Clinical Consultant

at  Discovery Ltd

Business Unit: Discovery Health
Function: Clinical
Date: 8 Nov 2024
Discovery Health
Clinical Consultant
About Discovery
Discovery’s core purpose is to make people healthier and to enhance and protect their lives. We seek out and invest in exceptional individuals who understand and support our core purpose, and whose own values align with those of Discovery. Our fast-paced and dynamic environment enables smart, self-driven people to be their best. As global thought leaders, Discovery is passionate about innovating in order to not only achieve financial success, but to ignite positive and meaningful change within our society.
About Hospital at Home
Discovery Health’s Hospital at Home offering, which gives medical aid members access to a range of benefits, delivered through their personalized care team, in the comfort of their own homes. This provides a seamless healthcare experience for patients, integrating world-class telehealth capabilities, digital tools, and sophisticated remote monitoring devices to enable real-time and continuous tracking of clinical progress and efficient delivery of care at hospital standards, with superior clinical outcomes.
As part of our strategic expansion plans for 2025, we are proactively seeking to recruit highly skilled nurses to ensure we have the right talent in place to support our growth and maintain the highest standards of care.
Key purpose
To act as a self-directed practitioner who provides and evaluates the highest standard of evidence-based care to patients within their own home, founded on agreed management care plans and protocols.
The role will require you to deliver a range of assessments and interventions to patients in their own home to ensure timely treatment and facilitate early discharge and admission avoidance. Skills required for the role includes, cannulation, IV antibiotics, IV fluids, IV medications, urinary catheterisation, palliative care and wound care (a training programme can be offered to establish this skill set).
The role will also ensure timeous, robust delivery of client onboarding end-to-end. Ensuring effective communication of client needs between key stakeholders to ensure delivery of safe and quality care.
Key Outputs

The successful applicant will be responsible for but not limited to the following job functions:

• Act as an autonomous practitioner and perform holistic and patient centered assessments within the patients’ own home, formulating a shared management plan with the patient.
• Ensure effective and concise communication with medical teams regarding assessments.
• Provide high quality care to patients including the ability to provide interventions such as intravenous therapies, nebulizers, and management of syringe drivers.
• Recognize emergency clinical situations such as anaphylaxis, cardiac and respiratory deterioration, to act appropriately knowing when to seek assistance.
• Liaise with patients, carers, and colleagues to assess the safety of a patient’s home environment, acting quickly to protect patients and staff from potential risk.
• Liaise with the multidisciplinary team to meet the patient’s additional needs (e.g., therapy services, social care teams or acute service.
• Provide effective and concise communication with H@H team members to ensure safe handovers and continuity of care.
• Maintain comprehensive and accurate patient and service records, sharing information as appropriate and in line with POPIA.
• Onboarding of hospital at home patients.
• Setting up and removal of remote monitoring devices and troubleshooting.
• Ensuring all devices are maintained and in good working order.
• Building relationship with device vendor to manage and co-ordinate any device issues.
• To ensure that appropriate, consistent, and realistic information is provided to patients and families. To provide sensitive and complex information to relatives and patients. Provide education to member and family on programme and devices.
• Facilitating medication collection and stat treatments for patients admitted into hospital at home.
• Ability to adapt easily to changing circumstances as the job functions constantly change depending on business requirements.
• Effective decision-making capabilities, identifying clinical risks through the application of clinical knowledge and protocols, legislation, standard operating procedures (SOP’s), service level agreements (SLA’s) and the client’s benefit structure.
• Providing on call and after-hours support to doctors, oversight panel and members admitted.
• Work as part of a team and provide support in the development of team members and the service as a whole.

Competencies

• Strong clinical skills
• Excellent client communication skills
• Must be a strong collaborator, team player and individual contributor.
• Ability to work cohesively in a team environment while balancing multiple priorities.
• Able to build a sense of trust and rapport that creates a comfortable and effective workplace.
• High level of attention to detail, resilience, enthusiasm, energy and drive.
• Positive, can-do attitude focused on continuous improvement.
• Able to work under pressure and commitment to consistent high-quality delivery.

Experience, qualifications, and mandatory requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree/Diploma in Nursing.
• Must be registered with SANC and practicing.
• 3+ years of experience in the community or emergency (casualty)/urgent care setting as a Registered Nurse.
• Basic knowledge of Microsoft office and are fully computer literate.
• Valid Basic Life Support certification.
• Registered with SANC or HPCSA.
• Fully vaccinated for COVID-19.
• Own transport to use to drive from patient to patient.
• Valid driver’s license.

Advantageous

• Specialty in inserting of IV drip, Wound Care and Pain Management.
• Experience in care provision.
• Experience as a Home-Based Care Nurse.
• Exposure to all therapeutic disciplines.

• Act as an autonomous practitioner and perform holistic and patient centered assessments within the patients’ own home, formulating a shared management plan with the patient.
• Ensure effective and concise communication with medical teams regarding assessments.
• Provide high quality care to patients including the ability to provide interventions such as intravenous therapies, nebulizers, and management of syringe drivers.
• Recognize emergency clinical situations such as anaphylaxis, cardiac and respiratory deterioration, to act appropriately knowing when to seek assistance.
• Liaise with patients, carers, and colleagues to assess the safety of a patient’s home environment, acting quickly to protect patients and staff from potential risk.
• Liaise with the multidisciplinary team to meet the patient’s additional needs (e.g., therapy services, social care teams or acute service.
• Provide effective and concise communication with H@H team members to ensure safe handovers and continuity of care.
• Maintain comprehensive and accurate patient and service records, sharing information as appropriate and in line with POPIA.
• Onboarding of hospital at home patients.
• Setting up and removal of remote monitoring devices and troubleshooting.
• Ensuring all devices are maintained and in good working order.
• Building relationship with device vendor to manage and co-ordinate any device issues.
• To ensure that appropriate, consistent, and realistic information is provided to patients and families. To provide sensitive and complex information to relatives and patients. Provide education to member and family on programme and devices.
• Facilitating medication collection and stat treatments for patients admitted into hospital at home.
• Ability to adapt easily to changing circumstances as the job functions constantly change depending on business requirements.
• Effective decision-making capabilities, identifying clinical risks through the application of clinical knowledge and protocols, legislation, standard operating procedures (SOP’s), service level agreements (SLA’s) and the client’s benefit structure.
• Providing on call and after-hours support to doctors, oversight panel and members admitted.
• Work as part of a team and provide support in the development of team members and the service as a whole