Clinical Office Coordinator - Ear, Nose & Throat

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a position to join the Ear, Nose and Throat clinical office at Ashford Hospital. A 37.5 hour role of the Clinical Office coordinator is required to provide clerical support within the main clinical office; it requires a high level of organisational skills and someone who is good at communicating with a wide range of health care professionals as well as patients and their relatives.

The successful applicant will have the ability to work as part of the team to deliver high quality customer service, display excellent communication skills, and an understanding of delivering healthcare services. You will need to demonstrate commitment to care quality and performance delivery. You must be a team player with the ability to problem solve and work independently. You will be responsible for many roles including organising timetables, dealing with clinic capacity and the outpatient waiting lists for both new and follow up patients.

An understanding of the 18 week patient pathway is preferable, although training will be given. You will be required to use a number of systems including Cerner, Luna, CRIS and Dictate I.T. Previous experience of these systems is desirable, but not essential, as training will be provided.

Main duties of the job

• To liaise with the Appointments Centre regarding outpatient clinic bookings as necessary and ensure patient follow up appointments are booked as soon as results are known and are available for clinic appointment.
• To be responsible for, and actively manage specialty waiting lists, out-patient procedure bookings on behalf of the specialty Clinical Team to ensure that the patient reaches the point of treatment within relevant timescales.
• To liaise directly with patients to book, cancel, and rebook any outpatient appointments or procedure dates.
• To be responsible for sending out relevant appointment letters and cancelling/rebooking patients’ appointments.
• Responsible for checking all clinic letters are completed accurately and outcomes actioned and recorded on Surrey Safe Care.
• Dispose of outstanding uncashed clinic outcomes on Surrey Safe Care.
• Monitor overbooking of clinics and arrange additional clinics to meet 18 week and cancer targets in conjunction with clinicians and Service Managers.
• Manage changes in clinic templates as directed by Team Leader/Service Manager.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• The overriding purpose of this role is to support the provision of the highest quality patient care through personal actions and continuous improvement. The post holder will be expected to demonstrate this by -
• Maintaining a high standard of quality in providing an appointments service; supporting both patients and professionals.
• Produce high-quality patient information for the Trust to enable maximum use of resources, and to support service level agreements and planning of future services.
• Ensure that patients receive good quality, appropriate documentation and /or information relating to their appointment in line with current Trust and Divisional objectives.
• Be responsible for transcribing dictated clinic letters using Dictate-IT software in an accurate and timely manner.
• Be responsible for checking clinic letters are completed accurately and outcomes actioned and recorded on Cerner.
• Dispose of outstanding uncashed clinic outcomes on Cerner.
• Use FDP (PTL) daily, liaise with the Patient Pathway Team across the Trust as a whole, to ensure co-ordination of all elements of the patient pathway. This may include highlighting patient target dates to ensure that investigations/diagnostics are carried out, and results received, in a timely manner.
• Highlight any potential breaches or delays in the patient’s pathway to the Team Leader, Admin Manager according to the Trust’s escalation policy.
• Monitor patients who are sent to other Trusts for treatment to ensure they do not breach 18 weeks (MDS forms).
• Liaise with & support the Appointments Centre regarding outpatient clinic bookings as necessary and ensure patient follow up appointments are booked as soon as results are known and are available for clinic appointment.
• Liaise directly with patients to book, cancel, and rebook any outpatient appointments or procedure dates.
• Attend regular team meetings arranged by Team Leader.
• Deal with patient queries effectively written and via telephone/email.
• Ensure booking of relevant clinical activity (e.g. out-patient procedures, clinics etc) and managing patient pathways in conjunction with the Patient Pathway Team.
• Have the ability and commitment to work as a team member and be able to adhere to strict deadlines.
• When booking or changing appointments, to be aware of the agreed Division’s wait to first appointment, RTT waiting time, and of the ASPH Trust Joint Access Policy.
• Provide cross cover to the Audiology clinical office and / or other teams within across our departments, as necessary.

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.