7 Key Patient Care Coordinator Interview Questions to Ask

The ideal patient care coordinator (PCC) blends clinical expertise, clerical precision, and interpersonal skills to seamlessly guide patients through every step of their healthcare journey. If you’re looking for a PCC who can ensure a smooth treatment process and clear communication, and assist with realistic, well-maintained expectations, then thoughtfully crafted patient care coordinator interview questions are essential.

We understand that prolonged hiring campaigns and staff vacancies impact your workflow and patient outcomes. It’s why we developed seven role-specific interview questions for patient care coordinators to support your process. Here, we’ll explain the significance of each question and provide follow-up prompts and tips for evaluating candidate answers.

When paired with a well-written PCC job description and market insights from current PCC openings, these questions and follow-up prompts can help you facilitate the best possible hiring outcomes. Ready to start taking the next steps? Download our free, printable PCC candidate evaluation template to keep your interview focused and on track.

Patient Care Coordinator Interview Questions and Answers

Patient care coordinators have to juggle many different requirements, ranging from appointment scheduling to assisting with communication flow between patients and providers. PCCs do all this while maintaining professional, compassionate customer service. Asking these seven interview questions can help you determine which of your candidates is best suited to this multi-faceted, often-rigorous healthcare role.

1. How does your background set you up for success as a patient care coordinator?

Starting your interview with a broad question that asks for an overview of past experiences and professional outlook sets a conversational tone, helping your candidate to feel comfortable. This will help drive a positive candidate experience from the onset, improving the chances of authentic, insightful answers as the interview goes on.

What to listen for:

• Professional expertise that aligns with the needs of your specific PCC role and care setting
• Enthusiasm for helping patients, and prioritization of positive patient experiences

Potential follow-up questions:

• What interested you in working for our organization? How do your professional values align with our mission?
• What excites you the most about working as a PCC within our facility?

2. Can you define the PCC scope using examples of specific responsibilities that fall within (or outside) of it?

This is one of the most crucial patient care coordinator interview questions because of the role’s broad range. PCCs often feel like they do it all because their job spans so many tasks and responsibilities. From serving as a bridge between providers and patients to handling patient education, scheduling, and even follow-up management, it’s important that future PCCs realize how hectic the job can be. It’s also imperative that they know where their scope begins and ends to avoid accidentally overstepping professional boundaries.

What to listen for:

• Clear understanding of the scope of the PCC responsibilities with examples of tasks that fall squarely within (or outside of) that scope
• Ethical and moral considerations that help keep scope of practice standards resolute

Potential follow-up questions:

• How is your role separate from a clinical nurse’s within your same department?
• Can you tell me about a time that a patient wanted you to step outside the boundaries of your practice scope? How did you handle that situation?

3. What do you consider to be the top three priorities of an effective patient consultation or intake interview?

The PCC often sets the tone for the patient experience and expectations during an intake or consultation. As the PPC is typically the patient’s first impression, it’s important that these interviews drive a foundational relationship of trust and beneficence. A quality PCC will have the interpersonal skill and professional confidence to help inspire the patient’s confidence and comfort, too.

What to listen for:

• Communication skills that emphasize plain-speak and patient-friendly word choices and descriptors
• Awareness that early expectation and needs management (such as family, social, or cultural considerations) often translates to smoother, more streamlined care later on

Potential follow-up questions:

• How do you build rapport with new patients and establish trust?
• Can you walk me through how you would begin one of these meetings, or how you would phrase your introduction to our treatment program?

4. Do you use any organization systems to ensure you stay on top of heavy caseloads and hectic scheduling requirements?

Though this may seem like a generic line of inquiry (for example, it could easily apply to a health-unit coordinator), interview questions like this are still important. They can establish whether the potential hire is capable of handling the administrative requirements of the role (similar to a health unit coordinator), while giving room to explore the additional safety requirements that the PCC’s increased direct patient contact lends.

What to listen for:

• A thorough understanding of HIPAA laws and how to maintain patient confidentiality
• An organized approach to handling sensitive patient information and maintaining accuracy to avoid medical errors related to misinformation or mistakes like appointment double-booking

Potential follow-up questions:

• Have you ever caught a charting error? What steps did you take to correct the error?
• What would you do if you found that a HIPAA violation had occurred and that confidential patient information had been breached?

5. How do you approach patient education as the care coordinator (specifically regarding care plan requirements)?

An important job function for coordinators across healthcare fields is patient education. This is as true for surgical care coordinators as it is for a mental health care coordinator. Interview questions should establish that a candidate is passionate about helping patients understand their treatment process and has the appropriate clinical knowledge and expertise to truly perform quality patient teaching.

What to listen for:

• Proactive problem solving and the value of patient education at every step of the treatment journey
• A collaborative approach with the rest of the care team (to ensure that care updates and education messaging remain consistent)

Potential follow-up questions:

• How do you confirm understanding with patients about particularly complex aspects of care or in instances of communication barriers (like language differences)?
• What educational tools or resources do you think would be most valuable to our patient population here?

6. Have you ever had to coordinate care between multiple providers to help a patient achieve their goals?

Even professionals without direct PCC experience should be able to speak to moments where collaboration and interprofessional communication created additional obstacles to achieving specific care items. The best candidates will treat these barriers as opportunities to defragment care, speaking to their role as a liaison between providers and specialists.

What to listen for:

• Communication tools and approaches that help ensure clear, timely messaging
• An openness to facilitating better teamwork and providing the framework for improved interprofessional collaboration

Potential follow-up questions:

• How would you handle a situation where two providers disagreed about how to approach a patient’s treatment?
• Have you ever experienced a conflict with a coworker? What conflict resolution strategies did you use to overcome the issue?

7. If a patient stopped participating in follow-up requirements, how would you re-engage them?

A data-backed hiring strategy includes ending your interview questions for patient care coordinators on a positive, reflective note. This reinforces the goal of a good hiring experience while determining the candidate’s ability to handle difficult situations.

What to listen for:

• An empathetic, person-centered approach to communication that values long-term solutions over quick fixes
• Specific examples of how a candidate would encourage a patient to re-engage with the treatment plan

Potential follow-up questions:

• Have you ever experienced a similar situation at work before? How were your follow-up steps then different from what you’d do now?
• If the patient was still hesitant, whom would you ask for help? Or, what resources would you use as you continued to find ways to resolve their disengagement?

Looking for Quality Candidates With the Right Answers?

Equipped with these targeted patient care coordinator interview questions (and answers to support your evaluations), you’re ready to optimize your hiring process. Keep things streamlined and stress-free with IntelyCare’s nationwide healthcare job board and quickly connect with over 1 million qualified professionals today.