Patient Advocate - Patient Experience - Full Time 8 Hour Days (Exempt) (Non-Union)

USC·Workday

Los Angeles, CAFull-timePosted Jul 7, 2026

The Patient Advocate is the premier resource to hear directly from the people we serve. The Patient Advocate strives to empower patients and families to take an active role in improving their patient experience while providing creative solutions to unique challenges. Using advocacy skills, manages patient expectations and proactively educates and influences expected service behaviors with staff and physicians. Responsible for developing education materials and policies that are patient and family centered. Drawing on ability to empathize and look at situations from a variety of perspectives, creatively and effectively facilitates patient care services and amenities while always anticipating patient and family needs, taking into account various cultures, religions, and individual needs. Successfully resolves complaints and grievances. Manages service recovery initiatives and the patient and family advisory council.

Departmental Specific Summary

Essential Duties

Assist clients with serious chronic or life threatening illnesses and their families to make informed medical decisions, form effective partnerships with providers and assist patients/families in developing self-advocacy skills. Promotes an active patient voice. Facilitate techniques for patient involvement in informed decision making.
Processes patient complaints from initial intake through resolution including documenting in SRM. Complaints may be received in writing, in person, via phone or through surveys and comment cards. Continued education to staff on the complaint process.
Mange the NOW Service Recovery Program. This includes distribution of NOW service recovery boxes, ordering recovery items, maintaining the NOW database and auditing the service recovery process.
Provide ongoing NOW Service Recovery Program education to staff at inpatient and ambulatory settings.
Manage the Patient and Family Advisory Council. This will include logistics, agenda items, minutes and follow-up action items.
Manage the Patient and Family Advisors Program. This will include recruitment, onboarding process and assignment of the advisors throughout our hospitals.
Performs other duties as assigned

Qualifications

Req High school or equivalent
Pref Bachelor's degree Degree in psychology, counseling, human resources/personnel management, or health care related field.
Pref 4 years 4 Years preferred in acute care setting.
Req Demonstrated interpersonal, communication and customer service skills.
Req Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with physicians, managers, staff, volunteers, auxiliary member, community and volunteer organizations, media and general public. Ability to perform duties with minimal supervision, multi-task, organize, and respond to competing deadlines and requests in a calm and productive manner.
Req Proactive in all endeavors.

Req Fire Life Safety Training (LA City) If no card upon hire, one must be obtained within 30 days of hire and maintained by renewal before expiration date. (Required within LA City only)

Keck Hospital of USC, a 343-bed acute care hospital, provides exceptional and innovative care for complex medical and surgical conditions across a wide range of specialties. The hospital’s world-renowned physicians deliver compassionate, customized, patient-centered care and treat the most acutely ill patients with highly innovative techniques and treatment plans. As a leading academic medical center, hundreds of clinical trials are currently taking place at Keck Hospital and its affiliated research institutions, giving patients access to novel and promising therapies that are generally not available elsewhere. Every day at Keck Hospital, physicians, nurses and staff go beyond the science of exceptional medicine to bring patients breakthroughs in the art of caring. Join this world-class team providing highly specialized care, up-to-the-minute research, and innovative clinical trials.

The rate range for this position is $71,386.00 - $116,865.00.
When extending an offer of employment, the University of Southern California considers factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the candidate’s work experience,
education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, federal, state, and local laws, contractual stipulations, grant funding, as well as external market and organizational considerations.

USC is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law or USC policy. USC observes affirmative action obligations consistent with state and federal law. USC will consider for employment all qualified applicants with criminal records in a manner consistent with applicable laws and regulations, including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for employers and the Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, and with due consideration for patient and student safety. Please refer to the Background Screening Policy Appendix D for specific employment screen implications for the position for which you are applying.

We provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities. Applicants with questions about access or requiring a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should contact USC Human Resources by phone at (213) 821-8100, or by email at uschr@usc.edu. Inquiries will be treated as confidential to the extent permitted by law.

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