About this role
Job summary
We are looking for an experienced, motivated receptionist and outpatient appointment co-ordinator to join our Therapy Services Department admin team.
This is a fantastic opportunity to join our Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Outpatients Team on a 12-month fixed-term contract or a secondment, based at Worcestershire Royal Hospital. Successful applicants will work across two of the three Trust sites; working 2 days at WRH and 2 days at KTC. The role will include reception duties and collaborating with supervisors, managers, the therapy team, multidisciplinary staff, patients, carers, and other agencies.
You will play an important role in leading the reception team and providing effective administrative support ensuring processes meet the needs of service users and the Trust.
We seek someone who is positive, compassionate, approachable, flexible, and able to build strong working relationships for patient care and service improvement. We operate across several electronic systems to ensure accurate record-keeping, and you must be able to concentrate in a busy working environment. We are a friendly, supportive team and aim to support you in working flexibly within the needs of the service to support the number of hours required.
Main duties of the job
To act as receptionist and appointments co-ordinator for the outpatient therapy department, providing supervision of more junior staff e.g. apprentices, band 2s. To efficiently and courteously deal with all patient enquiries, meeting, greeting and directing patients as appropriate. Maintenance of therapist's appointment diaries via PAS booking system, booking appointments and ensuring the efficient day to day administrtion of the front desk.
About us
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.
The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester
Our workforce is more than 7,000 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care. You could be one of them.
We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us. Our values, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.
Being open and honest
Ensuring people feel cared for
Showing respect to everyone
We are committed to developing a culture of continuous improvement by embedding the principles of our Improvement System.
We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.
DBS Checks and Costs
Any applicants who are offered posts requiring a DBS check as part of their employment check will have the cost of this check (at the current rate) deducted from their salary. Please see link in Supporting Information section for more details on DBS checks and costs.
Job description Job responsibilities
Post Title: Therapies Receptionist & Outpatient Appointment Co-Ordinator
Pay Band: Band 3
Hours: 30 hours per week over 4 days
Contract: 12-month fixed term or 12-month Secondment
Location / Department: Outpatient Therapy Department, WAHT (2 days KTC and 2 days WRH)
Accountable to: Therapy Manager, Surgery
Reports to: Therapies Receptionist & Business Support Lead
Key Working Relationships:
Internal: Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Therapy Support Workers, A&C staff and other Health Professionals.
External: Patients, Visitors, General Practitioners and Consultants.
Risk Assessment: This post involves working with display screen equipment for the majority
of the post holders working hours.
The post holder will participate in non-patient manual handling activities including bending, reaching and stooping.
There is regular need for prolonged concentration e.g. booking appointments.
Thers is occasional involvement in distressing and emotional circumstances e.g. dealing with complaints and angry and upset patients by telephone or in person.
Exposed to regular interruptions and unpredictable workload patterns.
Job Purpose: To act as Receptionist and Appointments Co-ordinator for the outpatient therapy Department, providing supervision of more junior staff e.g. Apprentices, band 2s. To efficiently and courteously deal with all patient enquiries, meeting, greeting and directing patients as appropriate. Maintenance of therapists appointment diaries via PAS booking system, booking appointments and ensuring the efficient day to day administration of the front desk.
Key Duties:
1. To manage the day to day running of the therapys reception working with other reception staff and the therapy team. The majority of this work will be undertaken at your base, but there may be a requirement to work across sites based on your individual job role and/or cover sickness/leave.
2. To meet, greet and direct all patients and visitors to the Department.
3. To deal with the day-to-day incoming referrals. To ensure that all referrals contain the required information to allow pathways to be linked and clock status to be corrected.
4. To ensure that referrals are added to the appropriate outpatient therapies waiting list by speciality for clinical staff to prioritise them within the agreed timescales.
5. To ensure that patients receive an acknowledgement letter or are immediately accepted/appointed in line with agreed booking processes, administrative procedures and the patient access policy.
6. To ensure that all patients receive the correct instructions and correspondence related to their therapies Appointment. To work with the team lead / clinical lead in required changes to letter templates.
7. To ensure therapists dairies on PAS are outcomed at the end of each day.
8. To ensure that all inter-provider transfers are completed electronically to the named nhs.net account within 48 hours of the decision to refer.
