Job responsibilities
1. Job Details
Job
Title: Senior
Medical Secretary / PA
Reports
to: Patient Service
Coordinator
Accountable
to: Business Manager
Band: 4
Directorate: Childrens
Location: Leeds General Infirmary
2. Job Purpose
To
provide a consistent and high-quality Personal Assistant (PA) service to a
group of Clinicians and their teams while supervising the provision of a
comprehensive medical secretarial service by a group of staff. The Senior
Medical Secretary will have oversight of the referral to treatment time
pathway for their consultants patients ensuring they are managed efficiently
and effectively through their agreed clinical pathways and where it is not
possible that the correct escalation procedures are followed.
3. Organisation chart
Business
Manager
Patient
Services Coordinator
Senior
Secretary Assistant
PSC
Team
Medical Secretaries/Team Clerical Support
4. Knowledge, Skills and Experience
Required
Qualifications
Audio typing/Word Processing Skills
(RSA III) or equivalent experience (desirable)
GCSE Grade C or above (or
equivalent e.g. AMSPAR Level 2 qualification) English and Maths (essential)
ECDL (desirable)
Experience
At least two years experience in a
healthcare environment in a PA-based role or the equivalent experience as a
Team Medical Secretary
Co-ordinating and managing a team
workload; delegating and prioritising tasks as required to allow for the
delivery of a high-quality service for patients while at times adhering to
tight deadlines. Where not readily available the post holder will be expected
to acquire the relevant skills associated with this duty within six months of
commencing their post. (essential)
Using Trust systems to track and
update patient journeys e.g. PAS/PPM/results and liaising with a wide range
of hospital or primary care staff to ensure appropriate communication has
taken place keeping all relevant groups informed of the patients journey.
(desirable)
The ability to understand and use
simple Trust reports e.g. 18-week or other waiting time tracking (PTL)
reports and to interpret data to allow clinical and national priorities to be
met. (desirable)
An understanding of the principles
of data quality to ensure that work generated within the Department is of a
high standard, accurate and timely. (essential)
Using a variety of Microsoft office
packages including word, excel and PowerPoint and e-mail (essential)
Using patient information systems
such as PAS (essential) and other relevant systems such as PPM (desirable) or
in specific cases e.g. Oncology & Physics Mosaic (desirable).
Managing multiple and complex diary
schedules to provide a service that meets demand (essential)
Organising and administrating
meetings including the ability to take minutes (essential)
Organising travel (desirable)
Skills
& Knowledge
The
candidate must demonstrate excellence and ability within the following areas:
Interpersonal and communication
skills (essential)
Organisational skills and time
management (essential)
Patient focus applied to all areas
of work (essential)
Supervisory skills to support and
manage the workload of a small group of staff. Where not readily available
the post holder will be expected to acquire the relevant skills associated
with this duty within six months of commencing their post. (essential)
The ability to work as part of a
team (essential)
Ability to deal with
patients/customers either face to face, or over the phone in an appropriate
and supportive manner (essential).
Ability to communicate sensitively
with a wide range of people including patients, using tact and diplomacy
(essential)
Knowledge and application of the
Data Protection Act in relation to patient confidentiality and the
appropriate care of patient information (essential).
A detailed understanding of a wide
range of policies to include the Trusts complaints procedure, National
Waiting Time Standards and associated processes e.g. 5-day turnaround of
clinical correspondence, 18 week wait for patients (essential).
The ability to use different Trust
IT systems (PAS, PPM, results server)
to make an assessment of where a patient is in their journey taking
corrective measures where necessary to ensure the patients next steps are
appropriately booked (essential).
An understanding of medical careers
and rotation to support the clinical team in meeting their teaching and
training requirements for junior medical staff where required (desirable).
5. Core Values
This
is a senior secretarial role and as such the individual will be expected to
work independently as well as part of a team.
The individual should be patient focused, professional and flexible in
their approach to work.
