Job description
The role of the Medical Secretary is to provide a comprehensive secretarial, administration and information service to the Consultant Paediatric Team in respect of his/her NHS work and to the supporting medical/nursing team. The role comprises a wide range of specific duties and requires competence in word processing, keyboard skills, audio-typing, communication and organisational skills. Qualification to AMSPAR Medical Secretary Diploma level or equivalent is highly desirable, as are medical transcription skills. Knowledge and understanding of medical terminology would be advantageous. An ability to understand the need for and to maintain confidentiality is essential.
An essential part of the role is the ability to manage and prioritise own workload without direct supervision, communicate effectively with all colleagues and demonstrate the ability to work well within a team.
Are you interested in an important and challenging role within the Paediatric Secretarial Department at Royal Blackburn Hospital.
We are currently looking for a suitably qualified and experienced Secretary/PA to join our friendly medical secretarial team, to provide a secretarial/PA role for our Consultant Paediatricians.
You will need to work accurately and methodically, meet deadlines, show attention to detail, work as part of a team but use your own initiative. Can you work with all types of people and be helpful and reassuring when dealing with patients?
You will need to be flexible and pro-active, able to respond and adapt to the varying demands and changing circumstances in our very busy Paediatric Department.
Resilience is an important quality to success in this role as is the ability to plan and organise your own workload.
The role involves a wide range of specific duties and requires competence in word processing, keyboard skills and audio typing. You will need to maintain accurate 18 week referral to treatment pathways for our patients. Knowledge of medical terminology and previous medical secretarial experience is an advantageous.
When you walk through the door, one of the first things you’ll notice is that the organisation is full of talented people. Not just in the fields of medicine, nursing or diagnostics but in every part of the organisation. Professional and committed people who are all working together in an open and supportive culture.
We don’t just look at you for who you are now; we look at you for who you could be in the future. We take training seriously, and encourage you to do the same. We want staff to develop their capabilities to the full with a range of learning and development opportunities.
To enable the Trust and its employees to exceed expectations and to achieve corporate and service aims and objectives, we need to recruit, develop and retain skilled and motivated people through effective people management and development, leading to a high performance culture.
- Transcription and production from winscribe of typewritten reports/correspondence, for the consultant’s team and visiting consultant team which may include outpatient reports, discharge summaries, and other relevant clinical and non-clinical correspondence.
- Open and prioritise correspondence (which is often of a highly sensitive and confidential nature) on behalf of consultant/s ensuring that urgent correspondence receives prompt attention. In the consultant/s absence, Medical Secretary is responsible for ascertaining which correspondence requires referral to an appropriate clinician/nurse for urgent attention.
- Retrieve and act upon correspondence received by e-mail.
- Process case-notes of patients discharged from hospital; follow through ongoing care plans as indicated in notes. Allocate notes to relevant clinician for dictation, or ensure that any standard letters are completed as appropriate. Where standard letters have been generated at ward level, ascertain from case-notes whether any supplementary letter/action is required and deal with appropriately. Ensure that follow up appointments or referrals to other specialties are arranged where necessary.
- Ensure that relevant investigation results received after patient’s discharge are communicated to GP’s where appropriate, particularly where treatment may be required.
- Ensure that discharge summaries and other time-sensitive information are dictated and typed within the designated time limits.
- Ensure the correct closure of outpatient episodes have been completed, following consultant appointments with patients.
- Receive, manage and prioritise telephone and personal enquires, complaints, messages and information from patients, relatives, General Practitioners, Consultants and other medical staff and external organisations on behalf of Consultant and clinical team. Deal with enquiries relating to the medical and social welfare of patients and relatives in a sensitive manner, referring to medical staff or other Healthcare Professionals where appropriate. When responding to enquires, ensure that relevant guidelines or protocols are followed.
- Respond to enquiries from patients and Healthcare personnel as appropriate. Provide empathy and reassurance to patients where necessary. May be required to convey clinical/medical information to patients, medical, nursing, pharmacy or other healthcare staff, when instructed by, or with permission of Consultant.
- Manage patient investigation results. Check all incoming laboratory/radiology results, ensuring that abnormal results are communicated promptly to appropriate Clinician. Ensure all reports are seen and signed by Clinician prior to filing in case-notes. Retrieve patient results from the ICE system, ensuring that results are available as soon as possible. Responsible for chasing up missing results.