Supervising Staff : Medical Secretaries
Secretary Recruitment
 Your Accountabilities
 Supervision
 Performance Management
 Turnover/Terminations
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Supervising Staff : Medical Secretaries
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As a physician you’ve just sorted out your
contract with the hospital and now it is time to
think about your office set up. You realize you
need to hire a secretary.
What do you do?
Secretary Recruitment
a. Consider the type of employment relationship and
pro/cons of each, i.e. hospital hired vs. privately hired by
you
b. Contact the Recruitment Advisor and/or Administrative
Officer for information on hiring a secretary
c. Contact Roxana Caraman, Coordinator – Medical
Affairs as initial contact
d. Consult the Medical Affairs website to review
Professional Staff set up processes
e. All of the above
Secretary Recruitment Scenario #1
Employment Relationship through the Hospital:
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Secretary = employee, LHSC/St. Joseph’s Health Care =
employer
Physician = supervisor of day-to-day operations
Secretary reports from an admin. Perspective to Med. Affairs/
Coordinator of Med. Affairs
Medical Affairs has accountability for ensuring hospital policies,
procedures and practices are followed
Secretary will be remunerated based on hospital salary plans and
benefits
There are slight differences within HR processes of the two
corporations
Employment Relationship Scenario #2
Private Hire:
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Secretary = private hire Physician/physician corp. = employer
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Physician determines salary and whether benefits are payable
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Employment Standards Act must be followed in regards with
employer obligations (i.e. vacation pay must be paid – min. 4%)
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Physician supported by Medical Affairs has the accountability for
ensuring hospital policies, procedures and practices are followed
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Signing a “Employer Declaration & Release”
– A copy is to be sent to Medical Affairs
Employment Relationship Scenario #2
Medical Affairs provides assistance with:
 hiring
 supervising
 mandatory training (my education/ME)
 setting up e-mail for private hire
 misconduct/inappropriate behaviours
 Privacy breaches
Your Accountabilities
1.
Under Scenario #1:
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Working in partnership with Medical Affairs and Human Resources
(LHSC/St. Joseph's Health Care)
– Hiring and/or Interviewing Secretaries
– Changes in status i.e. FT to PT or vice versa
– Performance development every 2 years
– Managing Attendance
– Managing Vacation balances
– Establishing work expectations
– Adhering to the obligations of a collective agreement [applicable at
Victoria Hospital]
– Terminations
Your Accountabilities
2. Under Scenario #2:
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You are responsible for ensuring your staff member follows the policies
and practices of the hospital
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You are responsible to ensure all required mandatory training is
completed (ME)
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You are responsible for hiring, performance management/development,
training, vacation tracking, attendance management, etc.
Hiring Process for Medical Secretaries
at LHSC and St. Joseph's Health Care
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Hiring processes may differ at LHSC and St. Joseph's Health Care
Fair and equitable hiring processes apply in both corporations
For LHSC:
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Victoria Hospital
Secretarial staff are unionized – COPE is the bargaining unit
for full time positions or part time positions over 24 hours per
week.
Employee must meet essential qualifications of the position,
then seniority governs
Part time positions 24 hours per week and under are nonunion positions.
Hiring Process for Medical Secretaries at
LHSC and St. Joseph's Health Care
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University Hospital:
–
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Secretarial staff, both full time and part-time, are nonunion
St. Joseph’s Health Care:
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All secretarial/clerical staff are non-union
Hiring Process for Medical Secretaries
at LHSC and St. Joseph's Health Care
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If an individual is employed by both LHSC and St.
Joseph's Health Care, each organization will treat them
as separate hires and they will need to follow the
practices and policies of each organization.
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As it creates a “conflict of interest,” a family member
can not be a direct Supervisor. This includes summer
hires.
Medical Affairs & HR Contacts
Medical Affairs:
 Contact is Roxana Caraman, Coordinator at ext. 75130
LHSC:
 HR Contact is Katie Mennill, Recruitment Advisor at ext. 36902
St. Joseph's Health Care:
 HR Contact is Karen Topfer, Human Resources Associate at ext.
65599
Selecting the Right Candidate
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You know you will be involved in interviews for
a new secretary .You want to pick the right
people for the position by balancing the
technical/clinical knowledge with the “right fit”.
How do you approach this?
Selecting the Right Candidate
a. Consult with your HR Recruitment Advisor for LHSC
and St. Joseph's Health Care to develop behaviouralbased interviewing tools to assess hard and soft skills.
b. Decide to wing it and see what happens in the
interview. Your gut feeling will tell you.
c. Review the essential qualifications for the position.
d. Have each person being interviewed tested.
e. Ask for work-related references.
f. a, c, d, and e apply.
Selecting the Right Candidate
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HR identifies candidates who meet the job posting qualifications
and forwards a short list to physician.
Physicians select who to interview and at St Joseph’s Health
Care, HR will participate in interview process if any candidates are
external to the organization.
Consider ‘hard skills’ (keyboarding, scheduling, OHIP billing,
required computer applications etc.) and ‘soft’ skills (ability to
communicate effectively and appropriately with patients and
others, core values, organizational and time management skills
and adaptability, etc.)
Alignment with organizational values
Supervision
You have hired a secretary
from inside or outside the organization.
What are your responsibilities?
Supervision - LHSC
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If you are hiring externally, LHSC requires two
completed references from current or past supervisors
prior to conditional job offer being made.
HR handles job offer on behalf of Physician.
At LHSC, job offers are conditional based on receiving
a satisfactory Vulnerable Sector police check. The
employee is responsible to provide the police check to
HR.
