Medical Receptionist

**Stanton Surgery, 10 The Chase, Stanton, Bury St Edmunds IP31 2XA**

**JOB DESCRIPTION**

**JOB TITLE: Receptionist**

**REPORTS TO: Practice Manager**

**HOURS: 37 hours - plus holiday/sickness cover**

**Job Summary**:
To provide a point of contact for patients and act as a focal point of communication between patients, doctors and other medical staff.

**Responsibilities**:
Reception duties:

- To receive patients in friendly, polite and courteous manner and provide relevant information
- Book, amend, cancel and arrive patient appointments in line with practice appointments procedures ensuring optimum efficiency of the appointment system
- Utilise appointment system to ensure efficiency and to monitor the flow of patients into the consulting and treatment rooms.
- To explain or show patients how to use the automatic booking in system
- Ensure that patients without appointments but who need urgent consultation are seen in a logical and no-disruptive manner
- Answer all telephone calls to the practice dealing with enquiries, directing calls where appropriate and taking messages
- Check and action all incoming electronic requests, tasks or queries daily
- Ensure appropriate record of interactions or messages are entered onto patient records
- To explain practice arrangements and formal requirements to all new patients and those seeking temporary cover and ensure that the correct procedures are adhered to
- Respond promptly to all queries and requests for assistance from patients and other visitors
- Update patient records as appropriate, including coding
- Ensure reception and waiting areas are kept neat and tidy. Discard waiting room magazines more than three months old
- To ensure all visitors are appropriately booked in and out of the surgery visitors book
- Open and sort incoming post as directed
- Frank and document outgoing post
- Action requests for ambulance transportation and enter details in patient computer records

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- Notify patients of test results as indicated by the doctors
- Advise patients of relevant charges for private services and accept payment and issue receipts for same
- Work safely at all times in accordance with legislative requirements
- Adhere to all practice policies and procedures

Management of appointment systems:

- Ensure total familiarity with all appointment systems in effect including regular and incidental variations
- Book appointments and recalls ensuring sufficient information is recorded
- Monitor effectiveness of the system and report any problems or variations required

Management of medical records:

- Ensure correspondence, reports, results etc are correctly actioned
- Add information to the computer system and obtain information from it as required
- Ensure all relevant forms are correctly completed

Preparation of consulting rooms:

- Ensure that the consulting rooms are prepared in readiness for each consulting session, checking a full range of necessary forms and requirements and restocking as required
- Ensure that the consulting rooms are checked at the end of each consulting session and left tidy and secure
- Ensure doctor’s computers are logged out at the end of each day

Operation of telephone system:

- Receive and make calls as required. Divert calls and take messages as appropriate.
- Record all telephone contacts in the patient’s computer notes
- Ensure that the system is operational at the beginning of each day and switched over to the night service at the end of the day

Start and end procedures:

- Open up premises at the start of each day, set alarm to day function and make all necessary preparation to receive patients
- Ensure automatic booking in system is activated at the beginning of the day
- Ensure waiting room TV screen display is activated
- Secure premises at end of the day, ensure the building is totally secured, internal lights are switched off and alarm activated on exit

Any other delegated duties considered appropriate to the post.

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**Confidentiality**:

- In the course of seeking treatment, patients entrust us with, or allow us to gather, sensitive information in relation to their health and other matters. They do so in confidence and have the right to expect that staff will respect their privacy and act appropriately.
- In the performance of the duties outlined in this job description, the post-holder may have access to confidential information relating to patients and their carers, practice staff and other healthcare workers. They may also have access to information relating to the practice as a business organisation. All such information from any source is to be regarded as strictly confidential.
- Information relating to patients, carers, colleagues, other healthcare workers or the business of the practice may only be divulged to authorised persons in accordance with the practice policies and procedures relating to confidentiality and the protection of personal and sensitive data.

**Health & Safet