Clinical Coding Business Analyst

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust; Luton; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare provider in Luton is seeking a Clinical Coder to ensure effective and accurate clinical coding. The successful candidate will maintain coding standards, mentor staff, and engage with medical teams to enhance data quality. Requires accredited clinical coding qualification and substantial experience across specialties. This role provides an opportunity to contribute to high-quality patient care in a supportive environment.

Qualifications

• Experience in clinical coding across various specialties.
• Substantial expertise in auditing and report writing.
• Extensive knowledge of ICD-10 and OPCS-4 classifications.

Responsibilities

• Provide accurate clinical coding to ensure quality data.
• Mentor less experienced coders in understanding coding rules.
• Communicate coding rules with various medical staff.

Skills

Clinical coding expertise

Interpersonal skills

Analytical skills

Project management

Proficient in Microsoft Office

Education

Nationally Accredited Clinical Coder Qualification (ACC)

PRINCE2

Tools

Data Administration Systems

Job description

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The post holder will provide an effective, accurate, timely, and consistent clinical coding service to the Trust and ensure all coding expectations are achieved, assisting in business intelligence outcomes and audits where appropriate.

Main duties of the job

You will be expected to promote continuous improvement in data quality by keeping abreast of development and innovations in the medical, surgical, and coding disciplines. This role forms a key member of the data quality team, which aims to provide credible, accurate, complete, and timely data for the Trust.

To review deceased patients and maintain higher SHMI performance for Bedfordshire Hospitals;

To be proficient in the Trust’s many IT systems, including iPM, Viper, Medicode, ICE, Clinical Correspondence, MediViewer/Evolve (for ERDMS) and the Clinical Income Dashboard system;

To review, on an on-going basis, clinical coding standards adopted within the Trust and to ensure by personal monitoring and peer review that these standards are being achieved by all coding staff;

To liaise with other disciplines as required regarding data clarification, in order to support data quality;

To have a comprehensive understanding of the Hospital Administrative systems to validate and correct errors, to ensure patient information is recorded accurately to support Information, Clinical Governance and Data Quality standards;

To investigate, and correct complex clinical coding data rejected or queried by recipient information systems and advise the Data Standards Manager of such problems that could impact on Trust Performance.

Working for our organisation

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A&E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics. You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology available.

Our values

We not only recruit based on qualifications and experience - we recruit individuals who demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. We achieve this by using values based recruitment. We are dedicated to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone, we are committed to promoting equality and diversity, and creating a culture that values differences.

Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering first 6 months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required. Please review all documents attached to ensure you familiarize yourself with all requirements of the job

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To abstract and analyse complex information in the patient’s case notes or other source of documents and translate the medical terminology into clinical codes to the provisions of ICD-10 and OPCS-4 and Clinical Coding Manual, and to input the coded information on to the organization’s clinical information system.

To maintain national coding standards and adhere to national and international conventions to assign uniform codes, which represent a complete picture of the patient’s hospital stay.

In accordance with expertise and knowledge gained through all training/educational processes, code to profession standards and conventions, and to ensure the high quality clinical coded data are provided with agreed time scales. This will require focus, motivational negotiation, and judgement.

To be able to work under pressure maintaining accuracy especially around monthly closedown and the refresh period.

To check the accuracy of admissions, transfer and discharge details in the patient’s medical record and to identify errors on the clinical information system.

To answer Clinical Commissioning Group challenges in code assignment in a timely manner.

Coding business analysts are required to create and maintain strong stakeholder engagement with Consultants and their clinical teams to ensure quality and depth of clinical coding is achieved. In order to achieve this they are required to communicate complex coding rules to various medical, clinical and administrative staff at all levels. Communication can be via telephone, in person, written, or by email.

The ability to challenge, question and clarify by reasonable argument the adherence to national standards relating to clinical coding.

To act as mentor to less experienced coding staff in understanding clinical coding rules. PbR and HRG (Healthcare Resource Groups), therefore having a sound knowledge of these processes themselves.

Failure to code accurately could lead to hundreds of thousands of pounds of lost income for the Trust.

• To manage and prioritise own workload for designated areas within the department.
• To be proficient in the Trust’s many IT systems, including iPM, ICE, Clinical Correspondence, Evolve (for ERDMS) and the Clinical Income Dashboard system.
• To access the Trust histopathological database (ICE) to extract the relevant information when assigning appropriate clinical codes.
• To liaise and attend meetings with clinicians and other medical staff on a regular basis to ensure that defined data quality standards are met, and maintain an ongoing expertise in order to discuss and validate complex clinical data and procedures with clinicians.
• Understand the impact of coded data on the business aspects of the Trust, and thus be able to provide the information and advice to all health professionals and administrative staff of the nature and complexity of clinical coding and its purposes in areas such as patient care, clinical governance, clinical audit, finance, budgeting, data quality and research.
• To maintain a portfolio of evidence and professional accreditation through attendance and participation in ongoing internal and external training programmes; continuously updating comprehensive knowledge and understanding of medical terminology, anatomy, and physiology and its applications to clinical coding.
• To work as part of the team to supervise and support the training of new and less experienced coders; providing cover for colleagues as and when required; assisting with regular internal audits of clinical coding and in the customisation of the coding process (systems and procedures) to further the efficiency within the Trust – with awareness of local agreed variations to coding rules on proposed changes, as well as report to the Clinical Coding Manager any contradictions to national guidelines.
• Maintain a flexible attitude and response to change in job content or organisation in order to maintain or improve the quality of service provided to patients, the Trust, and to other customers.
• To visit hospital wards and other departments as necessary to view source documents (case notes) required to complete coding; to collect source document sheets (e.g. discharge summaries); to take reasonable steps to chase up outstanding source data. Source documents will increasingly include electronic records.
• To participate in discussions within the coding business group to facilitate improvements surrounding coding problems and issues with data quality, as well as providing meaningful reports and presentations at monthly departmental and stakeholder meetings.
• To plan and prioritise own workload to meet departmental expectations and to advise the leadership team of any hindrance to the achievement of desired outcomes for the coding service.
• To assist in the continuing development and expansion of the Clinical Coding Department in order that high quality data can be collected and produced without delays.
• Quality and Assurance checks on junior and senior coders. Providing a detailed report based on 15 case studies a week highlighting areas of concern.
• Participating in monthly Income Recovery projects.
• Working alongside the Waiting List team to provide them with accurate codes for diagnosis and procedures.
• To assist with the development of departmental policies.
• To undertake all reasonable requests from the Head of Clinical Coding Services.
• To maintain the strictest confidentiality.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Nationally Accredited Clinical Coder Qualification (ACC)
• PRINCE2

Experience

• Substantial Clinical Coding expertise across all specialties and levels of complexity
• Experience in auditing and report writing and mentorship
• Analytical skills and project management experience

Knowledge

• Extensive knowledge of ICD-10 and OPCS-4 classifications including the correct application of complex rules and conventions
• Comprehensive knowledge of anatomy and physiology, medical terminology
• Conversant with Data Administration Systems, working knowledge of Data Quality and Information Governance requirements

Personal Skills

• Demonstrates a high level of interpersonal skills able to liaise with multi-disciplinary teams using various methods of communication
• Ability to resolve complicated coding queries raised by both clinical or non-clinical staff and implement agreed decisions
• Proficient in the use of Microsoft Office software such as Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint, Able to compose reports

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.