Administrative Assistant

Job overview

This is a 12-month fixed-term Band 3 Administrative Assistant post providing maternity leave cover within the Psychological Medicine Service. The role is responsible for delivering a comprehensive, professional and efficient administrative service that supports clinicians and the wider multidisciplinary team in providing high-quality patient care. The post holder will manage patient administration throughout the patient pathway, including appointment booking, referral processing, reception duties, Electronic Patient Record (EPR) management, production of clinical correspondence, maintenance of accurate patient records, and supporting compliance with Trust and national performance standards. The role is fundamental to ensuring the smooth day-to-day operation of the service and maintaining a positive patient experience.

Main duties of the job

• Provide a comprehensive administrative service to support the Psychological Medicine Service and multidisciplinary team.
• Manage patient pathways by processing referrals, booking appointments and maintaining accurate patient records using the Trust's Electronic Patient Record (EPR) systems.
• Provide reception cover, acting as the first point of contact for patients and visitors, delivering a professional and compassionate service.
• Produce and process clinical correspondence using digital transcription systems, ensuring Trust timescales and quality standards are met.
• Monitor and manage shared email inboxes, process incoming correspondence and respond to patient, referrer and stakeholder enquiries promptly and appropriately.
• Support Referral to Treatment (RTT) pathways by ensuring accurate data entry, clinic preparation, patient check-in/check-out and clinic cash-up processes.
• Maintain high standards of data quality, confidentiality and customer service while supporting the smooth day-to-day running of the department.
• Work collaboratively with clinical and administrative colleagues, contributing to service improvement initiatives and providing flexible administrative support to ensure continuity of patient care

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

MAIN PURPOSE OF POST:

Patient administration underpins the patient journey and supports the clinical teams in delivering high quality patient care and can make a real difference to the patient experience. Effective and efficient patient administration supports the management team to deliver a high standard of data quality by making the best use of capacity and resources.

The post holder is responsible for the delivery of a professional, comprehensive and efficient administrative service to support the delivery of high quality clinical services under the supervision of the Senior Administrator.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Administration:

• To provide primary administrative support to the clinical staff and all patients under their care of The Psychological Medicine Service, including using EPR applications, such as Appointment Book, HIM Tracking, HIM Chart Coding, Powerchart and PM Office, to manage patient pathways.
• To provide reception cover and act as the first point of contact for patients attending face to face appointments and meeting and greeting patient
• Ensuring the waiting room area is kept clean and tidy.
• To manage an electronic diary room booking system.
• Dealing with incoming correspondence, opening and prioritising incoming post, ensuring supporting information is available when appropriate and taking responsibility for actioning items in a timely manner.
• To monitor the shared e-mail inbox, taking responsibility for forwarding emails, creating encounters and uploading referrals to EPR for triaging and forwarding to relevant consultant through the EPR Message Centre.
• To ensure appointments are booked into the appropriate clinic appointment slots in line with the Trust’s Elective Access Policy and local Standard Operating Procedures in order to meet national RTT Standards, and following the appropriate escalation process to highlight problems to the Assistant Service Manager and / or the Operational Service Manager when in need of assistance.

GENERAL

• Use of the digital transcription system (Voice Recognition) to produce clinical correspondence to inform referrers, patients and other stakeholders of patient pathway progress. In doing so, produce high quality accurate correspondence which conforms to the Trust Key Performance Indicator of 7 working days from the point of clinical delivery/decision to being sent to the patient.
• Liaising with referrers to ensure effective pathway management and to maintain good working relationships with stakeholders.
• Become proficient in the use of Scan IT software to ensure letters, clinical reports, diagnostic test results and other notes are uploaded and filed correctly in patient records on EPR.
• Check in patients attending for their Psychological Medicine appointment, checking demographic information such as name and date of birth are correctly recorded in EPR and updating with changes and corrections.
• Check out patients from their appointment, following the instructions on the outcome form to ensure the correct RTT status code is recorded.
• Cache up clinics regularly to ensure revenue is accurately captured.
• Complete the e-clinic-prep process to ensure relevant documentation is present on EPR for patient appointments.
• Follow the HIM tracking procedure for the movement of all paper patient notes.
• Act upon queries from referrers, patients and other stakeholders in a timely manner. Take relevant action to provide reassurance and support to patients and their families by finding appropriate solutions to problems.
• Escalate any problems arising to Assistant Service Manager or Operational Service Manager in a timely manner so they can be dealt with quickly and efficiently.
• Demonstrate high levels of customer care and be an ambassador for customer care within the Trust.
• Attend Departmental meetings and training as required to ensure that you maintain an up-to-date working knowledge of service and Trust procedures.
• 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.
• Answer all telephone calls in a timely manner and action appropriately
• Maintain patient confidentiality at all times.
• 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.
• Use the Trust IT systems to register patients, make appointments, produce end of treatment letters, ensure that details are correct and ensure check in / check out of outpatient appointments.
• To support and contribute to on-going and future service development projects supporting continuous improvement of the services we provide.
• Any other duties at the request of the Senior Administrator/Service Manager, which may be needed to fulfil the objectives of the post, which are appropriate to the grade.

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 circumstances following 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 and their role 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. The Oxford 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.

Applicant requirements

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.