Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services. Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital. Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions. Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients. In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research. We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit. Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’. Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’. The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients. We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS. Job overview The Patient Pathway Validator will lead on the tracking and validation of pathways of patients ensuring that all data records relating to patient pathway management (e.g RTT) for patients are accurate, up to date, and reflect national and local policies. This covers both admitted and non-admitted elective care and is used to support the trust to manage its critical access targets. The post holder will be responsible for validating data for patient pathways and therefore proficiency using patient administration systems (e.g Epic) is essential. They will be required to collect and interpret data from a variety of sources and data systems, within and external to the Trust. The post holder will alert the Validation Team Leader of consistent data recording or performance issues so that corrective action can be taken to avoid unnecessary delays in patient care. They will undertake detailed patient level validation and liaison with directorate teams and external organisations to obtain and record accurate information for monitoring purposes. The post holder will also be required to act as a key contact for Trust admissions and outpatients booking teams, acting as a source of specialist knowledge relating to patient pathway management such as RTT and supporting process for continuous improvement of data recording. Main duties of the job The central administration and data quality team ensures that all patient referrals are identified and acted upon consistently to ensure the organisation is providing responsive and high quality of care. The teams collectively support the organisation to identify, validate, and take corrective action when data quality issues arise to minimise delays to patient care. The central administration and data quality team proactively acts as an expert advisory and audit service to the organisation to ensure that operational rules, procedures and data records associated with RTT and other patient pathways are accurate, up to date and reflect both national and local policies across the organisation. This newly consolidated service now sits centrally reporting to the Director of Performance and Information within the Chief Operating Officer portfolio. There are 3 key functional areas to enable it to fulfil its purpose which include Referral Management and Booking, Validation and Tracking and Data Quality and Assurance. Through dedicated improvement and training teams within the newly consolidated service, they will support the organisation build capabilities aligned to administration best practice and in turn reduce patient risk associated with admin processes following our recent Epic implementation. Working for our organisation Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust comprises five of the UK’s best known hospitals – Guy’s, St Thomas’, Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Royal Brompton and Harefield – as well as community services in Lambeth and Southwark, all with a long history of high quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation. We are among the UK’s busiest, most successful foundation trusts. We provide specialist care for patients including heart and lung, cancer and renal services as well as a full range of local hospital and community services for people in Lambeth and Southwark. We have a long tradition of clinical and scientific achievement and – as part of King’s Health Partners – we are one of England’s eight academic health sciences centres, bringing together world-class clinical services, teaching and research. We have one of the National Institute for Health Research’s biomedical research centres, established with King’s College London in 2007, as well as dedicated clinical research facilities. We have around 22,700 staff, making us one of the largest NHS Trusts in the country and one of the biggest employers locally. We aim to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve and continue to develop new and existing partnerships with local people, patients, neighbouring NHS organisations, local authorities and charitable bodies and GPs. Detailed job description and main responsibilities · To have a full and deep understanding of both national and local policies relating to patient pathway management (e.g RTT). · Develop a specialist understanding of patient pathways in specific specialities, to ensure that patient clock starts and clock stops are interpreted accurately, in line with national and local access policies. · Ensure that this specialist knowledge is kept up to date and changes in legislation and local policy are communicated effectively within the organisation, this includes communicating complex information to groups to ensure consistency and conformity with regulations. · Be fully proficient on all patient information systems throughout the Trust in order to extract information and monitor patients’ pathways (e.g. Epic) · Using their own initiative, supported by local guidance and the Patient Access Policy to implement, analyse, interpret and apply judgements involving the 18 weeks rules and definitions to ensure compliance. · Be responsible for ensuring that patient records have the correct clock starts and clock stops, by