Private Care Inpatient Services Executive

Job overview

The Private Care Inpatient Services Executive is required at all times to promote Private Care values and to contribute to achieving Private Care’s strategy, goals and objectives. The post holder’s role in promoting and furthering these objectives will be commensurate with grade and designated responsibilities. The postholder is responsible for providing proactive pathway management and support to private patients from pre-assessment through to discharge, ensuring that they enjoy an exceptional experience, are clear about the next steps in their journey and experience continuity of care. As a key part of this role, they are expected to provide high-quality, proactive and thoughtful administrative support to the clinical services teams, so that they can focus upon the delivery of care. The postholder will be required to work flexibly on a rota basis to ensure there is cover between the hours of 07.00 – 19.00 Monday to Friday and 08.00 – 13.00 on Saturday. Uniform will be provided. The postholder will be expected to work flexibly and work from reception on a rotational basis and on the inpatient ward (both Private Care and Coxen).

Main duties of the job

The Private Care Inpatient Services Executive is required at all times to promote Private Care values and to contribute to achieving Private Care’s strategy, goals and objectives. The post holder’s role in promoting and furthering these objectives will be commensurate with grade and designated responsibilities. The postholder is responsible for providing proactive pathway management and support to private patients from pre-assessment through to discharge, ensuring that they enjoy an exceptional experience, are clear about the next steps in their journey and experience continuity of care. As a key part of this role, they are expected to provide high-quality, proactive and thoughtful administrative support to the clinical services teams, so that they can focus upon the delivery of care. The postholder will be required to work flexibly on a rota basis to ensure there is cover between the hours of 07.00 – 19.00 Monday to Friday and 08.00 – 13.00 on Saturday. Uniform will be provided. The postholder will be expected to work flexibly and work from reception on a rotational basis and on the inpatient ward (both Private Care and Coxen).

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

1: Patient Management: Admissions

• Check whether patients scheduled for admission, have an up-to-date MRSA test result and action accordingly, escalating to the Nurse in Charge where necessary and changing the time of admission to accommodate on the day testing.
• Greet patients on arrival, take them to their room and orientate them to include an explanation of the welcome pack, ward routines and patient journey and the use of in-room technology.
• Liaise with the nursing team to ensure that the clinical admission process is ready to commence immediately once orientation is complete

2: Patient Management: Inpatients

• Assume responsibility for the continuity of patient care from the point of admission, through to discharge, ensuring always, that patients are aware of the next steps in their journey and know who to contact with any queries.
• Proactively manage the inpatient journey, ensuring that any shared service is delivered in accordance with Private Care KPIs and the patient enjoys an exceptional and attentive experience. This will include regular liaison with portering, radiology, pathology, pharmacy and transport in particular.
• Ensure that any highlighted next steps are appropriately actioned to ensure there are no administrative delays to patient care.
• Liaise with Coxen ward on a daily basis to ensure that private paediatric patients are enjoying a private patient experience and that any issues can be addressed in a timely manner.

3: Patient Management: Discharge

• Manage the administrative process of patient discharge and inform the Consultant’s private medical secretary once complete
• Organise and book patient transport for discharge where required, to include ambulance transfer.
• Ensure that the patient is clear about the next steps in their journey and is given an appointment to return for a nurse-led, wound check appointment if clinically appropriate.

4: Bed and Capacity Management

• Attend the daily Private Care clinical bed meeting to discuss patient admissions, continuing inpatient care, bed allocations, intended discharge date and any emergency or unscheduled admissions.
• Present relevant information at the daily Private Care clinical bed meeting for scheduled admissions, in particular, patient preferences or requirements highlighted at pre-operative assessment (e.g. dietary requirements, food allergies and intolerances).

5: Pre-Operative Assessment Bookings and Administration

• Coordinate all patient bookings in line with agreed processes and timelines, ensuring information is captured and recorded accurately across the relevant booking systems.
• Issue written confirmation of pre-operative clinic appointments to patients and serve as the first point of contact for any non-clinical queries.
• Organise any additional tests, investigations and Consultant opinions (including referrals to Consultant Paediatricians for complex paediatric patients) that arise from the nurse-led pre-assessment appointment.
• Develop a mechanism, working with the pre-operative assessment nurses to ensure that any results of concern are escalated to the Consultant Surgeon and Anaesthetist and that where there is an impact on treatment or extended length of stay for self-pay patients, that the cost estimate is amended accordingly.

