Clinical Coordinator - IPU - St. Michael\'s Hospice (North Hants) in Basingstoke

Hours: 37.5 hours per week (Monday - Friday)

What are we looking for?

We are looking for a highly organised, calm and compassionate administrator who thrives in a fast-paced clinical environment and can confidently coordinate complex information while supporting patients, families and clinical teams. This role sits at the heart of the In-Patient Unit and requires someone who is reliable, emotionally resilient, and able to manage sensitive situations with professionalism and care.

The role

The In-Patient Coordinator plays a central role in the day-to-day coordination of the In-Patient Unit (IPU), supporting clinical teams, patients and families through accurate administration, communication and organisation. You will be required to work 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday, including bank holidays.

St. Michael's Hospice is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable adults, children and young people. All staff are expected to share this commitment. Successful candidates will be required to undergo relevant background checks, including a DBS check and provide satisfactory references before starting the role. Candidates must have the right to work in the UK. We are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.

Main duties of the job

• Daily Coordination & Communication

• Attend the daily IPU ward handover and ward meeting.
• Manage and monitor shared admin and service inboxes, ensuring timely responses and appropriate escalation.
• Prepare and circulate handover communications, ensuring accuracy and confidentiality.
• Maintain effective communication with ward staff, managers and wider hospice team.
• Coordinate all IPU admissions, including routine and supporting with fast-track referrals.
• Support the safe and timely discharge of patients.
• Manage the administrative process following a patient death, ensuring documentation is completed accurately.
• Act as a key point of contact for internal teams and external services during these processes.
• Book and coordinate ambulance transport for patients.
• Support the organisation and administration of meetings.
• Provide administrative support to Ward Lead.

• Systems & Records Management

• Use electronic systems, including Electronic Patient Records (EPR).
• Accurately maintain patient records, trackers and shared documentation - both electronic and paper-based.
• Ensure data protection, confidentiality and information governance standards are upheld at all times.
• Work flexibly across the hospice, including cross-covering within the community hub and Hospice reception, as required.
• Provide administrative or reception support during periods of staff absence, increased demand or service pressure.
• Work closely with Clinical Leads and wider hospice and community services.

About St. Michael's Hospice

St. Michael's Hospice is a registered charity providing specialist palliative and end of life care services since 1992, for the people of North Hampshire. We are dedicated to providing care to people throughout North Hampshire who are affected by life limiting illness to attain the highest possible quality of life by providing a choice of specialist care and support.

As a charity, we depend on the kindness and support of our local community to continue offering our services free of charge. This care is made possible by supporters donating, taking part in fundraising events and activities, playing our lottery, shopping in our retail outlets, leaving gifts in their Wills or giving freely of their time to volunteer.

We offer a competitive salary with attractive benefits, including free parking, life assurance, 27 days annual leave plus bank holidays, and an extensive health and wellbeing plan and company pension.

Job responsibilities

• To provide and implement high quality administrative support, systems and processes that enable the smooth day to day operational running of the Inpatient Unit.
• To be the first point of contact for patients, carers and health care professionals responding as appropriate and allocating the actions to the relevant individual or team.
• To work as part of the SMH multidisciplinary clinical teams to support and develop a high-quality administrative Team that enables the smooth day to day operational running of the Hospice Clinical Services including the daily support for the Inpatient Unit.
• The role requires you to work across clinical service bases including, Community Hospice at Home service, Medical Team, Therapy Team, Living Well Service, Patient and Family Support, and Bereavement Services and main SMH Reception.
• You will be rostered to cover absence as required by the clinical services; this will be expected as a normal part of the job role. Therefore, you will be required to be skilled and competent to work in all areas of the Clinical Services.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide an excellent standard of customer care when dealing with enquiries, answering queries, calls, and the ability to identify when to escalate to other healthcare professionals.
• To deal appropriately and sensitively with professionals, visitors, patients, clients, carers, and family enquiries, of potentially distressing nature, always adhering to hospice policies on confidentiality.
• Understand own level of competency when dealing with sensitive patient or carer conversations and information giving, referring to healthcare professional when required.
• Liaise with external transport providers to organise the booking of patient transport and inform relevant health care professionals to ensure seamless transfer of the patient.
• To actively support the clinical team in facilitating the discharge / transitional arrangements including sending CHC Fast Track applications for processing. When requested by the clinical team linking with internal and external services where necessary.
• Coordinate patient and family requests for celebratory occasions on the Inpatient Unit, where appropriate.
• Respond to initial patient/family requests as appropriate, escalating to senior or clinical staff where this is outside the scope of your role.
• To actively participate in the management of Lone Workers, in line with the Lone Worker policy.
• Proficient in SMH Reception operating processes and procedures as listed in the job role main duties and responsibilities.
• Be familiar and follow the agreed invoicing and accounting processes when requesting purchase orders and requests for goods/supplies.
• To be multi-skilled in all clinical admin tasks, across H@H, PFST, Therapy, and IPU.
• To be able to work independently as well as part of the wider Admin Team.
• To provide cover for the Clinical Coordinator H@H, PFST, LWS and Therapy for periods of sickness and holiday.
• To provide cover for the Hospice reception as required.

