Qualified Clinical Coder

Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust; Harlow; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in Harlow seeks a Senior Clinical Coder to ensure high-quality coding services. The role involves analyzing patient data, supporting the coding team, and adhering to national standards. The ideal candidate will have strong analytical skills and experience in clinical coding, contributing to patient care excellence.

Qualifications

• Expert senior Clinical Coder role with complex coding queries.
• Responsible for ensuring coding deadlines and adherence to standards.

Responsibilities

• Analyze and extract diagnostic information from patient case notes.
• Negotiate coding guidance with clinicians and support coding team.

Skills

Clinical Coding

Communication

Analytical Skills

Job description

To provide an efficient and high-quality clinical coding service supporting the Trust's business needs, including Clinical Governance, Information Governance, and finance, by ensuring accurate translation and input of medical terminology.

To act as an expert senior Clinical Coder, guided by occupational policies, assisting coders with complex coding queries, and providing expert advice to other departments on coding issues.

To support the leadership of the coding team assigned to a specific area of Clinical work. You will be responsible for ensuring coding deadlines are met and for working with senior staff to ensure adherence to national and local coding standards, policies, and guidelines.

To analyze and extract diagnostic and procedural information from patient case notes and information systems, assigning the appropriate code in accordance with local and national coding practices accurately and promptly.

• Identify uncoded activity by reviewing daily discharge reports and uncoded reports.
• Use clinical documentation on AlexHealth to identify, analyze, extract, and interpret complex information related to the patient's stay.
• Adhere to national standards and local coding policies, exercising judgment and initiative in selecting the appropriate clinical codes to ensure accurate reflection of the patient episode.
• Use discretion and judgment to analyze complex information using coding rules and conventions, translating this into appropriate codes as per national guidance (OPCS 4.10 Office ICD-10) or future classifications.
• Routinely code a minimum of 40 episodes per day on average.
• Negotiate with clinicians over interpretation of coding guidance, escalating to the Assistant Coding Manager as appropriate.
• Handle coding queries as necessary throughout the day and communicate complex coding rules to medical, clinical, and administrative staff.
• Support the Clinical Coding Specialist Health Group Lead in motivating all staff in the Coding Team through discussion and analysis to ensure high-quality clinical documentation and coding.
• Participate in discussions of coding problems and issues with other clinical coders, such as at monthly departmental meetings.

Our Organisation

The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) provides a full range of general acute, outpatient, and diagnostic services at The Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, the Herts and Essex Hospital in Bishop’s Stortford, and St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping.

We employ 3,500 staff serving a local population of around 350,000 people in west Essex and east Hertfordshire, centered on the M11 corridor and the towns of Harlow, Bishop’s Stortford, and Epping. Our extended catchment area includes up to 500,000 residents in Hoddesdon, Cheshunt, and Broxbourne in Hertfordshire.

Our Values

The Princess Alexandra Promise to Our Patients, identified by our 3 values, aims to improve patient experiences:

• Patient at heart – Always prioritizing the patient and their wellbeing.
• Everyday excellence – Celebrating successes, being honest about mistakes, and learning from them.
• Creative collaboration – Recognizing that strength comes from diversity, combining skills and talents to improve care.

The Trust invests in its staff and rewards high standards of care, expecting staff to uphold these values to the highest level.

For further details or informal visits, contact:

Name: Wendy Dodman-Brown
Job title: Head of Clinical Coding
Email: [e-mail]