Rescheduling/Follow-up Co-Ordinator

Job overview

Rescheduling/Follow up Coordinator - Outpatients Department

Based: University Hospital Lewisham

Fixed Term roles available

Outpatients Department are looking for a highly motivated, organised, enthusiastic team orientated individual to join our Rescheduling team at University  Hospital Lewisham.

You will be a key member of the Rescheduling team, working closely with Service Managers, Assistant Service Managers, Medical Secretaries and Consultants to ensure clinics are correctly created, closed and patient’s appointments rescheduled in line with Service requests.

It is essential that you are organised, ability to prioritise own workload and work well under pressure. You will need to have evidence in using the trusts Cerner system, experience of using iCare will be needed and knowledge of 18 week RTT rules. Applicants must have a keen eye to detail and a willingness to learn.

Main duties of the job

• To undertake a lead role in dealing with all aspects of rescheduling and profiling on the Trust PAS system.
• To ensure all government guidelines with regard to the Trust’s elective waiting times are adhered to at all times.
• To highlight to service management teams potential breaches when rescheduling patient appointments.
• To support the delivery of a cost effective and patient focused rescheduling and follow up appointment booking service in line with the Trust’s strategic direction and service plan.
• To book follow up appointments from outpatient waiting lists as directed for all services.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Main Purpose of Post

The post holder will be part of the rescheduling team, who provide a first class service to support the successful running of Outpatient and Elective Day Case activities across the Trust. They will work within a team to support the services in the building of clinics, and rescheduling patients to the ever-changing level of activity. This involves a comprehensive knowledge of the different departments within the Trust and who is responsible for the respective areas.

As such the post holder will be part of a team that incorporates building and amendment of clinic profiles. This further supports the rescheduling and bringing forward of outpatient appointments on the hospital PAS and the e-Referrals systems across Lewisham and Greenwich Trust, in line with Referral To Treatment guidelines.

This role supports the delivery of a cost effective and patient focussed rescheduling and follow up appointment booking service in line with the Trust’s strategic direction and service plan.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• To undertake a lead role in dealing with all aspects of rescheduling and clinic profiling on the Trust PAS system.

• To ensure all government guidelines with regards to the Trust’s elective waiting times are adhered to at all times.

• To highlight to service management teams potential breaches when rescheduling patient appointments.

• To book follow up appointments from outpatient waiting lists as directed for all services.

• To be responsible for checking information systems used throughout the Trust to support the planning, development, provision and review of Outpatient booking and appointment services.

• To support initiatives – particularly electronic booking and information systems – ensuring knowledge of the duties required for the post.

• To be an experienced Trust PAS user, to troubleshoot and investigate in depth any problems around clinic set up and rescheduling as well as data inaccuracies by referring to information systems and patient records.

• Implement and manage firebreak clinics to reduce the need to reschedule patients more than once.

• To have an excellent understanding of individual consultants, specialties and clinical pathways.

• To be fully proficient on all patient information systems throughout the Trust in order to extract information and monitor a patient’s pathway.

• Liaise with stakeholders and departments in the course of investigations into potential breaches in waiting times, and identify and raise issues where appropriate

• To bring forward and change appointments as required preventing breaches in the 18 week pathway.

• To manage all appointments when rescheduling, annotating comments on the Trust PAS systems.

• To demonstrate good practice when offering appointments by ensuring reasonable notice is given to patients and that all transactions are recorded on the Trust PAS systems as required.

• To keep up to date records of all work undertaken to provide audit trails of decisions and changes to appointments.

• To generate appointment notification letters via the Trust PAS system when rescheduling and booking appointments.

• To deal with all telephone calls in a courteous, efficient and tactful manner referring to appropriate departments as necessary.

• To monitor and ensure telephone contact is made with all patients when booking short-notice appointments on the Trust PAS system.

• To set up and amend clinics on the Trust PAS system ensuring that all profiles are created according to the service management/clinician instructions.

• To book follow up appointments from the Trust PAS system waiting list in accordance with service management and clinician instruction and send appropriate letters to patients.

• To book interpreter services as required and transfer the information onto the Trust PAS systems.

• To update patient details on the Trust PAS system when required.

• To support all services and cross cover the other members of the team during periods of annual leave or absence.

• Prioritise the daily workload to ensure that any requests received and all urgent matters are dealt with as soon as practicable and ensure a high level of support is available.

• To ensure all government guidelines with regard to the Trust’s elective waiting times are adhered to at all times.

• To highlight to service management teams potential breaches when rescheduling patient appointments.

• To manage incoming communications to the rescheduling team

• To manage all clinic and room requests via the Room Management software

• To act in such a manner as to maintain and protect patient confidentiality at all times.

• To actively participate in the orientation and training of new and temporary staff as required.

• Attend any training courses required to implement changes or improve standards within the department.

Confidentiality

The post holder must ensure that personal information for patients, and all other individuals attending the Trust is accurate and up to date, kept secure and confidential at all times in compliance with the Data Protection Act 1988, the Caldicott principles and the common law duty of confidentiality.  The post holder must follow the record keeping guidelines established by the Trust to ensure compliance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Data Protection Act

All staff who contribute to patients’ care records are expected to be familiar with, and adhere to, the Trust’s Standards of Records Keeping Policy.  Staff should be aware that patients’ care records throughout the Trust will be subject to regular audit.

All staff who have access to patients’ care records have a responsibility to ensure that these are maintained efficiently and that confidentiality is protected in line with the Trust’s Code of Confidentiality Policy.

All staff have an obligation to ensure that care records are maintained efficiently and that confidentiality is protected.  Staff are also subject to this obligation both on an implied basis and also on the basis that, on accepting their job description, they agree to maintain both patient/client and staff confidentiality.

In addition, all health professionals are advised to compile records on the assumption that they are accessible to patients in line with the Data Protection Act.