Booking Clerk and Receptionist

Do you enjoy providing excellent customer care, working in a busy, quality-driven environment that thrives on teamwork, building relationships and attention to detail?

If you are looking for a new challenge that brings a wealth of opportunities for career development, this could be the role for you.

We are looking for a motivated Receptionist / Booking Clerk to join our administration team in the Oncology and Palliative Care service at The Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust.

The post holder will work flexibly across sites (Pinderfields and Dewsbury Hospitals) to provide a booking service and receptionist duties, process clinic changes, administrative booking, coding and referrals as well as undertaking a range of general admin tasks.

We aim to maintain a positive supportive culture to ensure the best possible working environment. The Trust Values and Behaviours are integral to everything we do.

Main duties of the job

The booking role includes using multiple IT systems to ensure oncology patients are booked and checked in to clinics accordingly, as well as using Patient Tracking Lists in a Spreadsheet to ensure patients are booked within the required timescales.

The role also requires excellent customer service, as the role includes both face to face receptionist duties and contacting patients via telephone to arrange appointments.

Building relationships with clinical and operational colleagues is fundamental to the role. Timely access to our outpatient clinics and day case treatments is essential to our patients.

You will be required to work within a framework of standard operating procedures.

The role will require you to be autonomous in managing your own time. Flexibility and being able to travel between sites are therefore essential to this role.

The working hours for this role are hours per week, Monday to Friday. The booking service operates between - 5pm.

We plan to interview for this role on Friday 4 October 2024., Booking

• Liaise as appropriate with clinicians and clinical administration teams to ensure correct recording of patient pathways.


• Provide an outpatient and day case booking service using PTLs and agreed processes to ensure effective use of clinic and day unit capacity in accordance with national local and clinically instructed waiting times.


• Using Patient Target Lists, proactively monitor waiting lists to ensure patients are appointed in line with clinical instruction, national and local waiting times, escalating where capacity does not allow.


• Allow early opportunity to escalate capacity issues in accordance with SOP.


• Ensure appropriate administrative actions for activity outcomes in line with clinical instructions and SOPs. This includes accurate recording of Referral to Treatment codes, clinical activity, treatment information, and system discharges.


• Provide a professional, sensitive, and courteous central call service for appointment and pathway enquiries, acting in line with policy and associated SOPs.


• Input patient activity on Patient Administration System, including booking, amending, and cancelling appointments, admitting DNAs, and discharging day cases, recording ward attenders to Acute Oncology, and ensuring that the PAS is kept updated.


• Book, cancel, and re-arrange scheduled appointments in line with clinical instructions and SOPs, liaising with other members of clinical administration teams such as clinical areas and the booking team where appropriate.


• To have a clear understanding of patient pathways and episodes, ensuring patients are supported safely through their pathway, be this routine, cancer, or acute.


• Using digital systems to collate clinic capacity schedules on a daily basis, problem-solving slot issues and escalating risks where necessary.


• To support the Patient Access Team Leader in collating information for the weekly service Access and Performance meetings.


• The post-holder will be responsible for proactively managing internal appointment requests via the Order Communication System, rolling on the referrals to the appropriate Clinician, and understanding the requirements stated on the form by utilising the patient episode screen.


• The post-holder will be responsible for managing specialty email in-boxes for their service, which regularly contain clinical escalation and prioritisation of patient appointments, ensuring that all emails are dealt with and actioned in a timely and efficient manner to maintain service delivery and patient safety.


• Change or cancel appointments at the request of the patient, appropriate clinician, or manager, highlighting where pathway timeframes may be compromised.


• Arrange patient transport and interpreters for outpatient appointments where appropriate.


• Process all referrals, consent forms, and treatment plans received in accordance with Trust and departmental referral management guidelines and SOPs.


• Respond to appointment queries in a timely manner in line with locally agreed methods.


• Answer telephone queries, listen and respond to voicemails, take messages, direct where appropriate. Appropriate and timely management of the service-specific shared email inbox.


• Act as the communication hub for all appointment and treatment queries, ensuring a high-quality and professional service.


Reception

• To provide a warm and welcoming Reception Service, meeting and greeting all patients and visitors to the department, providing advice and guidance as required.


• Ensure appropriate administrative actions for clinic outcomes in line with clinical instructions and SOPs. This includes the accurate recording of Referral to Treatment codes.


• Input patient activity on Patient Administration System, including booking, amending, and cancelling appointments, admitting and discharging day cases, and ensuring that the PAS is kept updated.


• Complete records of nursing activity for coding purposes. Schedule appointments in line with clinical instruction and SOPs, liaising with other members of clinical administration teams where appropriate.


• Communicate with patients, visitors, and carers regarding appointments and waiting times and effectively deal with enquiries where there may be barriers to understanding.


• Assist with the preparation of patient records for outpatients and day cases in a timely manner as and when required.


• Arrange patient transport and interpreters for outpatient appointments where appropriate.