9. To cancel and reschedule patients or whole clinics in the event of sickness / unforeseen circumstances requiring last minute changes
10. To regularly review the therapies waiting lists to ensure that it is accurate and up to date, identifying any potential 18-week clock breaches, incorrect clock data and ratify the unoutcomed appointments on a weekly basis informing the appropriate Team Leader of any issues.
11. To regularly review the therapies waiting list to update the appropriate Team Leaders in MSK Outpatients, Pelvic Health, Neurology, Rheumatology, Vestibular and Respiratory with regards the waiting times for treatment.
12. On a monthly basis validate any patients that are showing as having waited longer than an agreed timeframe so that waiting time information submitted to the PCT is accurate.
13. To make new appointments as appropriate from the partial booking system for all patients referred to the outpatient therapies service.
14. To receive patients at clinic reception, checking details and booking onto the patient administration system. Booking patients out of clinic and/or making follow up appointments as directed by the therapists.
15. To action changes to individual appointments whilst ensuring the patients are seen within the agreed clinical priority and that written confirmation is immediately sent. This involves the managing of messages received by digital platforms e.g. trust text message system
16. To maintain an accurate filing system for patient records to facilitate retrieval as necessary.
17. To manage telephone enquiries from patients, relatives, Medical Practitioners and Consultants ensuring that the appropriate action is taken including messages for therapy staff.
18. To telephone patients, sometimes at short notice, to offer them appointments or reschedule appointments.
19. To ensure that letter, telephone and face to face communication with patients, colleagues and managers is professional, timely in line with health records policies and procedures.
20. To respond to any queries and complaints from patients, managers or clinicians regarding clinics, referrals, bookings and waiting times, ensuring that any serious issues are passed to the appropriate team leader.
21. To issue and file current treatment cards each day dealing with the DNAs, SOSs and cancellations appropriately.
22. To monitor all outpatient clinics to ensure that all clinic slots are utilized to the maximum and where necessary fill any vacant slots and to prevent overbooking of clinics.
23. To alert appropriate individual to order stock.
24. To supervise and develop junior administrative staff.
25. To liaise with colleagues to ensure that there is adequate cover during holiday periods and where possible sickness.
26. To ensure that all policies and procedures are adhered to and training undertaken where new policies and procedures are implemented. Those for Health Records, confidentiality and information security.
27. To make notes available to the legal department as required
General Duties:
1. To participate in yearly appraisal.
2. To report any maintenance problems to appropriate agencies.
3. To do other clerical duties to facilitate the smooth running of the outpatient department e.g. maintenance of equipment loan records.
4. To ensure that general administrative work associated with referrals, appointments and waiting lists is undertaken according to the expected medical records standards.
5. Due to the shared nature of the department, welcome and redirect patients attending other clinics.
6. To complete microsession changes on PAS as required
7. To carry out any other duties, within the grade, as requested by other members of your team, Team Leaders, or Therapy Management.
Person Specification
Skills and Knowledge Essential
Ability to organise and prioritise workload Able to respond to enquiries appropriately Able to maintain departmental records
Qualifications Essential
RSA II or equivalent GCSE, grade C or above or equivalent in Maths and English Good knowledge of computerised systems
Desirable
Customer Care training or equivalent
Other Job Requirements Essential
Ability to undertake the manual handling aspects of the role on a daily basis Willing to undertake in-house courses Awareness of Confidentiality and Information Governance Able to work hours/days required
Desirable
Ability to travel / work across sites General understanding of relevant therapy store
Experience Essential
Evidence of previous clerical experience Good typing/word processing Familiar with Windows packages Experience of manual and digital filing systems
Desirable
Reception experience Oasis/other hospital patient systems Previous NHS experience Previous experience of arranging appointments
Personal Qualities Essential
Ability to work in busy environment Adaptable-works well under pressure Good telephone manner Able to work as part of a team Good rapport with colleagues and patients Flexible approach to working pattern and duties Good communication skills-verbal and written
Disclosure and Barring Service Check This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Employer details Employer name Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Address Charles Hastings Way
Worcester
Worcestershire
WR5 1DD
United Kingdom
Employer's website https://www.worcsacute.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)