About this role
Job summary
This is an exciting opportunity to join the Patient Experience Team as the Lead for the Patient Advice and Liaison Service. You will be able to bring your skills to the team who work together in order to assist patients, relatives, carers with their enquiries and help resolve any problems or concerns they have. You will also work with the Patient Experience Manager to develop the services to ensure they meet our patient's needs.
This is an interesting and varied role in a busy unpredictable environment. The post holder will require excellent customer service, communication and organisational skills with the ability to manage a variety of task throughout the working day. The work involves dealing with people at an extremely difficult time in their lives and you must be able to complete the necessary tasks whilst acting in a caring and compassionate manner.
This is a rewarding post, within a supportive team, focused on improving the experiences of people visiting our hospitals.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will be required to act a lead for the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) and Bereavement Office. To provide managerial support to the PALS and Bereavement Officers.
To provide a personal, visible and accessible Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) and play an active part in making contact with the Trust as easy as possible. To provide support individual patients, carers and relatives through the Trust's services to answer enquiries and requests for information about the NHS and aspects of care. Work within the Patient Experience Team and assist with the resolution of queries and concerns raised by patients, relatives and visitors within the expected timescales by internal means or by referral to external agencies.
To co-ordinate the day to day functioning of the Trust's Bereavement Service, ensuring prompt and correct documentation relating to the death of a patient within the Trust. Liaising with external agencies to ensure the funeral arrangements for every deceased patient are carried out without delay. To provide correct, information, supportive and appropriate advice to bereaved relatives/next of kin.
To monitor patient experience feedback to identify trends and themes alerting staff to these and working with them to action change ensuring that these actions are reported using established mechanisms.
About us
Come and join a Trust rated Outstanding by the CQC. South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust have been rated as outstanding following our latest inspection by the CQC and we are recruiting new staff to come and help us improve even further. In addition our staff survey results have placed us 4th in the country for recommended place to work.
We provide services across Warwickshire and beyond ranging from Hospitals in Warwick, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Royal Leamington Spa and Shipston-on Stour to Community Services across the county. We are a progressive, expanding organisation with great ambition around improving quality, integrating pathways and delivering high levels of productivity.Our values can be summed up in one sentence. We are 'Trusted to provide safe, inclusive, effective and compassionate care'. Throughout the recruitment process you will be asked to think about how you demonstrate these values and how they impact on your work. It doesn't matter what role you do, whether it is patient facing or not, we are all working in the same way with our values at the core.
As part of our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion we encourage all applicants to complete a short survey. This can be accessed via the link below:
https://forms.office.com/e/ahWY3eAGM2
We appreciate you completing the survey.
Job description Job responsibilities
Management and Leadership
Provide day to day managerial support for the Patient Advice and Liaison and Bereavement Service.
Participate in staff appraisals and 1:1s, identifying training and development in line with the Patient Experience Team and Trust Objectives.
Work flexibly within the remit of the role to ensure office cover at all times and, undertake such management duties as necessary to ensure a consistent approach to enable continuity of service.
Identify trends from Patient Advice and Liaison enquiries and Friends and Family Test results.
Ensure Standard Operating Procedures are updated.
Patient Advice & Liaison Service
Provide a personal, visible and accessible Patient Advice and Liaison Service and play an active part in making contact with the Trust as easy as possible, signposting patients, service users, relatives and/or carers.
To have frontline direct contact with patients, either by telephone, email, correspondence or face to face.
Manage difficult situations to ensure concerns are understood and help identify a way to resolve the issue.
To support individual patients, carers and family members in order to resolve problems and concerns, offering a number of options and sources of information where possible, including other local and national support networks as necessary.
To liaise with health, voluntary and statutory services on behalf of clients to help resolve problems and concerns.
To listen to patients concerns, suggestions and experiences and raising these with the people who manage services.
To help patients understand the NHS complaints procedure and how to make a complaint, explaining what support can be offered by the Patient Advice and Liaison Service and what a formal complaint investigation involves.
To work within agreed protocols regarding confidentiality, consent and equal opportunities.
Assist with ensuring patients have access to the Trusts interpreting service in accordance with the Interpreting and Translation Guidelines.
Participate in Safeguarding of Adults by tensuring the PALS Office continues to be a designated safe place.
Ensure all enquiries are recorded on the Datix Patient Experience Module.
