ROLE DESCRIPTION

At Mary Begg, our front office receptionist acts as a first point of contact for all patients, clients, relatives, visitors and health care professionals.  He/she assists new clients with their clinic registration process; advices clients on MBHS services and availability of doctor’s for consultation visits on the day; processes and retrieves the patient’s medical health record; and liaises with nursing and medical staff to direct patients to the appropriate consultation room or required services (i.e. laboratory, diagnostic imaging, pharmacy etc.) for assessment and treatment.

Our front office receptionist conducts herself/himself in a professional manner and always demonstrates good customer service towards all our clients, visitors, health professionals and MBHS employees.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Receive, assist and direct clients in a courteous, efficient and welcoming manner projecting a positive, friendly and professional image.
• Always demonstrate a warm outgoing personality, with the ability to interact in a supportive manner with persons of all backgrounds and cultures.
• Assist clients or family members in completing any required information and registration forms.  Answer any questions the patient may have and if unable to do so refer to an appropriate staff member.
• Responsible in entering all new patients details into the patient registration system, either manually or electronically.
• Responsible for maintaining an efficient and orderly appointments system. Advise appropriate healthcare professionals of approaching appointments in a timely fashion and ensure patient’s medical file is always available prior to their appointment time.
• Receive and make telephone calls as instructed. Identify yourself openly. Speak clearly and politely. Divert calls promptly or take messages ensuring accuracy of detail and timely delivery to the recipient.
• Using appropriate MBHS infection control procedures, maintain own work environment in a tidy and safe way and free from hazards.
• Maintain the paper/electronic file that makes up the patient medical record and be fully conversant in the filing system of your work area. Ensure medical records are always kept in good repair with all necessary information on the outside cover clearly visible.
• Ensure that patient waiting times for OPD/ specialist appointments are kept to a minimum.  Monitor patient flow for all appointments and ask patients waiting for longer than 15 minutes if they have seen the doctor.  Investigate delays and reassure and/or explain to patients the reason for delays (i.e. emergency situation, doctor running late etc.).
• Inform walk-in patients of how long they might have to wait to see a doctor and let them know that OPD appointments might take priority, unless in emergency situations.
• Alert medical doctors if patients have been waiting longer than 15-30 minutes for an appointment.
• Give walk-in patients/clients the phone number for booking appointments as they leave.
• Hand out random waiting times survey for patients/clients to fill and collect these when the patient leaves the clinic.
• Cumulate all waiting times survey results and submit to the assistant clinic manager for review and action.
• Maintain the client’s right to privacy and confidentiality throughout the MBHS registration process.
• With direction from the triage staff, call doctors on-call for any out-of-hours patient emergencies.  If the doctors do not respond, contact the Chief Medical Officer.
• Patient medical files must not be removed from the health facility for any reason. Log all files that are removed from the clinic for any reason and monitor their return, ensuring patient confidentiality is not breached.
• Inspect all medical files to ensure that charge sheets have not been left inside in error.
• Prompt relevant healthcare professional if a charge sheet is incomplete or not signed.
• Answer all questions the client may have concerning invoice payments. Refer to the appropriate manager for any issues you are unable to make clear.
• Keep up-to-date lists of credit clients and procedures.
• Inspect all medical files to ensure that all patient personal details are complete on the OPD Consultation form or in their medical file.
• Work with the finance department concerning lost receipts, receipts for insurance purposes, refunds, daily deposits of cash, credit card receipts, checks, and credit problems and accounts receivables.
• Process closing day and back up report through the computer system in the morning and evening time.
• Notify your supervisor, assistant clinic manager or senior management staff when an issue or incident arises with a client or staff member.
• Assess and report any problems with the computer program or hardware to the IT Department, or any other member of management if IT is not available.
• Be available to work any shift according to the roster’s requirements (morning, afternoon, night).
• Comply with MBHS sickness and absenteeism policy.
• Perform any other duties or reasonable requests assigned by the Front Office Unit Leader/ Assistant Clinic Manager or Clinic/ Hospital Manager as part of your job specification.

EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS

• Must have a completed Grade 12 certificate with a merit or above in English language and Mathematics
• Must have Diploma in any Business related studies
• Must have at least 2 years minimum work experience
• Previous experience using Health Management information Systems