Call Handler – Local Access Point Job Vacancy in South Tyneside, England, UK

Job description

Job responsibilities

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Main duties and responsibilities

• Provide high quality customer service as the first point of contact for telephone calls into Community Nursing Teams, Therapy Services, Specialist Pelvic Health and Falls Prevention Services in South East and South West Staffordshire.
• Manage and action all mail in the LAP email inbox and other sources of referrals, directing messages and referrals to the clinical triage team where appropriate. RAG rate all referrals to ensure priority levels are managed effectively.
• Action appropriate referrals ensuring the demographics are correct and plan outcome within agreed scope. Returning any inappropriate referrals back to the sender for further information.
• Utilising triage protocols to direct calls to other services as required (internal and external).
• Ensuring a minimum standard of information is recorded for all referrals and messages to the service. This may include contacting the referrer or patient if the call is not taken directly by the call handler.
• Process referrals on electronic clinical systems following agreed protocols; ensuring all new referrals are sent to the clinical triage team in a timely way.
• Support Triage Nurses with information gathering, returning calls and scheduling visits as required.
• Sensitively handle personal imagery/digital photography.
• Manage venepuncture requests ensuring that ICE forms/referrals are processed accordingly using clinical and allocation systems.
• Regularly check the teams voicemail boxes, retrieving messages left and directing to the correct team.
• Demonstrate activities to new starters, support induction for new staff and maintain an up to date new starter handbook.
• Work alone unsupervised and escalate appropriately.
• Support Triage Nurse diaries including out-coming interventions on Clinical Systems.
• Participate in audits (data collection) as requested.
• Participate in team meetings and huddles, taking minutes and completing actions as appropriate.
• Completing off duty, populating Healthroster and supporting with annual leave planning alongside Triage Nurse/Operational Manager.
• Promote the use of digital platforms to aid self-management and prevention in relation to patients health and well-being.
• Work in collaboration with the PALS service to capture service user feedback using this to drive service improvements.

Communication and relationships

• Communicate daily with members of the LAP team and community nursing teams, including out of hours nursing.
• Communicate frequently with other adult service providers as needed; this will include talking to GPs; hospital medical staff; nursing and therapy staff to gather information required to support the patient or to escalate to the triage nurse.
• Communicate effectively with patients using voice or video calls for the duration of each shift. This will involve using empathy; persuasion and de-escalation skills when contacting patients or carers who may be calling with urgent health needs.
• Exposed to highly sensitive information and will be expected to follow MPFT information governance policies at all times, particularly in relation to confidentiality and data security.
• Demonstrates duties to new starter / trainees / less experienced employees

Decisions and judgements

• Follow LAP team protocols and will be supervised either face to face or remotely.
• Demonstrate the ability to organise own workload using independent judgement to prioritise required tasks and duties.
• To work within clear guidelines and processes but will have some limited autonomy to plan and prioritise own workload and act independently.
• Demonstrate compassion and empathy when answering phone calls from patients or family members where callers may be distressed or emotional. They will be expected to recognise when and how to gain support with distressing calls, from their immediate supervisor.
• Frequent concentration when coordinating information from multiple sources and prioritising competing demands.
• Identify, and share, opportunities for service developments or quality improvements related to the LAP team.

Physical demands of the job

• Sitting for long periods of time using of a computer throughout the shift.
• Accurate typing of clinical information using at least two display screens to access information concurrently from multiple clinical systems. For example the post holder will be using call handling software and typing outcomes into the clinical system whilst accessing information about the patient from other systems.

Policy and service development

• Follow standard operating procedures and ensure effective and efficient service delivery in relation to their role.
• Participate in review and consultation on service changes as a member of the LAP team.

Financial

• Responsibility for the maintenance and safety of their own IT equipment.
• Understand and utilise quality improvement tools to enable the efficient use of resources in the LAP and wider community nursing teams.

Research and development

• Support and participate in service audits and surveys.
• Identify, and share, opportunities for service development of quality improvements related to the LAP team

Systems and equipment

• Use of desktop call handling software and inputting information into multiple electronic clinical records systems to coordinate care.
• Daily use of office software; in particular spreadsheets and word processing.
• Accurate recording and reporting using clinical systems to support the collection of data for key performance indicators.

Most challenging/difficult parts of the job

• Regular communication with distressed patients and family members who may have just been given a terminal diagnosis or poor prognosis.
• Often the first person to contact the patient or family following discharge from hospital so will have to regularly communicate with people experiencing a range of emotions, and may be subject to verbal abuse.

May be subject to verbal abuse dealing with people who are upset and will need effective communications skills and awareness of de-escalation techniques

Person Specification

Access Support Officer

Essential

• GCSE English grade C or above or equivalent experience
• NVQ Level 3 in Business Administration or equivalent qualification or equivalent knowledge gained through experience.
• Ability and experience of using IT systems including Microsoft Office and have accurate and competent keyboard skills.

Desirable

• IT qualification equivalent to the competency level of ECDL / CLAIT etc.
• Commitment to equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory practice and to work with a diverse customer base.
• Demonstrate a commitment to further training and development commensurate with the grade.
• Experience in supervising staff and motivating staff in a team environment.

Access support officer

Essential

• GCSE English grade C or above or equivalent experience
• NVQ Level 3 in Business Administration or equivalent qualification or equivalent knowledge gained through experience.
• Ability and experience of using IT systems including Microsoft Office and have accurate and competent keyboard skills.

Desirable

• Commitment to equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory practice and to work with a diverse customer base.
• Demonstrate a commitment to further training and development commensurate with the grade.
• IT qualification equivalent to the competency level of ECDL / CLAIT etc.
• Experience in supervising staff and motivating staff in a team environment.

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab) .

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab) .

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).