In October 2023, the Human Resources Division, Recruitment and Exams in collaboration with the Office of Patient Access held two successful Patient Resource Worker Hiring Fairs that resulted in over 50 candidates being offered positions for immediate hire. The hiring fairs proved to be a successful approach for filling vacancies that hiring managers have been unable to fill for evening, night, and weekend shifts in the Emergency Department.

Two hiring fairs were held. During the first hiring fair, 62% of the candidates were offered positions and during the second hiring fair, 70% of those interviewed were offered positions.

The Patient Access Centers (PAC) teams are comprised of Patient Resource Workers (PRW), who are key to assisting patients with scheduling, verifying healthcare coverage, and registering patients. PRWs support the facility Call Centers and the Emergency Department/Urgent Care registration areas throughout the LA Health Services hospitals and Ambulatory Care Network sites.

Patient Access staff strive to ensure that patients are visit-ready: making sure patients are correctly scheduled, financially cleared or have applied for coverage, and are fully registered ahead of their visit to allow timely, easy check-in.

Here is some of the feedback received from the hiring managers in the Patient Access Centers (PAC):

The hiring fair was a great strategy to expedite the hiring process. We really appreciate the support on this!  We valued the following:

• • Human Resources coordinating interviews based on candidates’ preferred location
  • Interviewing candidates from the entire list all day
  • Ability to make offers the day of the hiring fair
  • Opportunity to conduct Live Scan and complete the process the same day  

–  Patient Access Emergency Department Administrator, Los Angeles General Medical Center

Staff can’t stop raving about the Job Fair. They’re saying the job fair was well organized and would love for this to be PAC’s new interview process. They also said the job fair saved months of labor-intensive work of canvassing certification lists and setting up interviews. 

– Patient Access Manager, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

 The “Hiring Fair” method should be the GOLD standard for hiring new team members.

– Patient Access Manager, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

Thank you to our Human Resources partners and our facility Patient Access managers for a productive day! Please contact Norma Casas at ncasas@dhs.lacounty.gov, for more details regarding information shared in this article.  Thank you!