Once received, HR works with Physician to determine
start date and will finalize the offer.
Supervision – St. Joseph’s Health Care
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If you are hiring externally, St. Joseph's Health Care
requires three completed references from current and
past supervisors prior to job offer being made.
HR handles job offer as the employer.
HR works with Physician to determine start date and
will finalize the offer.
Terms of Employment
General policy information
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Non-union Secretaries at LHSC and St. Joseph's Health
Care– non union policies apply. These can be found on
intranet
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Unionized Secretaries at Victoria Hospital – see COPE
collective agreement
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Some hospital policies apply to both union and nonunion employees, i.e. vacation management
LHSC and St. Joseph's Health Care
Replacement Coverage
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Replacement secretaries to cover leaves of absence at
LHSC can be recruited through a job posting (if required)
or contracted through a temporary agency (Manpower at
519-680-0100). Contact Human Resources for advice.
St Joseph's Health Care HR rep should only be contacted
for extended leaves. For short term leaves contact Med.
Affairs
Cost of replacement secretaries is billed to the physician
LHSC and St. Joseph's Health Care
Vacation Policy
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Vacation policy for both LHSC and SJHC can be found on the respective
Hospital Intranets
It is the physician’s responsibility to ensure that their secretary does not
carry forward vacation in excess of that described in the vacation policy.
– At LHSC employees cannot carry forward more than their entitlement
plus 75 hours. The Physician must approve any carry over of vacation.
– At LHSC employees may be allowed a negative vacation balance of no
more than 37.5 hours per year
– At LHSC employees must take a minimum of two calendar weeks
vacation
Vacation entitlement earned in a vacation year is to be taken according to
the policy or collective agreement in place at each organization.
Your responsibility would be to establish a process for requesting vacation,
i.e. written request via e-mail requesting vacation.
Employee Benefit Plans and Policies
•
LHSC and St. Joseph's Health Care provide
benefits to full time employees upon hire or in lieu
benefits to part-time employees
•
At LHSC, non-union part-time employees who work
22.5 hrs per week or more receive benefits.
•
Benefit policies are on the respective hospital
websites.
Benefits: Sick Time
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Paid sick time varies depending on employment status
and whether they are union or non-union employees
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During an absence due to illness/disability, the
secretary retains their status with the right to return to
their position when they are medically cleared by the
Hospital’s Occupational Health and Safety Services
department
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If accommodation is required it is the hospital’s legal
obligation to accommodate
Workplace Accommodation
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LHSC and St. Joseph's Health Care maintain a duty to
provide appropriate accommodation to an employee
with a disability in order to facilitate continued
participation in the activity of work; this is legislated by
AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act)
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It is the employer’s obligation to accommodate
according to the Ontario Human Rights Code, and the
Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Performance Management
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It is a process of discussing employee performance based
on the Job Fact Sheet and established expectations
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Every two years this process is mandatory in both
corporations
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Forms are located on the respective hospital intranet sites
http://www.lhsc.on.ca/priv/hr/perfdev/employee.htm
http://intra.sjhc.london.on.ca/depts/hr/pds/index_3.htm
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Standard Probationary Period
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Secretaries: New employees are required to complete
a standard probationary period of 3 months
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This is an important period where issues of concern
should be addressed and an assessment is completed
of whether employee is a good fit
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Both organizations have 3 month probationary forms
that are to be completed by the physician and
discussed with the employee
LHSC Code of Conduct /St. Joseph's
Health Care Values in Action
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LHSC Code of Conduct, St. Joseph's Health Care
Values in Action
St Joseph’s Health Care - Standards of Relationships,
LHSC- Violence in the Workplace, Managing Abusive
and Inappropriate Behaviours: Staff and Affiliates
At minimum, speak up and hold each other
accountable
Both organizations’ policies can be located by clicking
on Corporate Policy Manual on the hospital’s intranet
page
Privacy Policy and your Secretary
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For Private hires – you and the individual are responsible for
ensuring your secretary follows hospital policy and practices to
ensure patient privacy; privacy breaches are managed by Privacy
Office and Med. Affairs
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LHSC and St. Joseph’s Health Care hires – the individual carries
responsibility for ensuring hospital policies and practices are
followed; privacy breaches are managed by Privacy office, Med.
Affairs, and HR
Mandatory Training
Mandatory training for employees is completed through iLearn at
LHSC and Learning Edge at SJHC (online systems)
 Mandatory training for private hires is completed through My
Education/ME (online system)
 Following training required:
- Fire Response and Evacuation (annually)
- Infection Prevention and Control Training (every
two years)
- WHMIS (every three years)
- Excelling at Accessible Customer Service (once)
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- Privacy and Confidentiality (initially and
biannually at LHSC)
Turnover/Terminations
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Ensure that Medical Affairs and Human Resources are made
aware of the final date that you will require your secretarial services
at least 5 months prior to departure
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LHSC non-union and union employees require a minimum notice of 4
months and 5 months respectively. In addition, severance is payable.
St. Joseph’s Healthcare non-union employees require notice based
on Employment Standards Act; contact Med. Affairs/HR to discuss
individual situations prior to having any employee discussions around
termination.
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As per Employment Standards Act severance costs may involved and
physician may be required to share those costs (please see Guide for
Hiring Secretarial Support)
Turnover/Terminations
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Every effort will be made to secure alternate
employment for the secretary prior to the physician’s
departure. If that is not possible, the layoff language
for non-union employees or from the Collective
Agreement will apply
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Moving to another position -delete any patient lists and
databases that they have on their P-drive that they
have created pertaining to their previous position.
Supervising Staff : Medical Secretaries
Thank you!
Questions?