Referral Support Officer (Health)
Sagaing | Mandalay
- Organization: IRC - International Rescue Committee
- Location: Sagaing | Mandalay
- Grade:
-
Occupational Groups:
- Public Health and Health Service
- Administrative support
- Closing Date: Closed
Background/IRC Summary:
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a private, non-political, non-profit, and non-religious organization. For over 90 years, we have been providing humanitarian assistance to communities affected by conflict and natural disasters in more than 40 countries. Since 2008, the IRC has been active in Myanmar, delivering humanitarian assistance in areas such as health, protection, water, and sanitation, specifically targeting families impacted by conflict and natural disasters.
Job Overview/Summary:
The Referral Support Officer is responsible for coordinating and managing emergency referral support services under the Earthquake Health Response Project in Mandalay and Sagaing Regions. This role ensures timely and effective referral of critically ill patients from IRC-supported mobile clinics, fixed clinics to secondary and tertiary care facilities. The Referral Support Officer will work closely with IRC mobile medical teams, Township Health Departments, public hospitals, partner CSOs, and beneficiaries to facilitate, track, and document life-saving referrals in accordance with IRC's referral SOPs and donor guidelines.
Major Responsibilities:
Referral Coordination
- Coordinate referrals from mobile and fixed clinics to public hospitals or higher-level care facilities.
- Maintain communication with health providers, hospital staff, and families to ensure smooth transfer and acceptance of patients.
- Ensure appropriate documentation, follow-up, and feedback for each referral case.
- Work with mobile clinic teams to identify eligible referral cases in line with clinical severity and SOP.
Case Management
- Track all referred cases and maintain accurate, confidential records and reporting logs.
- Provide assistance to patients and caregivers with logistics (transportation, directions,documentation).
- Conduct post-referral follow-up calls or visits to check patient outcomes and gather feedback.
System Strengthening & SOP Compliance
- Ensure referrals align with IRC’s Emergency Referral SOP.
- Support the refinement and contextual adaptation of referral procedures as needed.
- Facilitate patient awareness and communication about available referral pathways.
Reporting and Documentation
- Compile monthly referral reports, including referral numbers, case summaries, and outcome trends.
- Ensure timely data entry and quality assurance of referral records.
- Submit regular updates to Health Project Manager and contribute to donor reports as required.
Coordination and Representation
- Coordinate with key stakeholders, and hospital focal points for referral case handling.
- Represent IRC in referral-related discussions and coordination meetings at township level when delegated.
- Liaise with IRC's Health, MEAL, WPE and Protection teams to integrate referral activities with broader service delivery.
Other Duties
- Support health team with procurement tracking for referral-related needs (e.g., transport, equipment).
- Participate in emergency case assessments and surge support as needed.
- Perform other related duties as assigned by the supervisor.
Minimum Qualifications:
Job Requirements:
- Medical background required: B.NSc, B.Comm.H or health-related degree is preferred.
- Minimum 2 years’ experience in clinical service or referral coordination, preferably in emergency or humanitarian settings.
- Experience working in conflict-affected or disaster-affected communities is an asset.
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills, especially with patients and local health staff.
- Proven organizational and documentation skills.
- Familiarity with MS Office (Word, Excel) and mobile data collection tools.
- Commitment to IRC values and humanitarian principles.
- Ability to work under pressure and manage urgent cases with calm and professionalism.
- Sensitivity to the cultural and social contexts of communities in Mandalay and Sagaing.
- Flexibility to travel frequently to remote or hard-to-reach areas.
- If a suitable applicant is found, an interview will be conducted before the position deadline.
Myanmar nationals with relevant skills sets and proven experience of working at international level are strongly encouraged.
The IRC Core Values and Commitments.
- The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity Anti-Retaliation and Combating Trafficking in Persons.
- IRC is committed to ensuring that IRC staff are suitable to work with children and have the knowledge s/he needs to uphold and abide by the IRC’s Child Safeguarding Policy.
- Level of interaction with children: Frequent direct contact with children.
- IRC
ensures that its staff must actively practice the roles and responsibilities
related to client responsiveness, accountability to people in affected
communities and must have competencies to solicits and listens to feedback and
other’s perspectives, responds to feedback with maturity and sensitivity and
takes appropriate decisions and makes changes to behavior or actions in
response to feedback.
IRC recognizes that gender equality is fundamental to the achievement of our organizational mission. As such, IRC is committed to the promotion of gender equality in all aspects of our operations and programs. Our organizational policies, procedures and actions demonstrate this commitment.