Job Description
Title:
Administrator, Occupational Therapy,
Physiotherapy and Primary Care Interface
Services
Grade:
Band 3
Hours of Duty:
37.5 hours per week
Annual Leave:
27 days per annum increasing to 29 days after 5
years NHS service
Terms & Conditions
of Service:
National Terms & Conditions
Department:
Therapy (Occupational and Physiotherapy) Services
Diagnostic and Therapies Division
Accountable to:
Service Manager for Physiotherapy, ultimately
Division Manager for Diagnostics and Therapies
Responsible to:
Business Manager for Therapies (A&C 6)
Post summary To provide efficient administrative support within the Physiotherapy,
Occupational Therapy and Primary Care Interface Services (Therapies
Services) and to ensure that these services within the Whittington NHS Trust
are responsive and effective.
To have a key role in assisting the Business Manager for Therapies by
providing appropriate administrative support.
To be responsible for clerical and administrative tasks involved in the
organisation of the Therapies Services. This will include typing, general
administration work, ordering of equipment and stationary and co-ordinating the
appointments system.
To represent the Therapies Department in a professional and friendly manner to
the general public, patients and other hospital business contacts as the first
contact with the Therapies Services, either by phone or in person.
To deal with patient enquiries and use communication skills to deal with the
initial stages of a complaint and patients who may be anxious or upset.
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Specific Duties and Responsibilities 1. Organisational
To collate the monthly absence returns for Therapies Services, which are
checked by the Business Manager for Therapies who then forwards on.
To accurately prepare the activity data for Occupational Therapy Department on
a monthly basis.
To photocopy and circulate papers and correspondence as and when
necessary.
To undertake general clerical work within the Therapy Services i.e.
photocopying, filing, and processing incoming and outgoing post.
To be responsible for data entry and coding of invoices and orders, ready for
Therapy Service Managers to sign.
To take and transcribe minutes at meetings as requested by the Service
Managers for Therapies.
To maintain and develop service-related filing systems, and file / retrieve patient
notes as required
To liase with Whittington Hospital Works Department as required.
To be responsible for ensuring that PAS is used efficiently in Therapies
Services and in line with Trust and Department procedures.
To spend approximately 60% of the day on a VDU within Therapies Services.
To be responsible for providing PAS training to physiotherapy, occupational
therapy and primary care interface staff.
To assist in generating regular reports throughout the Therapies Services.
To assist the Business Manager with implementation of Information and
Technology systems throughout the Therapy Services.
To provide cover at reception when A&C3 reception staff are on lunch break
and leave.
To help ensure the efficient organisation and management of the physiotherapy
outpatient waiting list. This involves daily monitoring of the waiting lists and
reviewing appointments available in the physiotherapists’ diaries. To regularly
communicate this information to the Outpatient Superintendent Physiotherapist.
Using PAS to input physiotherapy outpatient details and book appointments and
manage clinic and waiting list letters.
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To triage referrals, prioritising them appropriately for acute appointments or for
the waiting list. This involves completing a proforma by asking clinical
questions and prioritising the patient according to the score on the proforma.
To find the next suitable appointment for outpatient physiotherapy for the
patient, taking account of, and being sensitive to patients’ wishes to see a
female physiotherapist on some occasions.
To be responsible for sending out letters to the referring doctor and a copy to
the patient when patients do not attend their first outpatient physiotherapy
appointment. To file the referral and a copy of the letter with the current years
discharges.
To be responsible for the filing system in the Physiotherapy Outpatient
Reception area for the current year and the previous year.
To retrieve notes as required by staff and for medico-legal purposes.
To contact the imaging departments at the Whittington to request X-rays and
reports
To book interpreters as required, involving contact with the PALS department at
the Whittington.
To assist the Outpatient Superintendent and Head Occupational Therapist in
running the department.
To be able to prioritise workload each day to meet appropriate deadlines.
Under the direction of the Therapies Business Manager to assist the Service
Managers for Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy with general
administrative duties for their job roles.
To attend Administration Team meetings.
2. Management
Physical Resources
To maintain stock control and inventory for all stationary used in the Therapies
Department and anticipate demand and order as required.
To maintain stock control and cash management of sale of therapy items to
patients.
To oversee and ensure that stock control is maintained for all orders received
into the Therapies Department.
