Care Navigator

You will support patients and visitors from their first contact with the practice, helping them access the right care and services. As a key member of the administration team, you will provide a friendly, responsive service while helping the practice run smoothly.

What you'll do:

• Welcome patients, carers and visitors, responding to enquiries clearly and professionally
• Signpost patients to the right services and care pathways
• Coordinate appointments and maintain accurate information using SystmOne
• Support day-to-day administration, including correspondence, records, scanning and filing
• Work flexibly with colleagues to provide reliable cover when needed

Main duties of the job:

The role of Care Navigator is the first point of contact for patients and visitors when they attend or contact the practice, therefore promoting a positive image of where you work is paramount. The candidate will need to have excellent communication and customer care skills and will be responsible for ensuring that service users are in the right place at the right time, signposting and re-directing if appropriate following care pathways.

The post holder will be required to provide a high-quality and responsive customer care service to all patients and visitors, ensuring that the reception runs efficiently and in accordance with the service requirements. With roles based within GP Practices, there is an expectation that you will support the delivery of the service by changing bases/hours to cover annual leave and/or sickness, which can sometimes be at short notice.

As part of your role, you will be expected to coordinate and organise appointments and documentation within SystmOne to facilitate the smooth running of the service and support the delivery of high-quality patient care.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Communication:

• To deal with incoming and outgoing communications appropriately where there may be barriers to understanding
• To attend, and contribute to, admin team meetings and provide feedback to colleagues
• Be the first point of contact for patients, carers and outside agencies, processing messages and dealing with enquiries of a routine nature accurately and in a timely manner where tact or persuasive skills may be required
• Signpost patients to other services in a timely manner in line with organisational procedures

Analytical Tasks:

• To use initiative and judgement, within pre-defined limits of responsibility to resolve problems of a customer service or administrative nature, where the issue may be non-routine and there may be a range of options to explore, referring more complex issues to the line manager for guidance
• Evaluate administration processes and procedures within own work area and, in consultation with line manager, implement improvements as appropriate

Planning and Organisational Skills:

• To plan, organise and prioritise own workload as appropriate
• To plan and organise straightforward tasks and activities within own work area, some of which may be ongoing, which will be completed within agreed timescales e.g. organise events as directed, diary management, producing correspondence, reports and other documents and filing etc.
• Ensure appropriate administration systems and procedures are in place and adhered to across area of responsibility

Physical Skills:

• Standard keyboard skills required for inputting patient information/data
• Manual handling of boxes from deliveries

Responsibility for Patient Care:

• Provide information and advice to patients, relatives and carers about access to appropriate service and appointments

Policy and Service Development Implementation:

• Follow policies/procedures appropriate to own role
• Comment on policies/procedures to contribute to the ongoing development of administration service with own area of work

Responsibilities for Financial and Physical Resources:

• Maintain stock control
• Report issues relating to faulty equipment, buildings and security according to workplace procedures

Responsibilities for Human Resources:

• Demonstrate own role to new starters or less experienced staff within the team
• Cover for other administration staff for sickness, absence and annual leave
• To participate in training of self and colleagues in an equivalent position to ensure agreed Standard Operating Procedures, Policies and Procedures are adhered to

Responsibilities for Information Resources:

• Maintain information systems, computerised and paper based, conforming with agreed Data Protection Act standards
• Maintain patient confidentiality in ensuring safe storage, processing and generating of information
• To retrieve, collate, scan and file records
• Ensure all activity for patients is logged onto the electronic database

Responsibilities for Research and Development:

• To undertake surveys and audits as necessary to own work

Freedom to Act:

• Uses initiative to deal with patient enquiries
• Guided by clearly defined occupational policies. Manager is available for advice.

Person Specification:

Qualifications:

• Essential: NVQ Level 2 in Business Administration or Customer Service or equivalent knowledge and experience
• Word processing to OCR 2 standard International Computer Driving License (ICDL) or able to demonstrate appropriate level of skill

Experience:

• Essential: Previous experience of working in an office environment and carrying out general office procedures
• Desirable: Experience of SystmOne functions, Previous NHS experience, Previous experience of working with general public

Knowledge:

• Essential: Knowledge of a range of routine administration procedures, Knowledge of Microsoft Word
• Desirable: Knowledge of other Microsoft packages

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.