6. Core Knowledge and Understanding
See
Knowledge/Skills and Experience above.
Principal
duties and areas of responsibility
The
post-holder will:
a. Provide a wide-ranging PA service to
a group of clinicians (the number of which will be determined by Departmental
requirements and the job plan commitments of the clinical team concerned).
b. For the group of consultants
responsible for, manage the flow of patients ensuring tests and/or
appointments are booked within the necessary timescales escalating potential
for delays to the PSC/Business Manager to ensure that prompt action is taken
at all times in order to support strategic capacity/demand planning for the
Organisation.
c. At the request of the PSC and where
relevant, undertake investigation for informal PALS complaints.
d. Co-ordinate and transcribe/process
responses to formal patient complaints together with the clinician ensuring
that investigation outcomes are generated within the timeframe agreed with
the patient.
e. Coordinate and supervise the
day-to-day activities and workload of a small team of medical secretaries
(and work closely with relevant PSC/Assistant PSCs as appropriate) and any
supporting clerical staff.
f. Support the Team Medical Secretaries
to ensure that service provision meets relevant quality standards.
g. Be the departmental super-user/system
administrator for speech recognition and digital dictation
h. Take a lead in developing new systems
and processes to support on-going service delivery and the maintenance of a
high quality service for the patients of Leeds and beyond.
Senior
Medical Secretary role
In managing diaries for the
clinical team the post holder will be expected to co-ordinate the
cancellation or alternative provision of outpatient activity ensuring the
communication meets Trust targets where appropriate and escalating to the
PSC/Business Manager in cases where the cancellation of clinical activity may
prevent national targets from being met.
Supervise a small team of medical
secretaries, and related clerical support staff, including the allocation of
work and the organisation of daily departmental cover.
Managing and prioritising
departmental workload on a day-to-day basis.
On a regular basis to review
relevant waiting time reports (e.g.18-week reports) for the Consultants
responsible for ensuring in all cases that the next steps for the patient are
identified and booked. Where this is not possible to liaise with the Business
Manager/PSC for appropriate action to be undertaken.
To support the clinical teams in
the delivery of excellent patient care by actively working with colleagues
and other Departments to ensure that all patients registered within the
service are proactively supported through their patient journey (This would
include but is not limited to: liaising with the relevant MDT teams about
fast track patients and escalating clinically urgent patients to the relevant
staff groups for action where required).
Ensuring all phone calls are
answered within the department during core office hours
Opening and dealing with departmental
post and allocating resulting work to appropriate staff.
Monitoring turnaround times for
clinical correspondence and taking corrective action as required, in
conjunction with the assistant PSC/PSC, in order to meet 5-day turnaround
standard.
Participate in yearly appraisals
for the team medical secretaries together with the PSC/Business Manager to
support on-going staff development
Providing PSC/Business Manager and
Consultant staff with relevant information relating to administrative service.
Take minutes at secretarial staff
meetings and attending other administrative meetings as required.
Undertake duties required as the
administrator and super user for the digital dictation/speech recognition
system including identifying new workflows, updating workflows as required,
and providing general advice on the system to team secretaries.
Responsible for ensuring office
equipment is in working order and office supplies are maintained and
replenished.
PA/Administrative
Support (non clinical) to Consultant/Clinical Team
Provide a comprehensive PA service
to the Clinical Director/Lead Clinician and other medical colleagues.
Provide administrative support to
Clinical Nurse Specialists where appropriate.
Support clinicians with their teaching
and research portfolios by organising regular meetings with trainees,
supporting in the writing of research materials and organising meetings and
conferences as and when required. This includes but isnt limited to
providing support to academic, educational, research and supervisory roles.
Taking phone calls and covering
departmental phones when required.
Deal directly with patient
enquiries on behalf of consultant/clinical team.
Co-ordination of annual leave for
consultants, liaising with the Business Manager for approval and then
completing the necessary documentation to organise the cancellation of
outpatient activity as required.
