Administrative Assistant - Patient Navigation

Position Summary

At the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre our patient care is delivered via a tumour stream model. This means that a patient’s care is coordinated and provided by a multi-disciplinary team of people who have specialist knowledge of a specific type of cancer. The Patient administrator is an integral member of this team, playing an important role in providing administration support for a team of Patient Navigators and their medical staff. The Patient administrator assists with administrative duties such as scheduling of appointments, change appointments or clarifying appointment instructions. If the caller needs clinician, the Patient Administrator transfers the call to the most appropriate clinical staff member or service in a timely manner. They are an integral member in supporting patient flow through the cancer care system and play an important role in facilitating timely patient access. Patient Administrators are responsible for ensuring the patient’s diagnostic, treatment and clinic review appointments are appropriately timed, sequenced and coordinated. This includes ensuring, where clinically appropriate, that multiple appointments are booked on the same day and or/ face to face consultation are replaced with video/telehealth consultations, to reduce the patients’ travel burden. The Patient Administrator works closely with the tumour stream specialist nurses, doctors and Patient Navigators who will provide support and direction regarding daily work priorities. The Patient Administrator provides administrative support for by ensuring all required patient diagnostic and pre-treatment assessment data is prepared and available for investigation and diagnostic purposes. The Patient Administrator also works closely with the Registrations and Referrals team to ensure that urgent patients are identified and prioritised quickly for Registration and first appointments.

Enterprise Agreement

Health and Allied Services, Managers and Administrative Workers (Victorian Public Sector) (Single Interest Employers) Enterprise Agreement 2021-2025

Classification or Salary Range

HS1

Immunisation Risk Category

Key Relationships

Internal

• Tumour stream medical and nursing staff
• Patient Navigators from other tumour streams
• Departmental Administration Leads
• Patient Services Administration teams – Radiotherapy, Day Therapy, Cancer Imaging, Specialist Clinics, Support Services
• Radiation Oncology
• Radiotherapy

External

• Clinical and administrative staff from Precinct partner hospital where appropriate

Skills

Essential Requirements

• Advanced computer skills including word processing, Microsoft Office Suite, & spreadsheets. Competent in Microsoft Word, Publisher, PowerPoint, Excel, Access, Outlook, Interviewer preferably in a health care setting
• Experience in a range of administration and office duties
• Demonstrated ability to prioritise and meet deadlines, with the capacity to systematically manage and organise multiple and concurrent deadlines
• High level oral and written communication skills including interpersonal skills
• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail, with a proven track record in accurate data entry.
• Meets the standards of the Victorian Public Sector Employees Code of Conduct
• Organised and flexible in approach to all tasks
• Consistent delivery of tasks/performance objectives
• Demonstrated ability to work both independently and as part of a team
• Comfortable working in a multidisciplinary environment with health and medical and nursing professionals within a cancer centre
• Ability to perform desk based duties for prolonged periods
• Strong customer service skills, able to communicate effectively and respectfully with patients and staff
• Able to work effectively in a fast paced environment and manage conflicting priorities
• Work independently and or/ cohesively with minimum supervision

Desirable Requirements

• Previous health service administration experience.
• Experience using patient administration systems and electronic medical records, in particular iPM and Epic (similar electronic medical record)

Key Accountabilities

1. (a) Coordinates, updates and organises patient care

• Provide administration support for various tumour streams, including prioritisation of daily tasks.
• Efficient and effective handling of telephone enquiries and bookings.
• Manages day to day administration tasks as designated.
• Completes faxing, photocopying and ordering of office supplies
• Manages all mail, both incoming and outgoing
• Able to update and administer patient demographics
• Ability to adapt to a variety of teams on a rotational basis
• Accurately records patient information into databases
• Works together with other administration staff in Ambulatory Services to ensure smooth running of all departments.
• Ensures effective use of resources
• Liaison with internal and external stakeholders and departments.
• Undertakes professional development as required

2. Provide exceptional customer service

• Provide a high level of customer service to patients, carers and staff within a designated team or portfolio
• Assists with staff enquiries or directs to the relevant person.
• Obtain the required information from patients, carers and staff in an efficient and courteous manner
• Respond to patient and/or staff queries in a timely and respectful manner
• Ensure phone and email enquiries are triaged to the correct destination

3. Monitor and improve team performance

• Liaise with direct line manager to trouble-shoot any technical issues experienced by the work group in a timely manner to ensure quality is maintained
• Manage patient records in accordance with hospital policy and Data Accountability Framework to maintain data integrity at all times
• Ensure that the performance of the team meets the standards required by the organisation through a regular system of auditing performance
• Asses situations or information, clearly and accurately communicate information and make recommendations to line management
• Identify opportunities for process improvement and lead the team to implement appropriate solutions with support from the line manager

4. Support the work of the team and department

• Work cooperatively as part of the team and assist other areas and staff as necessary
• Ensure invoices from external providers are collated and processed by the team
• Other tasks as directed by your team leader or manager

5. Provide reports to line manager as requested and maintain key relationships

• Provide routine and/or ad-hoc reports as requested by the line manager
• Maintain relationships with external providers contracted to support Peter Mac patients