Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

Outpatient Clinic Scheduler, ALX

This job is now closed

Job summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen for motivated and enthusiastic individuals to support the Outpatient Department in the effective administration of our new outpatient clinic room booking system. OCTOPUS (Online Clinic Tool for Optimising our Physical Utilisation Space) is a new system which is being introduced across Worcestershire Acute Hospital NHS Trust to provide an overview of clinic room capacity, support the booking or cancelling of clinic rooms and report overall utilisation easily.

You will be required to navigate between OCTOPUS and our Patient Administrative System (PAS) to provide an oversight of available capacity, gaps in room usage and produce reports to effectively communicate with a Multi-disciplinary Team.

This role will require you to work closely with the Outpatient Department Sisters to ensure adequate staffing levels are also available to support the proposed clinics.

The hours required for this post will be between 10am and 3pm, Monday to Friday

Main duties of the job

To effectively liaise with the Outpatient Lead Nurse / Midwife to successfully manage the booking of Outpatients capacity.

To ensure the efficient and effective administration of OCTOPUS.

To have responsibility for ensuring the clinics taking place in the Outpatient departments are effectively scheduled and that OCTOPUS accurately reflects changes made in a timely manner.

To provide administrative support to the 5-3-2 process, ensuring timely distribution of actions and escalation of queries.

Ensure personal skills and knowledge relating to OCTOPUS and the 5-3-2 process meet guidelines and procedures.

To maintain OCTOPUS for the use of scheduling clinic lists and the provision of information.

To train new staff (internal and external to Outpatients) in the use of OCTOPUS system, with the support of the BI Team

About us

Our purpose is simple - Putting Patients First. We are looking for exceptional colleagues who can help us achieve this.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.

The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester

Our workforce is over 7,000 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care. You could be one of them.

We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us to achieve our Vision - working in partnership to provide the best healthcare for our communities, leading and supporting our teams to move 4ward. Our 4ward behaviours, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.

Our objectives are simple:

Best services for local people
Best experience of care and best outcomes for our patients
Best use of resources
Best people

Better never stops, and our Clinical Services Strategy provides a clear future vision for our Trust, our hospitals, our services and our role in the wider health and care system.

We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.

Date posted

17 September 2024

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 3

Salary

£24,071 to £25,674 a year

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Part-time, Job share, Flexible working

Reference number

C9365-24-1070

Job locations

The Alexandra Hospital

Woodrow Drive

Redditch

Worcestershire

B98 7UB

Worcestershire Royal Hospital

Charles Hastings Way

Worcester

WR5 1DD

Kidderminster General Hospital

Bewdley Road

Kidderminster

Worcestershire

DY11 6RJ

Job description

Job responsibilities

WORCESTERSHIRE ACUTE HOSPITALS NHS TRUST

JOB DESCRIPTION

Post Title:Outpatient Clinic Scheduler

Pay Band:3

Hours:Part Time

Contract:Permanent

Location / Department:Outpatients Department

Accountable to:Outpatients Directorate Support Manager

Reports to:Outpatients Sister

Key Working Relationships:

Internal:

Nursing Staff, Medical Secretaries, Central Booking Team, Operational Managers

Risk Assessment:

Due to the nature of the work, the post holder may be exposed to prolonged VDU work

Job Purpose:

To effectively liaise with the Outpatient Lead Nurse / Midwife to successfully manage the booking of Outpatients capacity.

To have responsibility for ensuring the clinics taking place in the outpatient departments are effectively scheduled and that OCTOPUS accurately reflects changes made in a timely manner according to the 5-3-2 scheduling model.

To ensure the efficient and effective administration of OCTOPUS

To provide administrative support to the 5-3-2 process, ensuring timely distribution of actions and escalation of queries

Ensure personal skills and knowledge relating to OCTOPUS and the 5-3-2 process meet guidelines and procedures.

To maintain OCTOPUS for the use of scheduling clinic lists and the provision of information

To train new staff (internal and external to Outpatients) in the use of OCTOPUS system, with the support of the BI Team

Key Duties:

To create reports via OCTOPUS to demonstrate Outpatient utilisation

Ensure adherence and accurate data input into OCTOPUS from all relevant staff members across the organisation.

To communicate effectively and professionally, giving reassurance, information or advice appropriately.

Ensure confidentiality and security of patient information and Trust business.

The post has no line management or budgetary responsibility.

To participate in regular room utilisation audit to be completed, areas of efficiency gains to be identified and plans of action summarised.

To support a fully utilised resource which impacts on the trusts ability to meet clinical priorities and achieve national waiting time targets, 2ww and 18ww

To navigate OCTOPUS to ensure the provision of accurate information concurrently to all of the stakeholders to aid decision making on capacity and demand

To liaise with clinicians / medical secretaries / Departmental Lead Nurse / Midwife / BI Team as required in order to clarify, agree any new parameters

Escalate to the senior clinical manager any concerns in planning parameters

To adhere to clear reporting mechanisms within the organisational structure

Liaise with Lead Nurse / Midwife to ensure staffing of additional clinic resource has been agreed and staffed as required

To work effectively as a team member and rotate across all duties required to support Outpatient Lead Nurse / Midwife to maximise clinic utilisation

Review CCD and update OCTOPUS accordingly to ensure that it is accurate in real time.

To utilise OCTOPUS to identify any extra capacity in the event of increased demand

To ensure that changes to the room schedule within OCTOPUS are swiftly reflected, for example:

o removing cancelled clinics to reflect cancelled clinics database

o disseminate audit data of room utilisation generated by OCTOPUS

o Via OCTOPUS, ensure that all stakeholders are informed of all changes to prevent miscommunication, rework and wasted resource

o Review and update data within OCTOPUS to ensure accurate reporting

o Provide training for staff in the use of OCTOPUS with the support of BI team

Via OCTOPUS, report any variances in expected Outpatient utilisations and performance issue to the designated manager

Support the roll out Trust wide of OCTOPUS

General Duties:

Throughout each phase maintain OCTOPUS to ensure a full audit trail is available

To deal with all queries in a pleasant, polite and efficient manner

Hold an interest with assisting with the management of OCTOPUS

To receive and action requests to cancel or reduce clinics within OCTOPUS

To ensure that the Department Lead Nurse / Midwife are informed well in advance of any outstanding requests that require their attention

Identify and inform the Departmental Lead Nurse / Midwife of problems with planning and procedural processes which may affect the smooth running of the department

Assist other members of the team as and when required.

Ensure that the team is able to cover all aspects of OCTOPUS in the absence of the post holder.

Other general administration duties undertaken relevant to post banding

Liaise with Booking Co-ordinators / secretaries in event of any queries