Medical Secretary/ Administrator

Job summary

To provide comprehensive secretarial and administrative support to the GP Partners, salaried GPs and the Practice Manager.

PLEASE NOTE: This is a full time role.

Main duties of the job

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

The post-holder ideally should be trained as a medial secretary. Experience in administration in non-medical fields can also be considered. Excellent word processing and audio typing skills are essential. The ability to communicate well with people at all levels is important; the post-holder will be expected to use his/her initiative Good time management skills and ability to prioritise workload Ability to multi task using different IT systems and processes Willingness to learn new systems and be confident in their use Sound knowledge of medical terminology is preferable but not necessary Good IT skills and knowledge of Practice systems, preferably EMIS, DOCMAN and ERS Ability to work as part of a team and develop with the needs

About us

Grove Medical Centre is a GP practice located in a residential area of Egham. The practice provides GP services to 15,500 patients.

Services are provided from one location:

Grove Medical Centre - The Grove, Church Road, Egham, Surrey TW20 9QN.

There is a team of 3 GP partners, 5 salaried GPs (male and female). The practice is also a training practice for doctors.

Training practices help qualified doctors, known as registrars, complete the final stages of their GP training. The practice also provides training for nurses and paramedic practitioners.

The practice has a team of 3 nurses who provide nurse-led clinics and 3 healthcare assistants. The practice is supported by 4 clinical pharmacists and a Physician Associate who were employed by the Primary Care Network SASSE 2. GPs and nurses are supported by the practice manager, operations manager, team leaders and a team of reception, administration staff and care coordinators.

Grove Medical Centre is open 8am to Monday to Friday. The practice is part of a hub of GP practices which provides extended access appointments for patients during the week until 8pm and at weekends. Patients are able to access Out of Hours services through NHS 111.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Responsibilities

To produce an efficient and accurate patient documentation. This includes producing referral letters using dictation equipment, reports, minutes and memorandums. To generate referral forms and identify the correct form to be used for each service. To gain and utilise good knowledge of referral pathways and be up to date with changes in pathways. To gain and use an extensive knowledge base of secondary and community care providers. To assist with any patient queries and arrange private medicals and referrals. To ensure all referrals and patient contacts are accurately recorded on the practice clinical system (EMIS Web) To be responsible for the monitoring and management of referrals using approved pathways. To manage the e-Referral system, which includes generating e-Referrals as required by the clinicians, managing work lists and assisting patients with enquiries regarding their e-Referral booking. This includes Sending out routine, private, urgent and Two week rule referrals.

To manage Advice and Guidance queries and feedback to the referring clinician.

To manage written requests from outside agencies, ensuring that patient confidentiality is upheld at all times with correct and current patient consent.

To manage the process regarding deceased patients, including communication with medical examiners, coroners and other external agencies.

To deal with telephone queries from healthcare professionals, solicitors, DVLA and other government agencies. This is not an exhaustive list.

To ensure correspondence, reports, results etc. are filed promptly and in the correct records, ensuring that all recent correspondence is available when patients are seen.

To assist patients with problems presented either in writing or by contact with the surgery or through their own GP and escalate to the manager, where needed.

To ensure that all private services are invoiced, whilst acknowledging and checking patients health circumstances

To update patients medical records from post/Docman.

To complete all tasks related to patient records (summarising, deductions, notice of change forms, consent forms) on EMIS, Docman and any other systems.

To assist with inbound document coding.

To be aware of the current legislation and legal implications of requests for disclosure of patient data/information and to be sensitive to patient wishes.

To arrange and attend Practice meetings and take accurate notes. These meetings include palliative care and clinical meetings.

To carry on administrative tasks as requested by the Practice Manager or Operations Manager.

To cover ad hoc projects.

To acknowledge limitations in completing certain tasks and request support from senior staff members.

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

Working with Patients

To work in partnership with our patients to help them achieve better health outcomes. To offer a polite, friendly and efficient level of customer service to all our patients.

Health & Safety :

The post-holder will assist in promoting and maintaining their own and others health, safety and security as defined in the practice Health & Safety Policy, to include:

Follow appropriate infection control procedures.

Oversee suitability of resuscitation equipment and monitor any new guidance.

Maintain work areas in a tidy and safe manner.

Using personal security systems within the workplace according to practice guidelines.

Identifying the risks involved in work activities and undertaking such activities in a way that manages those risks.

Making effective use of training to update knowledge and skills.

Using appropriate infection control procedures, maintaining work areas in a tidy and safe way and free from hazards.

Reporting potential risks identified.

Equality and Diversity :

The post-holder will support the equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues, to include:

Activing in a way that recognizes the importance of peoples rights, interpreting them in a way that is consistent with practice procedures and policies, and current legislation.

Respecting the privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients, carers and colleagues.

Behaving in a manner which his welcoming to and of the individual, is non-judgmental and respects their circumstances, feelings priorities and rights.

Personal/Professional Development :

The post-holder will participate in any training programme implemented by the practice as part of its employment, such training to include:

Participation in an annual individual performance review, including taking responsibility for maintaining a record of own personal and/or professional development.

Taking responsibility for own development, learning and performance and demonstrating skills and activities to others who are undertaking similar work.

Complete statutory training/updating and mandatory training as defined by the practice.

Complete skills specific training and regular updating

Quality assurance/service support

The post-holder will strive to maintain quality within the practice, and will:

Alert other team members to issues of quality and risk.

Assess own performance and take accountability for own actions, either directly or under supervision.

Contribute to the effectiveness of the team by reflecting on own and team activities and making suggestions on ways to improve and enhance the teams performance.

Work effectively with individuals in other agencies to meet patients needs.

Effectively manage own time, workload and resources.

Participate in quality improvement and innovations audit, significant event analysis and contribute to development of protocols and new services.

Update role-relevant policies and procedures.

Communication :

The post-holder should recognize the importance of effective communication within the team and will strive to:

Communicate effectively with other team members.

Communicate effectively with patients and carers.

Recognize peoples needs for alternative methods of communication and respond accordingly.

Contribution to the Implementation of Services :

The post-holder will:

Apply practice policies, standards and guidance.

Discuss with other members of the team how the policies, standards and guidelines will affect own work.

Participate in audit where appropriate.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

Experience as a medical secretary is desirable but not essential. Experience of working in a healthcare setting, preferably in primary care. Experience of working through multiple systems at the same time in a time-efficient manner. Advanced experience of using word, excel and PowerPoint including ability to use word processing skills, emails and the internet to create simple plans and reports

Desirable

Experience of working with healthcare professionals and or previous experience in the NHS. Experience of working in an non-medical secretarial role or in a PA role. Customer service experience.

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