Booking coordinator - Rheumatology

Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Oswestry; On-site; GBP 19,000 - 23,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading orthopaedic hospital in Oswestry is looking for a dedicated Booking Clerk to manage outpatient referrals for the Rheumatology Team. The successful candidate will have strong communication skills, experience in a busy administrative role, and proficiency in healthcare software. The position offers a dynamic work environment with a focus on patient interaction and support, contributing to the effective running of clinics.

Benefits

Professional development opportunities

Staff benefits

State-of-the-art facilities

Qualifications

• Experience in managing patient referrals and communications.
• Ability to work in a busy environment and under pressure.
• Proficient in using relevant healthcare software.

Responsibilities

• Manage the outpatient booking process for referrals.
• Communicate appointment details effectively to patients.
• Maintain accurate patient records and tracking lists.

Skills

Communication

Multitasking

Customer Care

Data Management

Education

Relevant administrative experience

Tools

Lorenzo system

E-referral service

Electronic Patient Record

Job description

Overview

The Outpatient Booking Office provides a patient focused and responsive contact point for patients, ensuring all appointments are booked within the specified time limits. Outpatient Booking Co-Ordinators will manage their own delegated responsibility in operating a partial or full booking process receiving paper and electronic referrals for Outpatient specialties. Each Booking Co-Ordinator will have a lead responsibility for clinic management for a group of Consultants/Specialties. Booking Co-ordinators will be expected to provide cross cover to other Specialties in the absence of colleagues. The Outpatient Booking Co-Ordinator will manage and co-ordinate the outpatient pathway from the acceptance of the referral, through to the outpatient appointment, to ensure appointments are booked according to the Consultants protocols, booking policies and procedures. Contributing to the overall efficient and effective running of all designated clinics. Establish and maintain good working relationships with other administrative staff such as Access Staff, Medical and nursing staff, X Ray, Pre op staff, Records staff at other Hospitals & GP Practice staff. Maintaining a clear and robust outpatient waiting list, monitoring clinic capacity to treat all patients on the outpatient waiting list, working closely with the Assistant Service Manager. Deal with enquiries from Outpatient staff, referring Practitioners, Patients & other Health Service Organisations, providing essential support.

Responsibilities

1. Assigned to specific Consultant Surgeons but there is an expectation that staff will provide support and cover during periods of leave for colleagues, including other departments.
2. Add patients to the outpatient waiting list from referral, ensuring all information is entered on to the Lorenzo system and where necessary request images. Recognising any Red Flag symptoms and escalating these to consultants.
3. Add patients to the inpatient waiting list from an outpatient appointment and when decision to admit is made ensuring all information is entered on to PAS.
4. Once trained, individuals to maintain a high knowledge of Lorenzo, E-referral service, Image Exchange System, Electronic Patient Record, Spinal Portal, Bookwise, Internal Patient Waiting Lists, Synapse.
5. Communicate with patients to agree a date of appointment according to the relevant waiting times as designated by the appointment type and other factors, providing general advice around their appointment and the location of the Trust and sending out relevant paperwork. Ensuring the relevant appointment is made in due time to ensure any further treatment that may be necessary has enough time to be received.
6. To highlight any referrals that require urgent attention and deal with them promptly; this may involve discussions with the medical/divisional teams directly to arrange where the patient needs to be booked.
7. To monitor daily the Patient Tracking Lists (PTL) for the designated specialties by tracking, booking and closing patient's episodes and pathways where appropriate, ensuring that all new patients are booked according to current waiting times targets and the PTL is complete by the monthly/weekly deadline.
8. To be responsible for authorised over booking where appropriate, ensuring priority of patients is considered through reviewing several databases and considering a range of options, such as diagnostics, new and old patients and patients in trouble, seeking assistance from the Assistant Service Manager when needed.
9. Support patients in trouble by escalating concerns to Consultant colleagues and the safeguarding team as necessary.
10. Ensure all relevant documentation is scanned onto EPR and filed as appropriate.
11. Liaise with Assistant Service Manager regularly to receive updates on waiting times and discuss and make recommendations to improve waiting list management.
12. Provide a daily report on the status of the outpatient waiting list for consultants to whom you are assigned.
13. Ensure that patients receive all the relevant documentation pertaining to their appointment.
14. Plan and liaise with consultants regarding appointments to enable prioritisation of work.
15. Whilst arranging appointment dates use knowledge of clinic capacity.
16. To constantly work adhering to the Access Policy, keeping abreast of changes as communicated by Senior Staff.
17. Ensuring Choose and Book appointments are booked in correctly, where not, ensuring the appointment is rescheduled appropriately and the patient is informed.
18. Re-arrange or cancel full clinics as directed by the operational team (with and without consultant consultation) where appropriate ensuring full utilisation of remaining clinics.
19. Re-arrange or cancel clinic appointments as requested by the patient (with and without consultant consultation) where appropriate ensuring full utilisation of remaining clinics.
20. To arrange appointments for Private patients and provide the relevant documentation to the patient, the clinician, and finance.
21. Provide detailed information for clinicians regarding their waiting lists.
22. Provide a high level of customer care exchanging information with patients and staff regarding outpatient processes and procedures, such as discussions around individual needs, such as adjustments for patient appointments.
23. Liaise with the Service Manager and Assistant Service Manager to ensure all clinics are utilised and planned efficiently. Notify Consultants on any factors they may need to know resulting in their clinic being affected.
24. To deal with queries from patients, Secretaries, medical and nursing staff in a diplomatic and sympathetic manner, both on the phone and face to face.
25. Ensure all clinic appointments are outcome correctly from either the clinical outcome form or once the clinic dictation is typed.
26. Communicate with the discharge team to ensure follow-up appointments are booked at a requested point of time, balancing needs and requirements such clinic capacity and Consultant availability.
27. Escalate appropriate issues to Consultants, operational Management, &/or Administrative Service Manager.
28. Regularly deal with queries from anxious patients or relatives (gaining appropriate confirmation of patients permission do so) when giving difficult messages such as delays to appointments which can often be met with high emotion, then requiring staff to utilise empathy and direct as appropriate.
29. Deal with Outpatient teams inboxes daily along with personal email, responding in a prompt and correct manner.
30. Participate in providing training within the Department, making sure individual training matrix is up to date.
31. Maintain Lorenzo details and update patient details.
32. Liaise with the Outpatient resource team re: changes, bookings, cancellations. This is to ensure that resources can be appropriately reallocated as necessary.
33. Liaise with other Hospitals to ensure notes and x-rays are forwarded for patients attending clinic.
34. Participate in maintaining physical waiting list filing and general healthcare record filing system.
35. Provide support to the Service Manager, Assistant Service Manager.
36. To participate in general administration duties such as the answer phone, cancellation email, post, date stamping, photocopying, scanning and any other technology that may be introduced to support the Trusts systems and processes.
37. To contribute to the ongoing service improvement plans and policies for Outpatients, being open to changes to current practices and offering input into meetings/workshops as required.
38. Participate in mandatory training and induction programmes as well as staff appraisal and objective setting.
39. Expected to concentrate for long periods of time (up to 2 hours), undertaking outcomes and analysis of Patient Target List.
40. Individuals can expect frequent interruptions from patients calling the department and also colleagues requiring urgent support.
41. There will be occasional exposure to verbal aggression whilst communicating unwelcome news which can be challenging such as delays to appointments.
42. Ensure all communications and data storage is filed and stored in line with Trust policies and procedures and GDPR.

