Cataract Navigator

at  Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The purpose of this role is to support the Ophthalmology Team to facilitate the OneStop pathway for patients with suspected cataracts.
This role has been specially designed to support the cataract pathway and will require the post holder to evolve to support the pathway as it continues to refine over time.
The Post holder will be responsible for the quality check of referrals ensuring that all relevant information is present before the clinical triage takes place.
You will liaise with Patients, Optometrists, GP practices and any other services to ensure that all relevant information is collated.
You will be required to work across a range of IT systems to coordinate the booking of patient appointments. The post holder will work both directly and indirectly with patients and their carers to assist in coordinating the care of patients through their hospital care journey, providing the patient with the relevant information and coordinate their pathway.
The post will require the coordination of appropriate services to maximise the delivery of a streamlined pathway, thereby improving quality of care and experience for patients and their carers.
The post-holder will work collaboratively with Clinic Coordinators and schedulers.
The role involves keeping a comprehensive records, expediting and escalating where necessary to ensure timely appointments and maintain progress against RTT targets.
It is expected that the post holder can work autonomously, using their own initiative and within the Ophthalmology team. The post holder is expected to be a highly experienced within the hospital setting with knowledge and evidence of specialised terminology, educated to a level required to perform the role or equivalent experience.
The post holder will actively support and contribute to the requirements of the service and ensure compliance with performance targets and quality standards required at a local and national level.
Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (MCHFT) provides good quality, safe and effective healthcare to the people of Cheshire and beyond. The Trust, which manages Leighton Hospital in Crewe, Victoria Infirmary in Northwich, and Elmhurst Intermediate Care Centre in Winsford, was established as an NHS Trust in April 1991 and became a Foundation Trust in April 2008.
We employ almost 5,000 members of staff, provide around 540 hospital beds, with a range of services including accident and emergency, maternity, outpatients, therapies, and children’s health.
The Trust is also part of Central Cheshire Integrated Care Partnership (CCICP), a unique local health partnership that provides a range of community services for people across South Cheshire and Vale Royal.
During the Coronavirus pandemic, the Trust was recognised nationally for its ‘Be Safe Be EquiPPEd’ campaign, which aimed to make the Trust as safe as possible for staff and patients, through supporting the correct use of PPE. The results in the 2020 national NHS Staff Survey showed improvements in all elements of the safety culture theme, with 92% of respondents feeling their role made a difference to our patients. We were also recognised nationally for our workforce health and wellbeing initiatives.
At Mid Cheshire, we value our staff and appreciate that in order to give our patients the best quality, compassionate care, we also need to look after our colleagues.
1. To be proficient in all IT systems relevant for the role.
2. To assess and proactively review referrals received into the Service and ensure all relevant information is present and where further information is required to coordinate its timely collation.
3. Coordinate referrals following clinical triage to ensure all necessary information is gathered and contact the patient and refer with suitable dates.
4. To work alongside schedulers and Ophthalmology Clinic Coordinators to be a single point of liaison for referrals, booking and coordination of patient journey.
5. To work seamlessly with the various clinical and non-clinical teams involved within the OneStop pathway.
6. To ensure that the provisions of appropriate services at the right time and in the right place are available for patients and to have the knowledge to signpost patients as required.
7. To be a single point of contact for patients, carers and the healthcare team – triaging sensitive enquiries.
8. Provide early detection of problems.
9. Actively participating in the provision of routine non-clinical information and advice for patients and carers.
10. Document and monitor all aspects of patient care coordination and service delivery onto the Trust IT systems.
11. Supporting data collection for audit purposes and quality assurance.
12. Actively be involved in the continued design of the service.
13. To be proactive in seeking ways to improve the patient pathway.
14. To be proactive in seeking ways to improve the quality of referrals into secondary care.
15. Work closely with and provide support to the Trust’s preoperative assessment service for patients requiring under GA e.g. undertake telephone assessment.
16. Develop protocols to support the referral, booking and tracking of patients across the whole pathway from start to discharge.
17. Ensure patient safety, quality and experience across the whole pathway.
18. Liaison and point of contact between primary and secondary care.
19. Ensure reports / results are obtained, shown to relevant clinical / medial staff, action taken and filed in patient medical records as soon as possible.
20. Booking of appointments as required.
21. To be responsible for imparting information about the technical area of knowledge to other health care professionals as appropriate.
22. To be responsible for managing own daily timetable of delegated tasks including time for supervision and training.
23. To maintain professional working relationships within the Trust, and other relevant organisations.
24. Demonstrate an awareness of the limits of own practice and knowledge and when to seek appropriate support /advice.
25. Under supervision deliver patient-centred, support and education as necessary to non-complex patients.
26. Advise patients and their families and referring Optometrists on how to make contact when they feel that there are delays in their pathway.
27. An ability to work in stressful situations to ensure operational standards / targets are met and adhered to.
28. Support the development of services in order to meet the requirements of patients and service users.
29. Update systems for community follow up post cataract and second eye referrals

Please refer the Job description for details