• Change or cancel appointments at the request of the patient, appropriate clinician, or manager, highlighting where pathway timeframes may be compromised.


• Answer telephone queries, listen and respond to voicemails, take messages, direct where appropriate, provide assistance, directing visitors to the appropriate locations.


• Appropriate and timely management of the service-specific shared email inbox.


• Liaising with clinical and non-clinical admin teams, other hospital departments, and other Trusts, providing accurate and precise information, and ensuring the accuracy of data is maintained on all relevant computer systems such as Pharmacy, Blood Bank, Radiology.


• Preparation of patient information booklets. Maintaining ward display of patient and visitor information leaflets and re-ordering as necessary.


Clinical Admin Generic Duties and Responsibilities

• Adhere to local, national, and clinically indicated maximum timeframes, including Referral to Treatment, Cancer, and diagnostics, escalating where capacity does not allow or there are conflicting targets.


• Application of relevant policies and SOPs to ensure consistent services are delivered.


• Attend meetings for service development initiatives as required.


• Follow internal escalation processes.


• Promote effective customer-focused communication with patients and service users.


• To assist with the confidential management of all types of patient records and ensure that all documentation is accurately complete.


• Attend and complete all mandatory training in accordance with Trust Policy and participate in the Trusts Annual Appraisal.


• Use of trust-developed patient target lists and or other information reports for consistent facilitation of patient pathway.


• Liaise with any relevant member of the Trust or external to the Trust as appropriate to your role to ensure efficient and timely flow of patient pathway in line with information governance policy.


• Contribution to achievement of local and national Key Performance Indicators relevant to the role.


• Liaise as appropriate to ensure correct system recording of patient pathway and demographic details, including the recording of ethnicity, to prevent data quality issues.


• Be responsible for the ordering and monitoring of clerical stores and stock rotation.


• To report maintenance and domestic repairs to appropriate wards and departments on instruction from the departmental manager.


Be aware of and adhere to the Trusts Policies, Procedures, and Disciplinary rules and promote awareness amongst peers.

• To participate in training and induction of new staff.


• Be an active team member and undertake any other duties that may be reasonably requested to facilitate the smooth running of the Trust, always ensuring confidentiality, maintaining good relationships with patients and other members of staff.


• Receive, sort, and distribute goods and post delivered to the ward or department.


• Promote data quality by adhering to best practices and operating standards.


• Provide cover as necessary at the request of the Line Manager across the core clinical administration functions commensurate with the level of the band three role.


• Learn booking processes for Clinical and Medical Oncology and Specialist Palliative Care.
  
  Good general education to include CSE or GCSE in English Language and Maths (A-C or 4-9 grade) or equivalent / experience


• IT skills qualifications; CLAIT or ECDL computer course


• NVQ 3 in Business Administration or equivalent experience


Desirable

NVQ 3 in Customer Service VQ Level 2 qualification in related subject

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working with multiple computer software programmes such as Microsoft Office and Customer Relationship Management systems


• Working within a multidisciplinary team


• Experience of working in a customer service environment


• Excellent communication skills to overcome barriers of understanding


• Working in a demanding and fast paced environment and ability to cope with regular interruptions and changes to work priorities


• Experience of collating data


• Ability to organise self, working to deadlines and ensuring quality standards.


• Experience of scheduling / coordination activities and / or resources.


Desirable

• Knowledge of NHS standards and targets


• Communication with patients in a healthcare setting


Skills and Abilities

Essential

• Computer literate - experience of using all Microsoft packages


• Excellent organisational skills


• Able to work under pressure and to strict deadlines


• Able to work effectively across departmental boundaries


• Demonstrate effective written verbal and telephone communication skills with team, clients, relatives, using sensitivity and diplomacy when required


• Demonstrate knowledge of dealing with public / conflict


• Demonstrate a caring manner with an understanding disposition


• High standard accuracy


• Flexibility and able to adapt to change


• Frequent use of IT and telephones
  
  We provide care and support to over a million people inWakefield and Kirklees in their homes, community settings and across ourthree hospital sites at Pontefract, Dewsbury and Pinderfields (Wakefield).


Always striving for excellence, we are at the forefront ofinnovation and research, and we invest in teaching and the development of ourworkforce.

We live by our values of caring, improving, being respectfuland maintaining high standards. We listen and learn because we aim to make MidYorkshire the best place to work and receive care.

We value diversity and welcome talent and enthusiasmirrespective of age, disability, neurodivergence, sex, gender identity andgender expression, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation,or other personal circumstances including providing unpaid carers support tosomeone with a health and care need.

As ethnic minority groups, members of theLGBTQ+ community, and people with a disability / neurodivergence are currentlyunder-represented across the organisation, we encourage applications frommembers of these groups.

We have policies and procedures to ensure allapplicants are treated fairly and consistently.

We are proud of our staff networks - who offer valuableguidance and feedback from those with lived experience.

We have a clear vision and you could be part of this! Ifyou share our values and you want to make a difference to the lives of ourpatients and their families and carers, we would love to hear from you.