Discharge Team Occupational Therapist

Job description

Job responsibilities

• To work alongside therapists on the ward and the MDT to plan discharges of patients with complex needs, prioritising efficiently to reduce long length of stay.
• To undertake discharge planning and coordination of complex patients.
• To carry out joint working with others from the Trust and across other agencies.
• Support ward based multi-disciplinary teams in making timely referrals and progressing discharge arrangements, addressing areas of concern and offering advice and practical support to enhance discharge plans.
• Maintain a close working relationship with social services and primary care trusts/teams to assist with MDT agreed discharge plans and enable timely transfer of care.
• Attend identified daily ward board reviews. Work effectively as part of the multi-professional, inter-disciplinary team.
• Lead on ensuring the timely completion of key documentation to support discharge planning; DST, Checklists and D2A Passports.
• Manage and co-ordinate the most complex group of patients and/or those likely to require significant co-ordination. Provide specialist assessment/advice on various discharge care pathways and process.
• Support the ward teams in developing processes to ensure all patients have a discharge plan developed by the ward within 24 hours of admission.
• Provide a key point of information, reducing the duplication of communication and documenting all actions clearly within the Discharge database.
• Attend daily flow meetings and advising site management on managing patient flow.
• Lead on liaising with families in complex discharge planning, ensure they are kept up to date and organising family meetings as appropriate.
• Attend TOCC meetings with local authority and CCG colleagues to ensure timely and effective discharge of patients and ensure timely escalation of potential issues.
• Ensure all patients have recorded Expected Discharge Dates.
• Monitor, record and accurately progress and all delays related to planning for discharge and escalate themed delays to Service Manager.
• Discharge management to be across the Divisions, taking new patients on a needs and workload related basis.
• Discuss with the Discharge Manager any plans in relation to service development, service improvement, and the resolution of any on-going problems. Using evidence base research or local audits to influence service improvement plans.
• Support the patient flow to the Discharge Lounge ensuring optimising the use of the facility through the day.
• Collect data pertaining to discharge and work towards supporting KPIs and improvements in quality of care and process efficiency.
• Develop policy and guidelines for own work area and ensure policies and guidance are cascaded to and applied across the work area.

Person Specification

Qualifications & Training

Essential

• Diploma/Degree in Occupational Therapy.
• HPC registration.

Experience

Essential

• At least three years post registration experience.
• Broad based Occupational Therapy experience.
• Good experience of complex patient management.
• Audit experience.
• Good knowledge of clinical governance issues.
• Experience of supervising staff and students and the teaching role.

Desirable

• Evidence of post grad study. Member of a special interest group.
• Use of Evidence Based Practise.
• Good experience of neuro specific treatment approaches.
• Management of abnormal tome, to include splinting.

Knowledge & Skills

Essential

• Good verbal communication skills in the English language.
• Ability to keep clear precise records which meet legal requirements in the English language.
• Clear concise report writing.
• Computer literacy. Able to plan, prioritise and manage a caseload

Desirable

• Car driver

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust

Address

Queen Elizabeth Hospital

Stadium Road

London

SE18 4QH

Employer's website

https://www.lewishamandgreenwich.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)