Emergency Department/Urgent Care

EAST LANCASHIRE HOSPITALS NHS TRUST; Lancashire; On-site; GBP 20,000 - 25,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare provider in Lancashire is seeking a motivated Receptionist to join their busy Emergency Department team. This role involves patient registration, liaising with clinical staff, and providing excellent customer service in a fast-paced environment. Successful candidates will have strong organizational skills and the ability to manage sensitive information. Flexible working hours including weekends are required.

Qualifications

• Experience in a busy reception area or healthcare setting preferred.
• Ability to handle sensitive and confidential information appropriately.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to handle difficult situations.

Responsibilities

• Provide accurate patient registration and record management.
• Navigate patients to the appropriate service quickly and efficiently.
• Handle patient enquiries with empathy and professionalism.

Skills

Customer service skills

Communication skills

Organizational skills

Attention to detail

Education

High school diploma or equivalent

Job description

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust has a busy thriving Emergency Department and 2 Urgent Care Centres and a Minor Injuries Unit. We are currently seeking a highly motivated individual to join the reception team.

The Emergency Department/Urgent Care has a busy 24‑hour reception area, dealing with all patients arriving at the hospital via GP surgeries, ambulance or self‑referral.

We currently have a vacancy for a receptionist for a 7‑day rota. The role will require working at Royal Blackburn Hospital, Burnley Urgent Care Centre and Accrington Minor Injuries Unit. The post holder will cover sickness/absence, rostered bank holidays and shift patterns will alter according to the needs of the service.

The post holder will work as a member of a team of receptionists providing a customer‑oriented reception service to the public and an administrative service to the clinical team in a busy fast‑paced environment. This includes accurately inputting and updating patient details onto hospital systems and checking national databases as part of the registration process. Liaising with patients, relatives, medical, nursing and other stakeholders professionally, courteously and efficiently is a key part of this role.

Other duties include navigating and streamlining patients presenting with illness or injury to the appropriate service, creating and maintaining highly sensitive and confidential UCC/ED/MIU Record Cards, retrieving cards and overseeing an efficient operation of the units filing system, ensuring accurate recording of patient demographics and personal details onto Cerner in accordance with departmental procedures and printing Record Cards to relevant stations for nursing staff, printing wristbands when booking patients, photocopying patient records for healthcare professionals as per child protection guidelines, scanning and emailing confidential patient records to various departments, implementing manual procedures if a system failure occurs and reporting faults to the IT Department, scheduling, preparing and notifying appointments for various clinics, canceling and rebooking appointments, liaising with triage nurse and nursing staff when appropriate, maintaining a manual register for patient tracking, checking the national CPIS system for children up to 18 years, and preparing ECGs for discharge to the Windip system.

Responsibilities

1. Navigate/streamline patients presenting with illness or injury to the appropriate service.
2. Create and maintain highly sensitive and confidential UCC/ED/MIU Record Cards for all patients, retrieve cards and oversee efficient operation of the units filing system.
3. Ensure accurate recording of patient demographics and personal details onto Cerner in accordance with Departmental Procedures and print Record Card to relevant station for Nursing Staff.
4. Print wristbands when booking patients into the department.
5. Photocopy patient records for other health care professionals as per Child Protection guidelines.
6. Scan/email confidential patient records to various departments.
7. Implement manual procedures if system failure occurs and report any faults to the IT Department.
8. Schedule, prepare and notify appointments for clinics, retrieve patient record cards for daily dressing clinic which involves close liaison with clinicians, implementing and updating Cerner documentation as appropriate. Register patients on the Cerner system when arriving for daily dressing clinic.
9. Schedule, prepare and notify appointments for Fracture Clinics, ENT Clinics, Eye Clinics, TIA Clinics, Urology Clinics and Acute Medicine Clinics, and prepare patient records for relevant clinics.
10. Cancel and rebook appointments liaising with patient.
11. Liaise with triage nurse/nursing staff when appropriate, informing them of any patient giving them cause for concern.
12. Maintain a good understanding of medical terminology.
13. Liaise with other health care professionals on site and other hospitals to arrange appropriate patient appointments.
14. Complete relevant paperwork, obtain x‑rays if necessary, and other appropriate documentation.
15. Record, collate and calculate daily, weekly, monthly statistics and fax/photocopy to relevant departments.
16. Copy and prepare patient records for solicitors, retrieve and photocopy relevant information and complete necessary paperwork. Enter patient episodes onto Datix system.
17. Responsible for the out‑of‑hours crash bleep to open the emergency doors upon instruction from switchboard.
18. Responsible for monitoring and admitting ambulance crew upon arrival with patients.
19. Maintain a manual register for patient tracking.
20. Check the national CPIS system (Child protection information sharing system) for every child up to the age of 18 that attends the department and inform nursing staff of any alerts.
21. Prep & scan every ECG upon discharge to the Windip system and retrieve notes when requested by clinicians.

Public Interaction & Communication

1. Deal with general enquiries in a sensitive, emphatic manner.
2. Communicate with the general public where barriers may exist: hard of hearing, elderly, people with learning disabilities and those whose first language is not English.
3. Communicate with tact and diplomacy in situations where people may be upset, angry and injured.
4. Diffuse conflict/confrontational/stressful situations and adhere to the Complaints Procedure.
5. Arrange for an interpreter/translator for patients who require communication assistance.
6. Direct the general public and patients to appropriate departments.
7. Deal with general telephone enquiries from staff, patients and the general public.
8. Supply general information to public/patients relating to various departments and agencies.
9. Operate the public address system on request.

Application and Recruitment Details

Salary is advertised on a full‑time basis. If the post is less than 37.5 hours per week, the salary is pro‑rata. For posts on Agenda for Change pay scales, new entrants to the NHS normally commence on the first pay point of the relevant band.

This vacancy may close before the closing date if the recruiting manager deems sufficient applications have been received. It is advised to complete your application early to avoid disappointment. Please check the email account from which you apply regularly as we will use this to contact you regarding your application.

Shortlisting is completed anonymously with candidates assessed against the essential criteria for the post. Only applicants who can clearly demonstrate how they meet our person specification criteria will be short‑listed.

Disclosure and Barring Scheme (DBS) – If the role is identified as a controlled or regulated activity, any offer of employment is provisional pending a satisfactory DBS check. The cost of an Enhanced Disclosure is £55.38 and for a Standard Disclosure is £27.38. This cost is not applicable for a Volunteer post.

Equal Opportunities

The Trust is an equal opportunities employer, committed to improving the working lives of our staff and operates a 'Zero Tolerance' policy to aggression, violence, bullying and harassment. In addition, our aim is to help protect children and vulnerable adults by providing a first‑class service to the recruitment of people into positions of trust.

We aim to employ a workforce that reflects the diverse communities we serve. We welcome applications from everyone irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, marital status, disability or social background. We especially welcome applications from members of our BAME communities as we have identified that ELHT has an under‑representation of BAME employees. Appointments are made on merit.