Bereavement Service
To be responsible for ensuring that clear and accurate records are kept relating to each death within the hospital.
To maintain the Bereavement Spreadsheet and ensure up to date information is recorded.
To be responsible for ensuring that relatives are contacted the next working day and given all relevant paperwork and are provided with information regarding formal requirements.
To support the prompt and correct completion of the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death in line with statutory legislation.
To support the prompt and correct completion of cremation papers in line with statutory legislation.
To liaise with the Medical Examiner Office and Mortuary so that patients can be released from the mortuary in a timely manner.
To act as a point of contact between medical staff and relatives, to liaise with the Chaplaincy, Risk Management Department, Medical Records Department, HM Coroners Office and Registrars of Births and Deaths.
To liaise with Funeral Directors and Coroners Officers as required, to ensure procedures and arrangements towards the issue of death certificates are expedited.
Arrange and accompany bereaved relatives to viewings in the mortuary viewing room.
Return patients property to their next of kin or nominated representative.
Make arrangements to register the death of patients who do not have any next of kin or nominated representative.
Arrange funeral through the Trusts contracted Funeral Director for patients who do not have any next of kin, nominated representative or any funds in the estate to pay for the funeral.
Arrange monthly shared cremation for early pregnancy losses.
Friends and Family Test
Raise awareness of the Friends and Family Test to increase response rates.
Monitor feedback received through the Friends and Family Test and identify any low scoring areas or negative comments.
Highlight good and poor comments with ward/department Manager.
Patient Property
To be responsible for the collection of or the acceptance and safe keeping or safe disposal of patient valuable and non-valuable property in accordance with the Trust Policy.
Awareness of health and safety issues if property is contaminated (e.g.: blood, faeces, urine, vomit, lice) or contains sharps and ensuring that protective clothing (gloves and aprons) is worn.
To have responsibility for the correct return to the patient or the next of kin or disposal of patients property in line with Trust Policy.
To investigate the whereabouts of deceased patients property when there is a discrepancy between ward documentation and relatives recollections of patients property.
Record information relating to lost property reported to the PALS Office on database.
Person Specification
Qualifications Essential
Educated to degree level or equivalent experience. Diploma in administrative practices or business management or equivalent knowledge. A commitment to life-long learning and undertaking personal development opportunities Ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of stakeholders, including recently bereaved.
Desirable
Management qualification or equivalent experience.
Experience Essential
Experience of working in a customer focused environment. Experience of working in a PALS or customer focused environment. Experience of writing guidelines and policies. Experience of working with people in sensitive and emotional situations Experience of working in a healthcare setting with multidisciplinary teams across organisational boundaries Knowledge of the NHS complaints management procedure, legislation and reporting requirements.
Desirable
Experience of writing guidelines and policies. Experience of report writing.
Skills Essential
Strong interpersonal skills demonstrating the ability to communicate in difficult and emotional situations with empathy and professionalism with all stakeholders. Ability to work as part of a team or alone and organise fluctuating workload around competing priorities. Competent in the use of IT software systems and handling sensitive personal identifiable data. Knowledge of Patient Advice and Liaison Service Able to assist in the planning and delivery of training and awareness programmes for complaints and customer care at all levels across the Trust. Able to use and present information and data. Knowledge of the NHS complaints management procedure, legislation and reporting requirements.
Desirable
Knowledge of the special requirements of various faith groups and respect for equality and diversity of issues around formalities following a death Knowledge of the Bereavement procedures, Coroner & Medical Examiner system.
Personal Qualities Essential
Proactive and self-motivated. Approachable and supportive to patients, bereaved relatives and all levels of staff in a non-judgemental and discreet manner. Ability to maintain a calm manner in a range of challenging and emotive circumstances. Mature, adaptable & flexible approach to work Ability to deal with unpredictable workload and frequent interruptions yet able to meet tight deadlines when required and achieve agreed objectives Tactful & diplomatic with a high degree of discretion and initiative
Other Essential
Flexible and adaptable in meeting changing service priorities. Evidence of ongoing personal development Independent means of transport / willing to travel in the course of undertaking duties
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.
Certificate of Sponsorship Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
Employer details Employer name South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust
Address PALS Office, Warwick Hospital
Lakin Road
Warwick
CV34 5BW
United Kingdom
Employer's website https://www.swft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)