Back

Receptionist/Reservations & Appointment Clerk London, England

London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust

Full Time London, England 27129 - 28649 GBP ANNUAL Today

Job description

Work as part of the Trust Plus Department and multi-disciplinary team, providing an efficient administrative service and excellent customer care.
Record all appointments from start to finish including attendances (cashing-up) on the Patient Access System
Book follow-up appointments, discharge back to the GP and/or add to waiting lists, book theatres and liaise with them for surgery.
They will require to act as a meet and greet and ensure that the patients are comfortable and have everything that they need.
To provide comprehensive administration services to support all functions of the booking process in delivering an effective and timely referral management and appointment booking service for referrers and to support patients and patient carers through the patient pathway for a range of clinical services.
The post holder will be required to undertake a range of tasks, including effective appointment booking, accurate data input on the relevant clinical system, processing of referrals, uploading and processing of clinical information, the use of electronic call handling systems and procedures and involvement in service improvement projects on an ad hoc basis. The post holder is required to ensure that all duties are carried out to a high professional standard whilst delivering a friendly, patient-centred service

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

To communicate with a wide range of people, including patients, carers, GPs, clinicians, work colleagues and other professionals on a range of matters daily. This communication could be verbal, written or electronic.
As frontline staff, utilise empathy and understanding to interact with staff, patients/carers and relatives whilst working as part of a team, ensuring good communication between all external agencies/contact and departments.
While working as part of the team, utilise good communication and interpersonal skills, both written and orally and interact with tact and diplomacy when required.
Work flexibly with all team members.
Provide and receive routine information with regards to patients requiring tact and discretion.
Deal with enquiries from patients, medical staff and the general public in a professional and co-operative manner either over the phone or face to face.
Liaison with clinical teams and clinical managers for referrals requiring clinical triage and taking appropriate action as directed upon receipt of the triage decision.
To ensure that all telephone enquiries are handled politely and sympathetically in a professional manner, ensuring that all messages are passed on to the appropriate person in a timely and accurate way.
Retrieval of voicemail messages and emails daily, ensuring appropriate redirection or escalation in a timely manner

London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (LNWH) cares for the people of Brent, Ealing, Harrow and beyond.

Our team of more than 8,200 clinical and support staff serve a diverse population of almost one million people.

We run major acute services at:

Northwick Park Hospital: home to one of the busiest emergency departments (A&E) in the country. The hospital provides a full range of services including the country’s top-rated hyper-acute stroke unit and one of only three hyper-acute rehabilitation units in the UK
St Mark’s Hospital: an internationally renowned specialist centre for bowel disease
Ealing Hospital: a busy district general hospital providing a range of clinical services, as well as 24/7 emergency department and urgent care centre, and specialist care at Meadow House Hospice
Central Middlesex Hospital: our planned care site, hosting a range of surgical and outpatient services and collocated with an urgent care centre.

We are a university teaching NHS trust, in recognition of the important role we play in training clinicians of the future and bringing the benefits of research to the public.

This post requires flexibility regarding start and finish times.
Shifts are weekly and rotation includes at least one weekend shift and at least one late finish.
Please do not apply for this post if you are unable to work the weekend shift.
There are no night shifts.
Except for the late shift all other shifts generally commence between 8:30am and 10:00am with a 30-minute break, and finish at 16:30 and 18:00
Please do not apply for this post if you require fixed start or finish times.
To communicate with a wide range of people, including patients, carers, GPs, clinicians, work colleagues and other professionals on a range of matters daily. This communication could be verbal, written or electronic.
As frontline staff, utilise empathy and understanding to interact with staff, patients/carers and relatives whilst working as part of a team, ensuring good communication between all external agencies/contact and departments.
While working as part of the team, utilise good communication and interpersonal skills, both written and orally and interact with tact and diplomacy when required.
Work flexibly with all team members.
Provide and receive routine information with regards to patients requiring tact and discretion.
Deal with enquiries from patients, medical staff and the general public in a professional and co-operative manner either over the phone or face to face.
To provide an efficient appointment booking service to patients/carers with appropriate recording of information on the patient system as per operational procedures.
Liaison with clinical teams and clinical managers for referrals requiring clinical triage and taking appropriate action as directed upon receipt of the triage decision.
To ensure that all telephone enquiries are handled politely and sympathetically in a professional manner, ensuring that all messages are passed on to the appropriate person in a timely and accurate way.
To deal with incoming calls, communicating information to patients, relatives, and the general public in a calm professional manner consistent with Trust policies and procedures, whilst presenting a positive image of the service.
To follow the Trust standard process when booking appointments for patients, ensuring that the patient is offered an appointment with an appropriate clinician and choice of location where possible, recording the appointment on the appropriate system as per operational procedure.
Retrieval of voicemail messages and emails daily, ensuring appropriate redirection or escalation in a timely manner.
To send appointment notifications and reminders to patients using appropriate communication methods as outlined in the operational policy, including e-mail, letter and text messaging via the clinical system.
To send discharge letters and other correspondence to patients and referrers as necessary.
To escalate patient complaints to the Supervisor/ Team Leader if the patients’ issues cannot be resolved.
To manage challenging conversations with patients when informing them of necessary appointment cancellations.
Manage work priorities with no direct supervision, seeking advice where necessary and to act independently within appropriate guidelines.
Deal appropriately with disruptive patients/relatives with exposure to occasional verbal abuse.

