Band 5 - Senior Clinical Coder, Clinical Coding Department

Job overview

The Clinical Coding Department at WHTH is undergoing a complete transformation to be more responsive to the changing demands of the organisation, especially, with the Trust adopting Electronic Patient Records (EPR) recently.

There is a requirement for high quality data collection and reporting with implementation of EPR to accurately reflect clinical activity and outcomes. This in turn will ensure that our services are set up to support our patient case mix enabling us to provide the right care for our patients.

As part of this transformation, we are looking to recruit self-motivated coders, competent in accurately coding multiple complex specialities who understand the need for high quality coded data to support healthcare planning, reimbursement, management of services, statistical analysis, and research.

Applications are welcome from aspiring coders with a proven track record of consistently achieving their key performance objectives and producing high quality work to tight deadlines who are ready for new challenges.

This is a full-time position (37.5 hours) based at Watford General Hospital, with opportunity for hybrid working and flexibility with working times to support our employees with a healthy work-life balance.

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Please note - we are unable to obtain a Certificate of Sponsorship (Work Permit) for this role.

Main duties of the job

Reporting to the Clinical Coding Team Lead, you will be responsible for ensuring accurate, timely, complete, and consistent clinical coding is carried out within strict timescales, using ICD-10 and OPCS-4 classifications, and adhering to the national coding standards and local clinical coding policies of the Trust. You will be required to collect, collate, and code clinical information, occasionally highly complex in nature, covering a wide range of specialities. This may involve coding highly sensitive and emotionally distressing patient medical records.

(*Please refer to the job description and person specification documents for more details on the responsibilities and requirements for this role.)

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Ensuring accurate, timely, complete, and consistent clinical coding is carried out within strict timescales, using ICD-10 and OPCS-4 classifications, and adhering to the national coding standards and local clinical coding policies of the Trust.

Collect, collate, and code clinical information, highly complex in nature, covering a wide range of specialities. This may involve coding highly sensitive and emotionally distressing patient medical records.

Maintaining own productivity by ensuring high quality work is done by required timescales.

Liaise with their line manager where necessary to confirm appropriate diagnosis and procedure codes where national guidance is unclear.

Regularly liaise with and update the managers and senior colleagues regarding deficiencies and ambiguity in clinical documentation to facilitate discussions with the clinical teams and other departments to improve the clinical documentation provided for coding purposes.

Raise data quality issues (e.g., inaccurate admission and discharge dates) to the Coding Operations Lead and the Coding Team Lead for resolution attend and participate in team meetings to ensure knowledge and learning points are received and communicated.