and vaccine storage requirements.
Experience supporting point-of-care testing (rapid diagnostics) and documenting results in the EHR with quality control procedures.
Basic financial acumen related to clinic operations, revenue cycle touchpoints, denials management, and requisitioning/purchasing procedures.
Competence with telehealth platforms and virtual care scheduling/workflows.

Soft Skills

Exceptional verbal and written communication skills for clear patient instructions, staff coaching, and interdepartmental coordination.
Strong organizational and multi-tasking abilities to manage high-volume patient flow and competing priorities under pressure.
Leadership presence with the ability to lead huddles, coach staff, and make rapid decisions during peak activity or clinical escalations.
Customer-service orientation and empathy with proven ability to de-escalate upset patients and resolve complaints professionally.
Problem-solving mindset and bias toward continuous improvement; comfortable using data to drive operational changes.
Attention to detail and accuracy in registration, documentation, and reporting to minimize compliance and billing errors.
Collaborative team player able to partner with clinical, administrative, and IT stakeholders to implement process improvements.
Adaptability and resilience in a fast-paced clinical environment with changing protocols and patient volumes.
Time management skills with a focus on meeting operational deadlines and maintaining regulatory training compliance.
Conflict resolution and negotiation skills to balance clinician needs, patient expectations, and operational constraints.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

High School Diploma or GED required; Medical Assistant certification (CMA/RMA) or equivalent clinical certification preferred.

Preferred Education:

Associate or Bachelor's degree in Healthcare Administration, Health Services Management, Nursing (ADN/BSN), or related field preferred.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Healthcare Administration
Nursing or Allied Health
Medical Assisting
Business Administration with healthcare emphasis

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

2–5 years of experience in urgent care, emergency department, or ambulatory clinic operations, including front desk, triage, or medical assisting roles.

Preferred:

3–5+ years of progressive responsibility in an urgent care/ambulatory setting with at least 1–2 years in a supervisory or coordinator role.
Demonstrated EHR proficiency, experience with performance metric improvement initiatives, and familiarity with ambulatory billing and coding processes.
Prior exposure to regulatory audits, infection control protocols, and quality improvement methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma, or similar) is a plus.