6: Clinical Services Support

• Provide high-quality, proactive and thoughtful administrative support to the clinical services teams, so that they can focus upon the delivery of care. This will include the management and resolution of non-clinical issues on their behalf e.g. IT, Estates and Facilities, Procurement.

• Manage all incoming phone calls and correspondence to the inpatient ward, ensuring that queries are resolved and exceptional customer service is delivered.
• Arrange, attend and minute ward meetings, taking forward assigned actions and monitoring the delivery of others against their actions.
• Support the Ward Manager to meet quality standards, through monitoring training and appraisal compliance amongst clinical staff as well as other agreed KPIs.

7: Private Care Service Standards

• Develop expert knowledge of Private Care’s service offering and a robust understanding of the entire patient pathway, with an emphasis upon the clinical patient journey.
• Contribute to the development and delivery of service standards and KPIs for Private Care’s patient services function, ensuring that they are market competitive, meet the needs of key stakeholders and delivery against them is tracked
• Ensure that all written patient correspondence is highly accurate and professionally formatted with excellent use of spelling and grammar.

8: Systems

• Train as a super-user of Trust booking, information and patient navigation systems to include, PAS, ICS, ICE and CRIS.
• Work with the Private Care Finance Analyst to ensure that the operational processes within the patient services teams are reflected in the development of the Trust’s Electronic Patient Record (EPR) project, and that activity is properly captured and can be automated to feed out to the outsourced billing provider.
• Proactively identify opportunities to use technology as an enabler, where appropriate, to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the booking teams.

9: Finance

• Liaise with Consultants, their clinical teams, and medical secretaries to ensure that medical reports for patients requiring a change of treatment or extended length of stay are obtained and communicated to the payor in a proactive and timely manner.
• Develop a robust understanding of private patient financing and be able to confidently discuss financial liabilities for treatment with patients, in the case of an extended or unauthorised length of stay.
• Manage, monitor and ensure compliance with the use of charge sheets on the inpatient ward to facilitate accurate and timely patient billing.

10: Customer Service

• Provide an exceptional standard of customer service to all key stakeholders which is proactive, attentive and knowledgeable.

11: Communication

• Utilise a variety of strategies to communicate effectively with key stakeholders across the organisation, including Consultants, their private medical secretaries, patients, embassies, referrers and other third-party sponsors of care, delivering an exceptional standard of customer service at all times.
• Develop and maintain effective and proactive working relationships with key Trust stakeholders to ensure that the operational requirements of Private Care are effectively managed and coordinated within shared services, in particular pathology, pharmacy, radiology and theatres, to deliver a private patient experience.
• Be aware of and sensitive to other cultures and religions whilst dealing with private patients, ensuring vulnerable groups are not discriminated against.

12: Complex Stakeholder Management

• Engage and support patients and their families, Consultants and Private Care clinical teams to ensure we deliver exceptional patient care in accordance with Private Care service standards.
• Act as a key point of contact for key stakeholders to coordinate the timely resolution of any issues relating to the admissions process or inpatient care, escalating them to different Trust departments as required.
• Use initiative in determining the action to be taken when receiving complex queries and demonstrate an understanding of the appropriate priority.

13: Improvement

• Contribute to the development of Standard Operating Policies for the patient services function within Private Care and ensure that they are regularly updated to reflect current practice.
• Identify changes that may be required within the patient services functions to deliver against our objectives and enhance the patient experience and actively implement these changes with the support of the Private Care Management Team.
• Collate key themes and learnings from feedback, complaints and incident reports and work with the Ward Manager and Senior Nurses to develop and implement a cycle of continuous improvement, ensuring that learnings are captured and action plans are put in place to avoid recurrence.
• Undertake and input to audit activities, both internal and external.

14: Teamwork

• Act as an ambassador for Private Care, both within the Division and the wider Trust; actively promoting and supporting the delivery of Private Care service standards to enable us to meet our growth aspirations.
• Contribute to the recruitment, appointment and induction of new staff within the patient services function.

Provide cover for colleagues during episodes of sickness and annual leave, ensuring continuity of care and service for patients and other key stakeholders