Information and Data Management

• To be responsible for ensuring Personal Identifiable Information is communicated in accordance with the GDPR and Caldicott principles.
• To manage and coordinate all incoming communications, including written correspondence and any delegated communications to and for the team, ensuring processes and systems are in place to manage communications safely and securely.
• To have a knowledge of clinical terminology and service information so prompt appropriate signposting to the most appropriate service/staff member.
• Ensure the agreed patient information pathway including the service admission / discharge and bereavement packs are prepared and distributed accordingly.
• To produce and distribute the Medical Examiner records and reports.
• Ensure the required CQC notifications are reported promptly via the CQC portal system.
• Be familiar and confident in the navigation and management of data within EPR, regularly inputting and producing reports.
• To set up new electronic patient records (EPR) and review new and existing patient records on EPR and understand how to process and secure patient paper records, including archiving processes.
• To be familiar with basic computer skills and will be required to become proficient in the use of electronic patient records.
• To manage the recording of data on to SMH record databases, such as e.g., the incident database, complaints record.

Administrative Support

• To assist the clinical team members with the administration for outpatient clinics, booking appointments and rooms, preparing letters, processing discharge summaries, ensuring these are all completed in a timely manner.
• To coordinate and manage the day-to-day administrative tasks required as part of St. Michael's Bereavement Services.
• Provide administrative support as appropriate with any relevant national/local research initiatives in which St. Michael's Hospice may be involved.
• Support the Clinical Teams and Education Lead in the coordination of meetings and promotion of staff training sessions.
• To provide administrative support to the team: e.g., typing letters, filing, archiving of records.
• To support the Clinical Management Team when required with staffing roster systems, completing off duty and rostering planning tasks.
• Coordinate ordering of badges, uniform, and stationery across all clinical departments in conjunction with clinical leads.
• Coordinate and produce the Weekly Whereabouts and On-Call rotas and distribute in line with agreed schedule.
• Produce high-quality documents from handwritten notes and/or audio using MS software products.
• Be familiar and confident in the use of Excel.
• To provide cover for the Clinical Coordinator H@H, PFST, LWS and Therapy for periods of sickness and holiday.
• To provide cover for the Hospice reception as required.
• To continuously strive to improve all aspects of the administration processes and procedures.
• Contribute and support adherence to the agreed corporate administration standards, and electronic files management systems.

Professional Development

• To ensure own learning needs are identified as part of the annual appraisal process and ensure own Personal Development Plan (PDP) is in place to meet these.
• To maintain up-to-date mandatory training and regularly attend supervision.

Person Specification

• Skills, Knowledge, Abilities

• Intermediate to advanced IT skills in Microsoft Office products, with ability to learn new IT software quickly such as clinical databases.
• Be able to remain calm in unpredictable situations and to be able to decide the most appropriate response to each call and allocate to relevant person/team.
• Understands the importance of confidentiality and data protection.
• Ability to work under pressure, to work on own initiative and to manage own workload.
• Ability to multi-task whilst working in a busy environment and prioritise a demanding workload.
• Good planning organisational skills and able to cope with frequent interruptions.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Minute taking or note taking skills.
• Good time management and proven ability to work to deadlines.
• Able to work under supervision or independently.
• Clinical software or database skills.
• Ability to be innovative and find solutions.
• Knowledge of hospice work.

• Other requirements (e.g., on-call/driving licence/shifts)

• Provide cross cover and work in all areas of the clinical admin service.
• Ability to work different shifts to provide cover to support all clinical admin services.
• Ability to work bank holidays.

• Qualifications

• Good general education (GCSE or equivalent) including English and Mathematics.
• NVQ level 3 (or equivalent) in Business & Administration.

• Experience

• Secretarial or office administration, diary management and customer service.
• Experience of dealing with sensitive or difficult situations.
• Written communication: Producing letters, emails, reports, minutes, and all documentation to a high standard.
• Oral communication: communicating face to face and on the telephone with people from all levels of seniority and backgrounds in a professional manner.
• Experience of working in a health setting.
• Experience of working in a Ward environment.
• Experience of working in a palliative care setting.

• Attitude, Aptitudes & Personal Characteristics

• Empathetic and patient focused.
• Calm and level-headed.
• Punctual and reliable.
• Flexible, resourceful and adaptable.
• Motivated to learn, undertake training, and develop skills.
• Personable and positive.
• Trustworthy and virtuous.
• Proactive.
• Ability to inspire and motivate others, fostering a positive and supportive working environment.
• Personal resilience and the ability to cope with the emotional challenges inherent in hospice care.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

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.