Senior Clinical Coding Officer

Job description

Job responsibilities

Abstract clinical information from the electronic patient record to translate into diagnostic (ICD10) and operative (OPCS4) codes in a timely and accurate manner, applying national and international classification rules and conventions;

Ensure coded data submitted is complete and accurate with full understanding of responsibility for generating the correct financial revenue for the Trust, and impact on Trusts mortality indicators;

Ensure monthly departmental deadlines are met, in line with nationally mandated flex and freeze dates, including forward planning of workloads for self and less experienced team members;

Liaise with hospital wards and other departments as necessary to chase up outstanding source data;

Contribute to improvements in accuracy and completeness of clinical coding for admitted care;

Work with clinical teams to ensure that palliative care coding is used appropriately and monitored;

Utilise the Trust chosen benchmarking system to identify coding quality issues and to monitor progress;

Attend meetings to discuss coding issues and data-quality as required;

Improve communication between clinicians and clinical coders regarding the coding process, by meeting and liaising with relevant clinicians on a regular basis agreeing and documenting outcomes;

Work with clinicians to ensure they understand the coding process and its limitations, discuss complex clinical information and convey coding standards and requirements in language understandable by clinicians;

Support the Clinical Coding Managers and Training and Audit Team to establish a process to allow clinicians to validate and sign-off their own data quality and resolve their queries;

Ensure coding queries are resolved, escalating to the line manager where necessary;

Support and act as mentor to less experienced coders, and assist with their development;

Participate in discussions relating to general coding problems and issues, for example, at departmental meetings;

Plan and prioritise own workload to meet performance and quality targets and, in a timely manner, advise the line manager of any hindrance to the achievement of these targets;

Assist in the continuing development and improvement of the Clinical Coding service in order that high quality-data can be collected and produced with minimum delay;

Advise the line manager on the standards of information provided for clinical coding, particularly if this becomes unacceptable, and highlight issues relating to administrative coding discrepancies such as clinician or method of admission etc. To evaluate and discuss with the manager any problems that arise, and assist in the implementation of any changes required;

Take responsibility for co-ordinating workload to ensure deadlines are met in the absence of Coding Manager/Deputy Coding Manager;

In periods of absence, cover the workload of other colleagues as required;

Keep abreast of all new national guidance in relation to clinical-coding practices and ensure own coding skills are kept up to date, widening and strengthening own skill-set across various clinical specialties;

Ensure all ICD/OPCS books are kept up to date with latest guidance;

Undertake appropriate training, as deemed necessary by the Training and Audit Manager and/or Clinical Coding Manager/Deputy Clinical Coding Manager;

Be aware of all statutory and local requirements regarding the disclosure/safe keeping of information e.g. the Data Protection Act, Caldicott etc.;

Provide motivational support to aid staff development;

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Accredited Clinical Coding (ACC) Qualification
• Educated to GCSE level or equivalent in Mathematics and English
• Certificate in Anatomy and Physiology
• Medical Terminology qualification
• Basic Computer Course eg. ECDL

Experience

Essential

• NHS England Standards Refresher Training up to Date
• Experience of coding wide range of specialty areas
• Experience of using encoders
• Previous experience of using Patient Administration Systems (PAS) or Electronic Patient Records (EPR)
• Experience of team working

Skills and Knowledge

Essential

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, written and verbal
• Ability to extract and analyse complex data from clinical records
• Ability to organise own workload and work to Trust deadlines
• Act as a mentor for less experienced coders
• Understanding of Data Security and Caldicott Principles

Aptitudes

Essential

• Flexible approach to work and ability to prioritise workload
• Friendly, approachable, able to interact with colleagues
• Professional appearance
• Awareness of confidentiality in the workplace
• Able to attend occasional training or meetings on site or at alternative venues

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Employer details

Employer name

North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust

Address

University Hospital of North Tees

Hardwick Road

Stockton-on-Tees

TS19 8PE

Employer's website

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