Job responsibilities
Booking appointments and recalls in accordance with practice policy
Ensuring total familiarity with all appointments systems in use, including regular and ad-hoc variations
Process personal, telephone and e-requests for appointments
Signposting patients effectively to the correct service
Ensuring that when a patient attends for an appointment, they are clearly and correctly routed to the appropriate waiting area.
Ensuring that patients without appointments but who need urgent consultation are seen in a logical and non-disruptive manner
Responding to all queries and requests for assistance from patients and other visitors
Ensuring all visitors attending the surgery are signed in according to practice protocol and the staff member informed
Explaining practice arrangements and formal requirements to new patients and those seeking temporary cover. Ensure procedures are completed.
Data entry of new and temporary registrations and relevant patient information as required
Entering requests for home visits onto computer including all relevant information and where necessary referring immediately to the doctor, and forwarded onto PCN ECP as appropriate.
Ensuring that any telephoned lab results are acted on according to the practice protocol.
Answer incoming phone calls, transferring calls or dealing with the callers request appropriately
Initiating contact with and responding to, requests from patients, team members and external agencies
Ensuring all matters arising during the period of duty in reception, that cannot reasonably be dealt with during the duty period, are passed to the incoming Care Navigator in a clear and concise manner.
Ensuring that paper medical records are available to the doctors upon request
Ensuring that correspondence, reports etc are filed correctly
Ensuring that all patient details are kept up to date on the computer and paper records.
Ensuring that consulting rooms are checked at the end of each session and left secure
Receive and make telephone calls as required. Divert calls and take messages as appropriate
Ensuring that the telephone system is operational at the beginning of each day
Opening up the premises at the start of each day and make all necessary preparation to receive patients
Closing the premises at the end of each day.
Informing the Care Navigator Team Leader of problem areas such as damage, unserviceable equipment, complaints, low supply of forms and any other subjects that need attention as they develop, before they become a major problem.
Ensuring that there are adequate supplies of all the necessary forms required in reception.
Ensuring that the waiting room is kept tidy and has all the appropriate information for patients, linking in to specific health promotion activities, (e.g. stop smoking day etc). informing the Lead Nurse, as required.
Note tidying adhering to our protocol, ensuring that all notes are tidied within 4 weeks of arriving.
To process all referral letters and associated correspondence for all clinicians, ensuring that urgent letters are dealt with in order of priority and in accordance with the practice referral procedure. To further ensure that all letters are spell checked and then re-read for accuracy of content and grammar.
To process 2 week wait referrals the same day.
Run the 2 week wait search on a daily basis to ensure no 2 week wait referrals have been missed.
Check C-the Signs for referrals that have not been processed as well as mark those referrals that have been actioned.
- To process referrals through the electronic referral system (ERS) and deal with any associated patient queries.
- Manage the ERS workflow ensuring tasks are actioned and dealt with in a timely manner.
- To ensure that all electronic referral forms are kept up to date and new ones imported as appropriate, ensuring they are passed to the Management Team for inclusion in the Staff Weekly Bulletin
- To prepare and ensure that outgoing post is posted at the end of each working day.
- To provide support to the clinicians with referrals and dealing with any problems that may arise
Understanding, acceptance and adherence to the need for strict confidentiality
Having the ability to use own judgement and resourcefulness, common sense and local knowledge to respond to patient enquiries and requests.
Support all clinical staff with general tasks as requested
Direct requests for information i.e. Insurance/solicitors letters and DVLA forms to the administrative team
Advising patients of relevant charges for private services, accept payment and issue receipts for same
Photocopy documentation as required
Input data into the patients healthcare records as necessary
Manage all queries as necessary in an efficient manner
Scan patient related documentation and attaching scanned documents to patients healthcare records
- Scanning and/or read coding of information onto patient medical records in line with practice scanning and read coding procedure
- Liaising with external agencies such as hospitals and community services, ensuring referrals are processed efficiently
- Raising invoices for reports/letters completed by clinicians
- Action tasks and/or emails in a prompt manner
- Answer incoming phone calls, transferring calls or dealing with the callers request appropriately
- Manage all administrative queries as necessary
- Carry out system searches as requested
- Maintain a clean, tidy effective working area at all times
- Support all clinical staff with general administrative tasks as requested
Management of Medical Records
Ensure that paper medical records are available to the clinicians upon request
- Ensure that all paper medical records are correctly assembled and maintained in good condition
- Retrieve and refile medical records as required, ensuring that strict alphabetical order is adhered to
- Ensure that correspondence, reports etc are filed in the correct medical record if required.