Additional information

Important: Your application form must include a complete record of your employment history. Please explain any gaps in your employment/education history and reasons for these gaps. The Trust maintains the right to withdraw an employment offer or terminate employment if it is later found that an application for employment contained false, mis-leading or inaccurate information. For the avoidance of doubt this would include omissions of previous periods of employment or reasons given for gaps in employment.

Please be aware that we reserve the right to close this job advert early where sufficient applications have been received.

For Information: The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHSFT embraces diversity, equality and inclusion and our aim is to be diverse in age, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability and ethnicity. We are committed to ensuring disabled workers aren't disadvantaged when applying for and doing their jobs and offer an interview to all applicants with a disability who meet the minimum criteria for the advertised post. Reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 will be considered upon request.

Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (MLCSU) process recruitment on behalf of Robert Jones Agnes Hunt. Further information on how your personal data is managed can be found on the supporting Privacy Notice. Your application will be made in Trac, the MLCSU's preferred third party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs and also available in your candidate account. If you are offered a job, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system. In submitting an application form to Trac, you are giving your consent for parts of your application data to be transferred to the NHS Electronic Staff Record (ESR) and other secure, internal NHS Workforce systems. This is to support and manage your recruitment and employment within your employing organisation. You also authorize the RJAH Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to confirm any previous NHS service details via the Electronic Staff Record IAT process should you be appointed to the post.

We are seeking an enthusiastic and dedicated individual to join our Rheumatology booking team at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital. The role will predominantly consist of a booking clerk role for the Rheumatology Team but the ideal candidate will be able to work flexibly across our Rheumatology and Metabolic services. The successful applicant will have the ability to work in a fast-paced, busy environment working within a multi-disciplinary team, and will be able to multitask and prioritise their workload.

The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic NHS Trust (RJAH) is one of the leading orthopaedic hospitals in the country, with some of the highest levels of staff and patient satisfaction, as well as a strong reputation for research and innovation. Joining RJAH is more than just a job - we want our people to have the best opportunities to thrive in their role. We have a range of fantastic staff benefits on offer to everyone who joins RJAH and you'll have access to outstanding professional development opportunities and state-of-the-art facilities - including our recently-opened £6 million Headley Court Veterans' Orthopaedic Centre (the first unit of its kind in the UK). RJAH has strong links with a range of universities including Staffordshire, Keele, Glyndwr, Chester and Birmingham.

The hospital is located on a site outside Oswestry in Oswestry, just off the A5. The nearest train station is in Gobowen, approximately two miles from the hospital. The station is part of the Chester to Birmingham line. We are based in North Shropshire, close to the border with North and Mid Wales. It is one of the most attractive parts of the country, with a rich historic culture and excellent transport links. It offers outstanding opportunities for anyone who enjoys an outdoor lifestyle or is looking to raise a family.

Here at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, we are very proud of our reputation for providing outstanding care to our patients. In the National Staff Survey, 74% of our staff would recommend the Trust as a place to work and 92% would recommend the hospital to a friend or relative for treatment. Our continued success is accomplished through the skills and expertise of our staff, which is underpinned by our values: Friendly, Caring, Excellence, Professional and Respect.