Information Processing

To review incoming referrals for data completeness and to provide feedback to referrers where data is incomplete, or the referral is inappropriate and does not meet service criteria.
To efficiently and effectively book appointments once referral has been through triage process.
To register patients’ demographic details and record referral information accurately on the Trust’s clinical system, co-ordinating the movement of referrals through the patient pathway.
To update patient demographics on patient database system when given new information by patients.
To be responsible for following standard operational procedures for the booking of appointments, cancellation of appointments and the rescheduling of clinics.
To book interpreters and transport facilities for patient appointments where required, to ensure equity of access for patients. To keep records of relevant information for audit and tracking purposes.
To manage electronic filing systems for referrals and other information.
To scan documents and upload information into the clinical database system.
To adhere to all Trust policies relating to Information Governance and patient confidentiality, implementing measures to safeguard information within everyday working practise.
Collate audit information on areas of the service as required.

Quality

To always adhere to policies and procedures.
To ensure a high level of data quality and patient confidentiality daily.
To bring to the attention of the Supervisor where clinical capacity is not fully utilised, where there are capacity issues for services or where waiting time issues are identified.
Provide training and mentoring to other team colleagues as required.
Contribute the effective performance of the team, providing support to colleagues and the Supervisor during periods of absence to ensure that the service is covered during operational hours.

Service improvement

Involvement in system changes, service improvement and redesign projects as and when required. To be flexible in implementing service change, sometimes immediately
Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team, monitoring the patients’ journey. Multitask and work under pressure and be able to answer complex and sensitive enquiries. Engage in collaborative problem solving with co-workers

General duties

Daily management of own workload, seeking clarification from the Supervisor as required.
To undertake any other administrative duties which are appropriate for the banding, as requested by senior staff.
Attend regular team meetings and take the minutes as necessary.
To be familiar and comply with Trust and departmental policies, procedures, protocols and guidelines.
To act as a responsible team member, reporting/solving problems as they arise.
To meet Trust requirements for statutory and mandatory training.
To participate in the annual appraisal process, undertaking any training required for the post holder to fully carry out their duties, or as identified in the Personal Development Plan (PDP).
Attend/complete all Mandatory training by attending short courses of completing on-line via ELMS.
To contribute to the control of risk and report identified issues immediately, using the Trust Incident reporting system for any incident, accident or near miss involving patients, service users, carers, staff, contractors or members of the public.
Have a comprehensive understanding of Outpatient clinics, making appointments and understanding cashing up processes as required.
Ensure all patient information is complete and up to date on the Trust databases.
Investigate and correct any discrepancies found on the Trust databases relating to patient information ensuring patient demographics, GP and personal contact details are accurate.
Maintain standards of conduct and dress to sustain public confidence, in accordance with Trust policy.
Ensure the reception desks are clean and tidy and that IT equipment is working with faults reported to the appropriate Trust helpdesk.
To answer all telephone calls to the reception desk, taking concise messages and redirecting queries to the appropriate person using available information and initiative.
Provide prompt and efficient carrying out of administration tasks and prioritising of own or team workload, providing cover for staff due to shortage for planned and unplanned leave.
Ensure the regular maintenance of equipment, reporting problems to relevant departments ensuring they get resolved.