Patient service coordinator vs customer service representative

The differences between patient service coordinators and customer service representatives can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become a patient service coordinator, becoming a customer service representative takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a patient service coordinator has an average salary of $34,754, which is higher than the $32,260 average annual salary of a customer service representative.

The top three skills for a patient service coordinator include patients, customer service and patient care. The most important skills for a customer service representative are cleanliness, POS, and data entry.

Patient service coordinator vs customer service representative overview

	Patient Service Coordinator	Customer Service Representative
Yearly salary	$34,754	$32,260
Hourly rate	$16.71	$15.51
Growth rate	-4%	-4%
Number of jobs	100,708	209,515
Job satisfaction	-	4
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 43%	High School Diploma, 33%
Average age	40	40
Years of experience	4	12

What does a patient service coordinator do?

Patient services coordinators act as a liaison between a healthcare organization and patients. Their primary job is to provide quality service to patients. Their duties and responsibilities include fielding telephone calls from patients, assessing patients' issues, and interacting with team members, medical personnel, and employees from other departments. Also, they are responsible for ensuring compliance with regulatory and hospital requirements and maintaining quality service. Patient services coordinators must also ensure to maintain their technical knowledge by participating in personal networks, attending educational workshops, and reviewing professional publications.

What does a customer service representative do?

Customer service representatives are the first point of contact of the customers, acting as the frontiers of the company and help in driving customer loyalty and retention by leaving a great impression and resolving all of their concerns. They accommodate customer queries by providing useful and comprehensive information about any products or services. Some would use that as an opportunity to market and promote more sales. The most challenging issues they use to handle are customer complaints and processing of refunds and returns. They also assist in basic troubleshooting or accounts and payment setup with the use of specific guidelines or step by step procedures. At most, they help and solve customer issues on their own, but sometimes they would need support from supervisors or other departments.

Patient service coordinator vs customer service representative salary

Patient service coordinators and customer service representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Patient Service Coordinator	Customer Service Representative
Average salary	$34,754	$32,260
Salary range	Between $27,000 And $43,000	Between $25,000 And $41,000
Highest paying City	Tacoma, WA	Des Moines, WA
Highest paying state	California	Washington
Best paying company	County of Riverside	Oracle
Best paying industry	Health Care	Insurance

Differences between patient service coordinator and customer service representative education

There are a few differences between a patient service coordinator and a customer service representative in terms of educational background:

	Patient Service Coordinator	Customer Service Representative
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 43%	High School Diploma, 33%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	-

Patient service coordinator vs customer service representative demographics

Here are the differences between patient service coordinators' and customer service representatives' demographics:

	Patient Service Coordinator	Customer Service Representative
Average age	40	40
Gender ratio	Male, 13.4% Female, 86.6%	Male, 30.5% Female, 69.5%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 13.5% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 22.7% Asian, 7.1% White, 50.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	Black or African American, 11.6% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 21.2% Asian, 6.3% White, 55.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	7%	7%

Differences between patient service coordinator and customer service representative duties and responsibilities

Patient service coordinator example responsibilities.

Register patients for diagnostic testing, surgery, direct admissions from physician offices and new patient admissions for newborns.
Process release of information requests for patients and third party groups including outside providers, rehabilitation facilities, and law offices.
Schedule patients using state-of-the-art EMR, oversee physician calendar, correspondence, and communicate with referring physician offices.
Welcome patients as they arrive and perform check-in responsibilities: verifying, collecting and confirming insurance and demographic information.
Collect information from incoming patients regarding services need, verify insurance eligibility and determine patient financial liability, or financial status.
Perform interviews to gather necessary information for registration, admission and accurate prioritization of patients to assist medical staff with triage.

Customer service representative example responsibilities.

Manage and plan escalations; assure HIPPA guidelines are followed for confidentially and privacy.
Maintain cleanliness and safety and assist patients as necessary.
Operate POS system and maintain exceptional and consistent customer service.
Exercise proofreading and basic math skills to maintain quality control over documents process
Work in customer service department entering information into customer relationship management (CRM).
Develop highly empathetic client relationships and earn reputation for exceeding good customer service rep goals.

Patient service coordinator vs customer service representative skills

Common patient service coordinator skills

Patients, 22%
Customer Service, 9%
Patient Care, 7%
Medical Terminology, 5%
Front Desk, 5%
Patient Flow, 4%

Common customer service representative skills

Cleanliness, 10%
POS, 7%
Data Entry, 6%
Sales Floor, 6%
Customer Service, 5%
Home Health, 5%

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Patient Service Coordinator
Patient Service Coordinator vs Customer Service Representative

Updated January 8, 2025

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