Referral Coordinator & Surgical Scheduler - General Surgery Clinic
Posted Sep 16, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Sep 20, 2026
Likely interview questions for this role
Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.
Behavioral
Tell me about a time you had to schedule or reschedule a surgical case on short notice. What happened and how did you handle it?
composure and process under time pressure, a daily reality in this role
Tell me about a time you caught a billing or charge error before it went out. How did you find it?
attention to detail on the charge entry and revenue verification part of the job
Describe a time you had to tell a provider their preferred OR time wasn't available. How did you handle that conversation?
ability to manage pushback from physicians while protecting schedule integrity
Tell me about a time you worked as part of a referral or scheduling team and had to hand off information to a coworker cleanly. What made it work or not work?
communication habits in a role that depends on accurate handoffs between staff
Describe how you've handled a heavy volume of incoming calls in a past job while also getting your own task list done.
ability to sustain accuracy and calm in a fast-paced, high-noise office environment
Technical
What's your experience with surgery scheduling systems, and have you worked with WorkQue specifically?
how much ramp-up time they'll need on the specific software the clinic uses
How do you go about verifying a patient's insurance authorization is in place before a procedure gets scheduled?
understanding of the referral and authorization process, since this is a dual referral/scheduling role
How do you keep track of next-day and future OR schedules so nothing falls through the cracks when things change last minute?
personal organization system for a high-volume, constantly shifting schedule
What's your background with referral coordination and insurance authorizations in a healthcare setting?
whether their prior experience actually matches the referral half of this dual role
Situational
Walk me through how you'd coordinate an OR slot when the surgeon, anesthesia, and a required imaging department all have different availability that week.
whether the candidate can juggle multi-party scheduling constraints without dropping a piece
A patient calls the day before surgery and their pre-op labs or H&P were never sent over. What do you do?
knowledge of pre-surgical requirements and how they chase down missing clinical documentation
If you're on the phone with a distressed patient and another line is ringing with what sounds like an urgent provider request, how do you decide what to handle first?
triage judgment and prioritization under competing demands
What would you do if you noticed the OR schedule you're about to distribute conflicts with what another department has on file?
how they resolve discrepancies before they cause downstream problems
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As published by Advocate Health.
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