Call Referral Operator in Lowestoft

We have an exciting opportunity to join East Coast Community Access (ECCA), which is the central referral and communication hub for ECCH. We are open 7am to 8pm, 365 days per year and are looking for flexible staff to join our team. This post will work specifically with the Musculoskeletal Services (MSK) and provide support for the other ECCA services when operationally required.

ECCA is the first point of contact for patients and health professionals, dealing with referral processing, general enquiries, appointment booking, waiting list administration and requests for services for all relevant teams across the organisation. We are looking for individuals that have excellent customer service skills, comprehensive understanding of confidentiality and the requirements of working within a healthcare setting, have experience with computer systems and are able to remain calm and professional within busy environments. If you are wishing to begin your career within healthcare, working for an organisation that has our community at its heart, then we would love to hear from you.

Main duties of the job

The team are based at Hamilton House, Lowestoft; where the service operates from 7.00 a.m. until 8.00 p.m, 365 days per year. There is a requirement to work rotational weekends / evenings; therefore a flexible approach to working is a key requirement of the role. The ability to be able to cover a range of shifts is essential, with shifts varying in length from 5 to 10 hours.

Contact to the team can be via telephone, email, and post. The role involves working in a very busy office, maintaining accuracy while adhering to strict timeframes for processing and disseminating incoming information. It requires excellent communication skills, and the ability to interact with people from all walks of life.

The team complete referral documentation and gather relevant information at the point of referral, either by telephone or by accepting and processing emailed or posted referrals. They work collaboratively with all relevant services and teams including single point of triage to process a range of referrals, this includes urgent & same day referrals. Communication skills are vital as the process approximately 3000 calls per week.

Job responsibilities

• Receiving referrals via telephone, email and post, and scanning and processing these to strict deadlines.
• Checking these referrals for inaccurate or incomplete data and following up where necessary.
• Working across multiple services, including booking and cancelling appointments using different clinical units, referral routes and criteria, adding, moving and removing patients to and from clinical waiting lists.
• Communicate with a wide range of staff and patients, across multiple services, to advise on length of waiting list times, general appointment queries, etc.
• Co-ordinate messages/ instructions between various clinical staff and teams.

All roles within East Coast Community Healthcare CIC (ECCH) require staff to demonstrate our Values and Signature Behaviours in the care and service they provide to patients, service users, stakeholders and colleagues. All members of staff should consider these as an essential part of their job role. Our Values outline the core behaviours that we can all achieve and are summarised as an acronym within the word CARE. These stand for: Compassion, Action, Respect and Everyone. Underpinning our Values are our Signature Behaviours which highlight by taking the right actions we continue to build a strong culture.

Person Specification

• Experience in a patient or customer focused role
• Working as part of a team
• Good I.T. skills including word processing and emails
• NHS or community based healthcare experience
• Recent experience of busy working environment

Personal Attributes

• Ability to liaise with patients, colleagues, clinicians and members of the public from all backgrounds and disciplines in a professional manner
• Organised
• Flexible
• Able to remain effective and efficient under pressure
• Able to work independently as well as within a team
• Able to use own initiative
• Discreet
• The ability to manage interruptions and a busy workload
• Excellent interpersonal skills and a pleasant telephone manner
• The ability to travel independently to fulfil shifts including Bank Holidays when public transport may not be operational
• Willingness and ability to work across different sites and travel to alternative sites and across the community as required
• Resilience

Skills and Knowledge

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent inter-personal skills at all levels
• Ability to prioritise work
• Able to adopt a diplomatic approach
• Good organisation and administrative skills
• Good telephone manner
• Able to use own initiative
• Able to multi-task
• Able to work with minimal supervision
• Able to work under pressure

Qualifications

• Educated to GCSE C or above, or equivalent, in English, Maths and IT, or displaying substantial experience in a similar role
• Good keyboard skills, equivalent to RSA II, and understanding of IT
• Microsoft Word and Outlook
• NVQ II Customer care

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.