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Surgical coordinator skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
4 min read
Quoted expert
Stuart Greenfield Ph.D.
Surgical coordinator example skills
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical surgical coordinator skills. We ranked the top skills for surgical coordinators based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 34.8% of surgical coordinator resumes contained patients as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a surgical coordinator needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 surgical coordinator skills for your resume and career

1. Patients

Here's how surgical coordinators use patients:
  • Scheduled diagnostic tests when medically needed and specialized appointments for patients at hospitals and other Scheduled surgical procedures for patients.
  • Scheduled surgeries for the Ambulatory Surgery Center and outpatient surgery centers at local hospitals and verified benefits for surgical patients.

2. Surgical Procedures

Surgical procedures include the list of tasks that are done while doing surgery. Usually, a surgical procedure involves an incision with instruments, performed to repair damage or heal the disease in a living body. Surgical procedures are performed by trained individuals such as surgeons, doctors, and nurses.

Here's how surgical coordinators use surgical procedures:
  • Coordinated patient procedures with specific providers, prepared patient procedure packets, consents and surgical procedure quotes.
  • Coordinated the scheduling of surgical procedures accurately, recognizing the importance and relationship to patient care.

3. Patient Care

Patient care entails the diagnosis, recovery, and control of sickness as well as the maintenance of physical and emotional well-being through the use of healthcare providers' services. Patient care is described as services provided to patients by health practitioners or non-professionals under guidance.

Here's how surgical coordinators use patient care:
  • Managed and coordinated surgeries with hospital and outpatient care center to ensure synchronization of individual surgeon's schedule.
  • Synchronized resources, equipment and personnel to facilitate excellent patient care.

4. Medical Terminology

Here's how surgical coordinators use medical terminology:
  • Experienced with medical terminology and ICD-9 codes for medical management workflow and process.
  • Documented all messages electronically using appropriate medical terminology via the In Basket functionality and forwarded to the appropriate clinical provider.

5. Patient Demographics

Patient demographics carry basic information about a patient admitted to a healthcare facility. These demographics help in patient identification and allow the hospital management to categorize the information. This characterization helps in making the process of statistical analysis easy. Patient demographics normally include; date of birth, gender, ethnicity, sex, address, contact information, and medical history.

Here's how surgical coordinators use patient demographics:
  • Obtained referrals/authorizations and verified patient demographics/insurance information.
  • Ensured accuracy of system-wide master patient index through validation and capture of patient demographic data.

6. Insurance Verification

Here's how surgical coordinators use insurance verification:
  • Coordinate patient arrangements, insurance verification, surgical scheduling and surgical posting for a Retina Specialist.
  • Coordinate the scheduling, referral management, insurance verification and prior authorization.

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7. CPT

CPT is a medical term that stands for Current Procedural Terminology. Whenever a procedure like surgery or diagnosis occurs or some other medical service is rendered to a patient, it is reported to the concerned physician, insurance company, or organization. The aforementioned practice is widely referred to as CPT.

Here's how surgical coordinators use cpt:
  • Verified out-patient surgical benefits and obtained insurance authorization for procedures using CPT and ICD-9 codes.
  • Provided correct CPT codes and ICD9 codes for each procedure after confirming and reviewing description and notes.

8. Front Desk

Here's how surgical coordinators use front desk:
  • Assisted in creating and implementing front desk procedures to achieve maximum productivity and efficiency.
  • Communicate patient scheduling requirements with physicians and Front Desk Coordinator as needed.

9. Surgical Scheduling

Here's how surgical coordinators use surgical scheduling:
  • Coordinated all aspects and details of surgical scheduling for very busy ophthalmology ambulatory facility.
  • Managed surgical scheduling for all functional and elective procedures.

10. Medical Clearance

Medical clearance is the medical evaluation of patients that are about to go through surgery. This evaluation determines if the patient is able to go through the potential risk of surgery.

Here's how surgical coordinators use medical clearance:
  • Correlated with primary care physicians for medical clearance.
  • Confirmed insurances, authorizations and medical clearances.

11. Orthopedic Surgeons

Here's how surgical coordinators use orthopedic surgeons:
  • Provided business management and patient satisfaction assurance for orthopedic surgeons in multiple- physician practice.
  • Obtained surgery orders from orthopedic surgeons.

12. Insurance Benefits

Here's how surgical coordinators use insurance benefits:
  • Assess patient registration and verification of insurance benefits to ensure accuracy with patient.
  • Obtain authorization/referrals and verify insurance benefits for in-office procedures and outpatient surgeries.

13. Patient Charts

Here's how surgical coordinators use patient charts:
  • Documented and completed patient charts and electronic dental records.
  • Prepared patient charts and verified insurance information.

14. Appointment Scheduling

Here's how surgical coordinators use appointment scheduling:
  • General office duties to include appointment scheduling, prescription refills, filing, fee collection and duties as assigned.
  • Assisted with incoming calls and appointment scheduling as needed.

15. Patient Appointments

Here's how surgical coordinators use patient appointments:
  • Scheduled all patient appointments based on established protocols, including insurance and payment verification.
  • Contributed to making patient appointments and surgery scheduling.
top-skills

What skills help Surgical Coordinators find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What soft skills should all surgical coordinators possess?

Stuart Greenfield Ph.D.Stuart Greenfield Ph.D. LinkedIn profile

Professor, Austin Community College

Given the changing demographics that the country has experienced, the entire education continuum must change. According to the Brookings Institution, Brookings, the non-Hispanic White population in the under 18 cohort since 2000 has declined.

As you'll note from the occupations that are projected to increase the greatest, most require face-to-face contact, so that soft-skills will be necessary. I would also expect that critical thinking skills will be needed as more responsibility will be required of front-line workers.

List of surgical coordinator skills to add to your resume

Surgical coordinator skills

The most important skills for a surgical coordinator resume and required skills for a surgical coordinator to have include:

  • Patients
  • Surgical Procedures
  • Patient Care
  • Medical Terminology
  • Patient Demographics
  • Insurance Verification
  • CPT
  • Front Desk
  • Surgical Scheduling
  • Medical Clearance
  • Orthopedic Surgeons
  • Insurance Benefits
  • Patient Charts
  • Appointment Scheduling
  • Patient Appointments
  • Consent Forms
  • Diagnostic Tests
  • Patient Insurance Coverage
  • Patient Registration
  • Surgical Cases
  • Patient Surgeries
  • Hippa
  • Surgery Schedule
  • Insurance Eligibility
  • ICD-9
  • Office Procedures
  • HIPAA
  • Patient Education
  • MRI
  • Post-Op Appointments
  • Vital Signs
  • Medical History
  • Informed Consent
  • Insurance Authorizations
  • Post-Operative Appointments
  • Insurance Carriers
  • EKG
  • Test Results
  • Necessary Paperwork
  • IOL
  • Surgery Centers
  • Medical Procedures
  • Medical Billing
  • Medical Charts
  • Outpatient Procedures
  • Surgical Centers
  • FMLA
  • OCT
  • Surgery Dates
  • Medication Intake

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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