We are looking to recruit an experienced, organised and motivated Patient Pathway Administrator/Medical Secretary to provide an efficient administrative service to General Surgery within the Surgical Administration department based at the Churchill Hospital.
The post holder will work directly with the clinical team and we are keen to appoint someone who is enthusiastic and motivated and who can manage the fluctuating demands of the role. You will have excellent word processing skills and well-developed communication, organisational and time management skills. An ability to prioritise effectively in a busy environment is essential. You will need to be flexible and have the necessary secretarial/administrative experience required for such a post. Previous medical secretary experience would be an advantage. You will have a good general level of education including GCSE English grade C or equivalent as well as excellent word processing skills.
You will be passionate about our business, creating a culture of continuous improvement, where patient welfare is at the heart of all you do.
Job Title: Patient Pathway Administrator / Secretary
Grade: Band 4
Accountable To: Service Manager
MAIN PURPOSE OF POST
Patient administration underpins the patient journey and supports clinical teams in delivering high quality patient care and can make a real difference to the patient experience. Effective and efficient patient administration supports management through ensuring a high standard of data quality and by making the best use of capacity and resources.
The post holder has responsibility for the provision of a professional, comprehensive and efficient administrative service, which is effectively delivered to all patients and members of the Department. This will be through the delivery of a comprehensive administrative service to a specialty team. This will involve providing a full administration service to the consultant team and taking responsibility for managing the whole patient pathway in line with the Elective Access policy.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Administration
1. Provide primary administrative support to Consultants, clinical staff and all patients under their care, including diary administration, correspondence support and other administrative duties as required.
2. Type or use Trust digital transcription systems to produce clinical correspondence to inform referrers, patients and other relevant parties of patient pathway progress. In doing so, produce correspondence that is of high quality and conforms to the national target of being received within 10 working days from the point of clinical delivery / decision.
3. Open and prioritise incoming post, ensuring supporting information is available when appropriate and taking responsibility for actioning urgent items in the absence of the Consultant or other clinical staff.
4. Support patients under the clinicians’ care by booking where appropriate relevant diagnostic investigations and expediting where appropriate in line with the 6 week diagnostic pathway and 18 week RTT pathway.
5. Monitor urgent investigation requests to ensure they are processed appropriately.
6. Work closely with all staff in the service to ensure compliance with 18 week referral to treatment (RTT) targets, intervening where necessary to expedite appointments and procedures to avoid breaches.
7. Maintain an accurate and current filing system, ensuring letters, clinical reports, diagnostic test results and other notes are filed in the correct patient notes, in either paper or electronic record systems.
8. Follow the Trust tracking procedure for the movement of all patient notes
9. Update patient details on Trust and departmental patient record systems to include ensuring patients that require discharge are processed accordingly and Patients Missing Follow Up List is updated.
10. Request and coordinate patient notes from other hospitals and organisations, where the pathway requires input from these.
11. Act upon queries from referrers, patients and other relevant parties in liaison with clinical staff. Take relevant action to provide reassurance and support to patients and their families by finding appropriate solutions to problems, which requires the ability to understand and explain basic medical procedures and terminology
General
1. Demonstrate high levels of customer care and be an ambassador for customer care within the Trust.
2. Provide a robust administration function that underpins the delivery of a high quality service and maintain effective working relationships with clinical, nursing and administrative staff.
3. Answer all communication including telephone, email and face to face queries, in a timely manner and action as appropriate.
4. Maintain patient confidentiality at all times.
5. Be flexible in your approach to work, such as covering other job roles at an appropriate grade or site, and to include varying working hours to ensure the service maintains a minimum level of cover during its core hours of 08:00 to 17:00.
6. Use the Trust IT systems (including EPR, Transcription systems, PACS, Proton etc.) to register patients, make up a set of patient notes, make outpatient appointments, produce end of treatment letters, ensure that details are correct, check in / check of outpatient appointments as instructed.
7. Assist with the processing of new referrals on Choose and Book / Directly Bookable / e-referral systems.
8. To contribute to on-going and future service development projects supporting continuous improvement of the services we provide.
9. Attend Departmental meetings and training as required to ensure that you maintain an up-to-date working knowledge of service and trust procedures
10. Act in a manner aligned to our Trust Values and consistently demonstrate the behaviours that will ensure we achieve our ambition of delivering compassionate excellence.
11. Any other duties which may be needed to fulfil the objectives of the post, which are appropriate to the grade.
Supervision Duties where required
1. Supervise the Assistant Pathway Administrator/s providing training, support and supervision as appropriate.
2. Manage the sickness and annual leave requests of staff as appropriate.
3. Eensure that Statutory & Mandatory training is up-to-date and annually updated for all staff. Ensure any further training required is identified and supported.
4. Annually appraise staff as required ensuring any performance or development requirements are addressed accordingly.
5. Be familiar with HR policies and take a lead role investigating, identifying and implementing disciplinary procedures where appropriate.
This job description should be regarded only as a guide to the duties required and is not intended to be definitive. It may be reviewed in the light of the changing circumstancesfollowing consultation with the post holder. The job description does not form part of the contract of employment.
RISK MANAGEMENT
The management of risk is the responsibility of everyone and will be achieved within a progressive, honest and open environment.
Staff will be provided with the necessary education, training and support to enable them to meet this responsibility.
Staff should be familiar with the
• Major Incident Policy
• Fire Policy
and should make themselves familiar with the ‘local response’ plan andtheirrole within that response.
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR HEALTH & SAFETY
The post holder is responsible for ensuring that all duties and responsibilities of this post are carried out in compliance with the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, Statutory Regulations and Trust Policies and Procedures. This will be supported by the provision of training and specialist advice where required.
INFECTION CONTROL
Infection Control is everyone’s responsibility. All staff, both clinical and non clinical, are required to adhere to the Trusts’ Infection Prevention and Control Policies and make every effort to maintain high standards of infection control at all times thereby reducing the burden of Healthcare Associated Infections including MRSA.
All staff employed by the OUHFT have the following key responsibilities:
• Staff must decontaminate their hands prior to and after direct patient contact or contact with the patient’s surroundings.
• Staff members have a duty to attend mandatory infection control training provided for them by the Trust.
• Staff members who develop an infection (other than common colds and illness) that may be transmittable to patients have a duty to contact Occupational Health.
CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
The post holder will endeavour at all times to uphold the rights of children and young people in accordance with the UN Convention Rights of the Child.
SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN AND VULNERABLE ADULTS
The Trust is committed to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults throughout the organisation. As a member of the trust there is a duty to assist in protecting patients and their families from any form of harm when they are vulnerable.
INFORMATION GOVERNANCE
All staff must complete annual information governance training. If you have a Trust email account this can be completed on-line, otherwise you must attend a classroom session. For further details, go to the Information Governance intranet site.
DATA QUALITY
Data quality is a vital element of every member of staff’s job role. TheOxford Radcliffe Hospitals recognises the importance of information in the provision of patient care and in reporting on its performance. Data quality is therefore crucial in ensuring complete, timely and accurate information is available in support of patient care, clinical governance, performance management, service planning, and financial and resource planning and performance.
All staff should ensure that they have read and understood the Trust’s Data Quality Policy
This advert closes on Thursday 2 Jan 2025
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