Therapy Specialist Assessor - Frailty Intervention Team

Job summary

An opportunity to become a Therapy Specialist Assessor within the Urgent Community Assessment Service based at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary has arisen within UHMBT. The role closely aligns to our Frailty Intervention Team and the key focus of role delivery is to support this pathway and model of care.

The role supports the urgent & emergency care pathways focusing on admission avoidance and early facilitated discharge by providing an advanced assessment and robust plan of care to manage acutely and chronically ill patients at home.

This role provides the opportunity for an autonomous and confident registered professional to really consolidate their learning and wealth of experience and knowledge and apply it to this role.

Signposting and onward referrals to existing Community Health Services such as Rapid Response and Virtual Wards in the management and coordination of this patient group is an essential part of the patient pathway.

Through collaborative ways of working, this role supports an integrated and seamless assessment where decision making to enable and support the management of patients in the Community to support admission avoidance or where appropriate support the criteria for an admission.

The post holder would work closely with colleagues from a wide range of disciplines (Secondary care, Primary Care, Community, Social Care) in a collaborative way for the best patient outcomes and experience.

Main duties of the job

• Create a clear and simple route for our colleagues within the trust (and other referrers) to access the most appropriate care for their patient that avoids a default route to hospital
• Support the care for Frail Elderly people in an environment that meets with their needs and theirwishes
• Aim to improve the quality outcomes for patients
• Encourage and improve the understanding of admission avoidance across the system
• Optimise patient flow, utilising digital platforms where possible
• To provide timely, autonomous and advanced clinical assessment for patients with urgent care needs where medical problems have impaired their ability to manage their usual activities of daily living - this may be due to an alteration in their physical or psychological well-being, or through carer crisis
• To work collaboratively with colleagues from Primary and Secondary Care working within the Urgent Care setting in order to promote positive outcomes for patients and contribute to local and national commissioning intentions
• To avoid unnecessary admission by autonomously assessing vulnerable patients at the acute hospital interface and signposting them into appropriate community based health and social care services

• In association with Secondary Care providers, identify and facilitate early discharge for patients whose continued care needs can be safely managed within available community resources

About us

We operate from three main hospitals-Furness General Hospital (FGH) in Barrow, the Royal Lancaster Infirmary (RLI), and Westmorland General Hospital (WGH) in Kendal, as well as a number of community healthcare premises including Millom Hospital and GP Practice, Queen Victoria Hospital in Morecambe, and Ulverston Community Health Centre.

FGH and the RLI have a range of General Hospital services, with full Emergency Departments, Critical/Coronary Care units and various Consultant-led services.

WGH provides a range of General Hospital services, together with an Urgent Treatment Centre, that can help with a range of non-life threatening conditions such as broken bones and minor illnesses.

All three main hospitals provide a range of planned care including outpatients, diagnostics, therapies, day case and inpatient surgery. In addition, a range of local outreach services and diagnostics are provided from community facilities across