JOB OVERVIEW

Modality Partnership Walsall Division has a full time and part time vacancies, for a Patient Services Assistant (Receptionist) at Harden Blakenhall, Pleck and Forrester Street Surgeries. The postholder will provide support to the patients, doctors, practice manager, and all other members of the extended Primary Care Team, by ensuring smooth running of the Practice on a day-to-day basis as an integral part of the patient services team. We are seeking dedicated postholders to join our team and who can display our CARE values: Commitment, Accountability, Respect and Excellence.
This job is suitable for individuals who are problem-solvers, enjoy interacting with patients and service-users, have a passion for providing high quality customer service and ensuring patients have a positive experience.

JOB DESCRIPTION

You will love this job if you have a passion for helping and interacting with patients to provide and process information in response to enquiries. Duties will include but not limited to:
· To receive and greet patients, clients and visitors to the Practice in a welcoming and professional manner and to act as a point of contact between patients, clients, visitors, GPs, healthcare professionals, Partners and Practice staff
· To engage with patients/clients, provide advice and proactively signpost them to the most appropriate clinician/service (care navigation) as per agreed protocol
· To deal with any verbal queries, concerns or complaints from patients, clients or visitors in a professional manner and to escalate to the Patient Services Manager as appropriate
· To identify callers or patients who may present in person as requiring an immediate emergency response and refer to appropriate clinician, emergency ambulance service or A&E department
· To take telephone and online requests from patients and accurately record all essential information on the clinical system
· To answer/make telephone calls in a professional manner, ensuring important/appropriate information is documented and redirected accordingly and to accurately take messages
· To provide accurate and up to date information to answer the enquiries of patients, clients and visitors, where necessary seeking the advice of others, and responding to and/or redirecting all patient and visitor requests accordingly
· To deal with general enquiries from patients regarding medication
· To accurately maintain and update appointment systems, booking in patients and visitors in line with Practice appointments and visitor procedures
· To act as a chaperone for Doctors as requested
· To arrange for an ambulance for patients as and when requested by a clinician
· To receive and receipt cash and cheques from patients and clients for non-NHS services in line with Modality procedures
· To receive paperwork associated with requests from outside agencies (e.g. insurance/ travel cancellation forms) informing patients of cost and directing to the appropriate department
· To undertake registrations/deductions of patients at the Practice following Modality procedures including receiving and checking forms, processing Lloyd George records and providing advice as required
· To promote participation in Practice surveys, including Family and Friends Test, to patients, clients and visitors
If you feel this is the ideal career and looking for a daily challenge, we welcome an application for you to join our growing team of likeminded people.
The Modality Partnership reserves the right to close this vacancy at any time during the advertising period.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

We require high performing team members to join our team with:

KNOWLEDGE

Customer service principles and practices Basic medical terminology
Reception protocols
Basic telephone call management, including taking and transferring calls NHS systems
MS Word, Outlook, Excel and other relevant software packages
Knowledge of / experience from within NHS/General Practice
Previous call-handling experience

SKILLS

Customer service orientation
Excellent listening, communication and interpersonal skills
Problem-analysis and problem-solving
Administrative and organisational skills
Ability to follow policies, practices and protocols.
Stress tolerance
Ability to handle patients (both on the telephone and in person) who may be angry, upset or distressed.
Computer-literate and adaptable in using different software

MAIN DUTIES OF THE JOB

The role is an all-rounded, patient facing and back- office administration role; we are seeking individuals to join our team who are caring, compassionate and confident, who demonstrate effective communication, excellent customer service skills, IT skills, and the ability to support patients with general enquiries and signpost them to the most appropriate team member or service. The postholder will be a key member of the practice team, responsible for completing a variety of tasks including dealing with patient requests i.e. appointment booking, general enquiries in person and over the telephone, as well as performing a number of administrative duties.
The role is not a regular 9am-5pm job and is not a pure reception role; the job requires innovation, flexibility and commitment and the postholder will be required to work resourcefully as part of the team to ensure tasks are completed.