To be responsible for ensuring a maintenance contract is in place for the
photocopy machine and that the faxes remain in working order in the Therapies
Department.
To be responsible for tidiness and presentation of administration office areas.
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To deal with cheques received for medico-legal work and petty cash and send /
deliver to the Cashiers and Banking Department.
To be responsible for health and safety risk assessments in the reception and
waiting areas.
Human Resources
To plan and reprioritise own workload and prioritise duties.
To allocate and monitor the work duties of the two A&C 3 reception staff.
Participate in a staff appraisal scheme as an appraisee and be responsible for
own personal development plan and meeting competencies.
To co-ordinate the observational placements for prospective Physiotherapy
students. To respond to all the letters (approx, 4 a month), to liaise with the
Senior I Team Leaders to provide a broad and varied experience for the 2 days
placements. To liaise with the Human Resources Department to ensure that
they all have honorary contracts. To put together a timetable for each student
and then distribute the timetables to the relevant teams.
To accurately register all annual leave requests for the staff in the
Physiotherapy Department (52 staff). To monitor annual leave taken though out
the year to ensure that staff do not take more than 5 days over to the following
year. To inform the Superintendents of the annual leave remaining for all staff 3
months before the end of the year (ie December).
To register the study leave taken by the staff in the Physiotherapy Department,
keeping detailed and accurate information on the study leave taken by
individual staff members, courses attended, funding requested and given, and
monitor statutory training for staff, including manual handling, resus and fire
training. To alert the individuals and the relevant Superintendent if statutory
training is overdue.
To input information for absence returns regarding annual leave, study leave etc
by the 5th of the following month. To inform the Physiotherapy Service Manager
when this information is ready so that it can be checked before being submitted.
3. Communication
To liaise with the Therapies Service Managers, the Outpatient Superintendent
Physiotherapist, Head Occupational Therapist or the Business Manager with
regards to enquiries that cannot be managed personally, such as complaints
and clinical questions.
To inform and liaise regularly with the Therapies Service Managers, the
Outpatient Superintendent Physiotherapist, Head Occupational Therapist and/or
the Business Manager of any problems encountered at reception, either
administrative or related to appointments.
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To liaise with IM&T for issues relating to PAS.
To liaise with Human resources regarding temporary contracts for observation
placement students.
To be able to communicate effectively with patients and other health care
professionals regarding the Therapy Services and their respective appointment
systems. When communicating by the phone and in person, using both verbal
and non-verbal skills, for example for non-English speaking patients, patients
with communication difficulties, hearing or sight impairments, memory loss or
mental illness.
To be able to manage potentially stressful, upsetting or emotional situations in
an empathetic manner which can occur when working on reception.
To greet patients to the Therapies Department in a professional and friendly
manner.
To utilise excellent telephone skills when responding to queries, taking
messages, and taking action where appropriate.
To be able to use good communication skills to placate angry patients.
4. Education
To be responsible for and actively record own professional development and
maintain a CPD portfolio which reflects the same.
To attend relevant training for intermediate word processing skills, excel and
PAS.
To have some responsibility for inducting clinical staff to Therapy Reception
area, including demonstrating the processes for booking appointments, waiting
list management, registering patients, filing notes and the system for taking
messages.
5. Research and Development
To undertake audits and surveys as necessary for teamwork at reception, as
directed by the Business Manager.
To actively contribute to the development of new operational policies and
procedures in the Therapies Reception Area.
6. Effort
To work in areas where the environment has variable temperatures, poor
ventilation, poor ergonomics (workspace area) and artificial lighting (patient note
retrieval).
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To comply with the Trust manual handling policy at all times.
Limited, occasional manual handling of innate objects.
To assist in the collection of clinical and managerial information required by the
service as requested by the Service Manager and Director, including monthly
statistics and workforce planning.
Mental
To be frequently required to concentrate for long periods of time while collating
monthly statistics, registering patients and booking appointments, at times with
no other support at reception.
To work in an environment where the work patterns may be disrupted by
demands from patients, Therapy staff and the phone.
To work to deadlines.
Emotional
Occasional exposure to unpleasant working conditions, such as verbal
aggression and unpleasant smells when dealing with patients.
Additional Duties and Responsibilities To undertake any other duties commensurate with the post, as agreed with the
Service Managers and Business Manager for Therapies.
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