Radiology Clerical Officer

Job description

Job responsibilities

KEY DUTIES

To provide a comprehensive inpatient and outpatient service to patients. The post will also support through each of the clerical areas (excluding medical secretaries) within the Radiology department to enable cover in all respects of the service.

Waiting List / Inpatient Management

To be named contact point liaising with patients, relatives and/or carers as well as medical representatives, GPs, nursing staff, surgical team, and support services to ensure the appointment or admission is appropriately planned and managed. This can be face to face, over the telephone, in writing or electronic.

Accurate addition of patients to the waiting list ensuring any relevant notes recorded.

To provide advice to patients with matters relating to their appointment, ward admission (pre and post interventional guidance) and with regard to their position on the waiting list.

To slot fill multiple interventional procedure lists up to six weeks in advance, using clinical knowledge, medical terminology and information to meet the patients 18-week, diagnostic, cancer and/or 28-day rescheduling targets.

Ensure that with effective planning and organisation the Modality lists are utilised to their maximum potential which requires taking in to account specific patient needs, cancelling/rescheduling patients, replacing short notice cancellations, liaising with the Radiologists and Sonographers.

Identify, attempt to resolve, and pre-empt situations which may result in a breach of Radiology targets. Regularly analyse waiting list information to ensure compliance with national waiting time standards and escalate in a timely manner any requirements for additional capacity to ensure patients are treated within waiting time standards.

To work flexibly according to the needs of the service including covering for colleagues during periods of leave.

To book Rehydration patients Liaising with F Ward and 10B along with Bed Managers in the case of patients being put on stand-by or cancelled due to extraneous circumstances (i.e. bed unavailability).

Ensure that all patients are placed on CRIS (Radiology system) with information and records updated and maintained.

Efficiently manage CT colon referrals ensuring the correct delivery of preparation instructions for the exam and advise on the patients collecting of Gastrographin with pre appointment preparation instructions.

Outpatient / Partial Booking and Appointments Management

Responsible for appointing all patients from the PTLs and managing all Outpatient waiting lists to ensure accurate patient management, enabling the Trust to meet all of its performance targets.

Responsible for registration of referral letters, ensuring all referral letters or emails referrals are pended onto CRIS and directed to the appropriate Consultants and Clinicians.

Responsible for booking all new and follow up appointments in accordance with departmental procedures.

Liaise directly with patients in relation to booking and agreeing outpatient appointments within the appropriate timescales.

Working under the direction of the operational management teams, when dealing with requests for clinic cancellations; will be responsible for managing the cancellation/reduction of the clinics on CRIS and appointing the patients future appointments effectively and timely.

Responsible for all clinic template changes due to changes to Radiology Rotas.

Manage all appointments on the CRIS system ensuring all new appointments which are cancelled by the patient, are discussed with the patient and referrer and the appointment either remade or discharged within the appropriate timescales.

Management of the waiting list, ensuring the booking of appointment or escalating capacity issues to the appropriate operational team.

Responsible for managing partial booking lists and escalating any problems to the operational management teams/team leader.

Manage the referral streams via Right Fax and the shared Radiology email addresses during the shift.

Ensure answering, when possible, all incoming departmental telephone calls.

Ensure compliance with the two weeks wait rules for all suspected cancer referrals.

Personal Responsibilities

The post holder will be required to undertake mandatory training and is responsible for keeping this training up to date.

The post holder will have an appraisal of performance each year and will be responsible for agreeing a development plan in line with the Trusts PDR system in agreement with their manager or immediate supervisor. The development plan will be reviewed each year.

The Trust will provide assistance and agreed development to enable the post holder to achieve their objectives and standards in line with the development plan.

If the post holder feels he/she is not achieving their objective as agreed in the development plan they will bring it to the attention of their supervisor or manager at the earliest opportunity

Prioritise own workload on a daily basis while recognising when it is appropriate to escalate to manager.

To understand, contribute, implement, and apply knowledge of a relevant procedures and knowledge of how to resolve non-routine problems.

Assist in the training and induction of new staff and provide continuous support with regards to the co-ordination of their workload

Participate in the cover of work colleagues during their absences or at other times when required.

Required to contribute to service/department meetings giving progress reports on activity for each consultant and reduction of wait times.

Person Specification

Qualifications and education

Essential

• ECDL or equivalent administration experience
• NVQ 2 customer care or equivalent experience
• NVQ 3 business and admin

Desirable

• GCSE qualifications including Maths and English and/or equivalent qualifications and/or experience

Other

Essential

• To frequently sit and concentrate in a restricted position for a substantial proportion of the working time due to continuous exposure to VDU equipment, inputting information via a keyboard and using a telephone headset. Whilst using multiple computer systems at the same time.
• To multi-task between activities with frequent interruptions and a need to leave one task immediately. Reprioritise your workload to resolve any unexpected issues.
• Ability to concentrate when taking patient details over the phone throughout the day
• Requirement to deal with distressed patients on a daily basis
• Working in an office environment, using a VDU continuously throughout the day

Skills

Essential

• Excellent organisational skills
• Able to work under pressure & to strict deadlines
• Able to work effectively across departmental boundaries
• Demonstrate effective written, verbal and telephone communication skills with team/clients/relatives, using tact when required
• Demonstrate knowledge of dealing with public/conflict
• Demonstrate a caring manner with an understanding disposition
• High standard of accuracy
• Flexibility and able to adapt to change
• Excellent communication skills
• Ability to work as a flexible and effective team member

Experience

Essential

• Computer literate - experience of using Microsoft packages
• Working within a multidisciplinary team
• Experience of working in a customer service environment
• Excellent communication skills to overcome barriers of understanding
• Experience of collating data
• Working in a demanding environment
• Ability to organise self, working to deadlines and ensuring quality standards.

Desirable

• Use of patient administrative systems
• Experience of scheduling / coordination activities and/or resources.
• Waiting list management experience
• Knowledge of NHS standards and targets
• Communication with patients in a healthcare setting

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.

Employer details

Employer name

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Address

Southport Hospital

Town Lane

Southport

PR8 6PN

Employer's website

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