Job responsibilities
Job summary:
Receive, assist and direct patients in
accessing the appropriate service or healthcare professional in a courteous,
efficient and effective way.
Provide general administrative assistance to
the Practice team and project a positive and friendly image to patients and
other visitors, either in person or via the telephone at either of the two
sites.
Job
responsibilities:
The duties and responsibilities to be
undertaken by members of the Practice Reception Team may include any or all of the
following administrative duties:
- Opening / locking of Practice
premises and maintaining security in accordance with Practice protocols
- Ensuring a professional, effective
and efficient reception service is provided to patients and any other
visitors to the Practice
- Dealing with all general
enquiries efficiently and courteously including where necessary explaining
policy and procedures
- Explaining practice arrangements
and formal requirements to new patients and those seeking temporary cover
and ensure procedures are completed
- Processing telephone requests and
face to face requests for appointments, visits and telephone consultations
and ensuring callers are directed to the appropriate healthcare
professional following internal pathways
- Take messages, ensuring accuracy
of detail and prompt appropriate delivery to the correct member of staff
- Process internal electronic and
non-electronic tasks
- Enter requests for home visits
onto the computer system, ensuring careful recording of all relevant
details
- Checking the generic practice email
and dealing with requests / forwarding to the appropriate member of the
team in an accurate and prompt manner
- Printing blood test request forms
- Advising patients of relevant
charges for private (non-General Medical Services) services, accept
payment and issue receipts
- Enter/amend patient information
onto the computer as required
- Filing of patient notes as
required, ensuring strict alphabetical order is adhered to
- Ensure that all new patients are
registered onto the computer system promptly and accurately.
- Process samples received from
patients following internal protocol
- Liaising with external health
care providers as required / requested by members of the clinical team
- Assisting other members of the
Primary Health Care Team as required
- Covering for absent colleagues as
and when necessary
- Undertake any other additional
duties appropriate to the post as requested by the Management Team.
Duties may be varied from time to time under
the direction of the Head of Reception / Practice Managers, dependent on
current and evolving Practice workload and staffing levels.
Confidentiality
In the course of seeking treatment, patients
entrust us with, or allow us to gather, sensitive information in relation to
their health and other matters. They do so in confidence and have the right to
expect that staff will respect their privacy and act appropriately.
In the performance of the duties outlined in
this Job Description, the post-holder may have access to confidential
information relating to patients and their carers, Practice staff and other
healthcare workers. They may also have access to information relating to the
Practice as a business organisation. All such information from any source is to
be regarded as strictly confidential.
Information relating to patients, carers,
colleagues, other healthcare workers or the business of the Practice may only
be divulged to authorised persons in accordance with the Practice policies and
procedures relating to confidentiality and the protection of personal and
sensitive data.
Health
and Safety
The post-holder will assist in promoting and
maintaining their own and others health, safety and security as defined in the
Practice Health and Safety Policy, and the Practice Infection Control policy
and published procedures. This will include (but will not be limited to):
- Using personal security systems
within the workplace according to Practice guidelines
- Identifying the risks involved in
work activities and undertaking such activities in a way that manages
those risks
- Making effective use of training
to update knowledge and skills
- Using appropriate infection
control procedures, maintaining work areas in a tidy and safe way and free
from hazards
- Actively reporting of health and
safety hazards and infection hazards immediately when recognised
- Keeping own work areas and
general / patient areas generally clean, assisting in the maintenance of
general standards of cleanliness consistent with the scope of the job
holders role
- Undertaking periodic infection
control training (annually)
- Reporting potential risks
identified
Equality and Diversity:
The
post-holder will support the equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers
and colleagues, to include:
- Acting in a way
that recognizes the importance of peoples rights, interpreting them in a
way that is consistent with practice procedures and policies, and current
legislation
- Respecting the
privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients, carers and colleagues
- Behaving in a
manner which is welcoming to and of the individual, is non-judgmental and
respects their circumstances, feelings priorities and rights.
Personal/Professional Development:
The
post-holder will participate in any training programme implemented by the
practice as part of this employment, such training to include:
- Participation in
an annual individual performance review, including taking responsibility
for maintaining a record of own personal and/or professional development
- Taking
responsibility for own development, learning and performance and
demonstrating skills and activities to others who are undertaking similar
work
Quality:
The
post-holder will strive to maintain quality within the practice, and will:
- Alert other team
members to issues of quality and risk
- Assess own
performance and take accountability for own actions, either directly or
under supervision
- Contribute to
the effectiveness of the team by reflecting on own and team activities and
making suggestions on ways to improve and enhance the teams performance
- Work effectively
with individuals in other agencies to meet patients needs
- Effectively
manage own time, workload and resources
Communication:
The post-holder
should recognize the importance of effective communication within the team and
will strive to:
- Communicate
effectively with other team members
- Communicate
effectively with patients and carers
- Recognize
peoples needs for alternative methods of communication and respond
accordingly.
Contribution to the implementation of
services:
The
post-holder will:
- Apply practice
policies, standards and guidance
- Discuss with
other members of the team how the policies, standards and guidelines will
affect own work
- Participate in
audit where appropriate.