JOB DESCRIPTION

Job Title: Patient Services Scheduling Agent
Department: Patient Services / Hospital Services
Reports to: Patient Services Team Leader
Date: 2025

QUALIFICATIONS

• Leaving Certificate or equivalent.

Experience

• Minimum 2 years of experience in customer facing administrative roles.
• Computer literacy, including experience using MS Excel & Word
• Previous experience in a healthcare setting is desirable.

JOB SPECIFIC COMPETENCIES AND KNOWLEDGE

• Ability to communicate effectively and courteously with a wide range of individuals including: patients; referrers; Consultants; clinical & non-clinical hospital staff; health insurance staff.
• Ability to work consistently and accurately with processes and procedures
• Exhibits ability to work as member of a team in daily performance of duties.
• Have a high capacity for responsibility and individual initiative
• Demonstrate ability to write clear and concise English.

Personal Competencies

• All posts in Beacon Hospital require a high level of flexibility to ensure the delivery of an effective and efficient service. Therefore, the post holder will be required to demonstrate flexibility as and when required by their manager or hospital management.

This job description is intended to be an outline of the areas of responsibility and deliverables at the time of its writing. As the Hospital and the post holder develop, this job description may be subject to review in light of the changing needs of the Hospital.

OVERALL PURPOSE OF JOB

Our mission is to provide exceptional patient care in an environment where quality, respect, caring and compassion are at the centre of all we do.
The overall purpose of this role is to facilitate patient access by scheduling the patient’s appointment in a timely and accurate manner.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND DELIVERABLES

• Ability to handle high volume of calls
• Responsible for maintaining the fax drive, emails and online bookings to ensure that all appointments are scheduled in a timely manner
• Provide a customer focused service.
• Ability to multi-task and prioritise is a requirement.
• Coordinates changes in appointments by cancelling and re-scheduling as necessary.
• Establishes and maintains open and professional demeanour and communication with ancillary departments within the Hospital and physicians whose services are scheduled by this department
• Makes the most effective and efficient use of developments in information technology for both patient care and administrative support.
• When trained assist in the training and development of new employees. Open to new learning opportunities; adaptable to change.
• Displays positive attitude at all times and discusses decisions or policies in a positive, problem-solving way
• Target focused to ensure KPI’s are delivered.
• Collects and confirms patient demographic and insurance information as required, and enters data accurately into the department’s Scheduling system.
• Responsible to communicate scheduling issues with management

ESSENTIAL DUTIES INCLUDE

• Answering phones and follow up on queries.
• Scheduling of procedures.
• Insurance validation. Understands the Insurance claim methods and types of cover relevant to Beacon.
• Liaison with referring physician, staff and patients.
• Excellent keyboard skills with minimum of 50wpm.
• Have good knowledge of Microsoft Office and ECDL. Have basic knowledge of computers and Microsoft Windows software. Operates word processing equipment to compile, type, revise, combine, edit, print and store documents.
• Must be able to work under pressure and as part of a busy team.
• Be flexible, reliable, detail orientated.
• Work well with others.
• Have excellent verbal communication skills.

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

The post holder is expected to:

• Adhere to the Hospital’s mission and Vision
• Maintain patient confidentiality including authorisation of the release of medical information
• Abide by Hospital policies and all regulatory requirements including mandatory training
• Have excellent customer care and communication skills, both written and verbal
• Have excellent knowledge of computers and Microsoft Windows software and keyboard skills
• Have excellent time management skills and ability to multi-task and prioritize work
• Have excellent personal presentation and interpersonal skills
• Build collaborative relationships through strong teamwork across the organization
• Open to new learning opportunities; adaptable to change.
• Be flexible and reliable. Hours of work will on occasion be subject to change.
• Focussed on continuous service improvement.