validating and interpreting patient pathways from first outpatient appointment, through diagnostics, treatment planning and treatment. This may involve adjusting / correcting patient referrals where inaccurate data entries have been put in by divisions. · Meet personal targets for validation volumes and accuracy, as agreed with the Validation Team Leader. · Liaise with central and directorate admissions and outpatients booking teams to support the continuous improvement in directorate understanding of national pathway management rules (e.g RTT) and data quality. · Highlight any systematic data recording errors or performance concerns to the Validation Team Leader. · Be responsible for liaison with staff from within the trust and referring organisations to collect accurate clock starts, stop and tertiary data sets and to provide stage of pathway information. Ensure that where patients have been referred for inpatient diagnostic/treatment that the clock start date has been clearly identified. · Ensure that where patients have been referred for inpatient diagnostic/treatment that the clock start date has been clearly identified. · Ensure directorate staff have access to data and reports relating to patient pathway management that support the correct data entry or validation of records. · Support the Validation Team Leader, Validation Manager and other operational managers in identifying, reporting and resolving data collection issues for queries relating to clock starts and stops in patient pathways. · Report to the Validation Team Leader and/or Validation Manager any potential clinical governance issues, or complaints, so they are dealt with in a timely and appropriate manner. · Ensure that directorate managers are aware in a timely manner of any previously unreported potential breaches of waiting times targets that are caused by validation. · Analyse data as directed by the Validation Manager. · Assist in external reporting of patient pathway information as required. · Work with Performance and Information staff to ensure existing and future reports and monitoring tools are of the highest quality and fit for purpose. · To ensure that all daily tasks and ongoing workloads are prioritised and completed within agreed timeframes. · To cover for colleagues during periods of absence and to cover work across multiple sites. Experience of working with referrals and Minimum Data Set Information. · Work within a multi-disciplinary team in developing the service in line with departmental plans and Trust corporate objectives. Person specification Qualifications/Education Essential criteria Evidence of some formal further training in short courses, experience of a range of admin practices and with significant experience of hospital administration Good general education with English and Maths to GCSE standard or equivalent Desirable criteria IT package qualification/training, e.g. European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) Previous experience Essential criteria Proven administrative experience Significant proven experience of delivering to high standards in a fastpaced high volume customer care environment. Ability to deal with a range of issues independently and efficiently Experience of managing patient pathways and working with the RTT Guidelines. Desirable criteria Experience of an administrative role within the NHS Experience of working with referrals and Minimum Data Set Information In-depth knowledge patient pathway management (incl. national RTT waiting times) Skills Essential criteria Demonstrable experience of data collection, presentation, report writing and handling of data quality issues Organisational and time mangement skills to meet deadlines Strong IT skills, particularly with relation to Microsoft Office packages, e.g. Word, Outlook and Excel Possess a ‘can do’ attitude, with a flexible approach to work and the ability to cope with changing demands Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to liaise effectively with a wide range of multi-disciplinary staff Proficient using patient administration systems (e.g Epic) To be flexible in their approach to the work, according to priorities and changing organisational systems Desirable criteria Knowledge of medical terminology Guy’s and St Thomas’ celebrates, respects and values the diversity of its staff and patients. We review our policies, procedures and practices to ensure that all employees, patients and carers are treated equitable according to their needs. We are actively committed to ensuring that no one who applies for a job, works or study’s at the Trust, or accesses our services is discriminated against on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religion or belief, age, gender identity , gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, or marital/civil partnership. Applications are welcomed from applicants with a disability. We can make reasonable adjustments and offer support and advice in a variety of ways throughout the application process. Equality of opportunity is our policy. As an organisation we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This means that some staff groups will increasingly be asked to work a more flexible shift pattern so that we can offer services in the evenings or at weekends. Flexible working We are committed to supporting all employees to achieve a healthy work life balance and to work in a way that is best for them and our patients. We will consider all requests to work flexibly, taking in to account the individual’s personal circumstances as well the needs of the service. We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their individual circumstances with the recruiting manager as part of the on-boarding process. Your e-mail address is important to us - We communicate to all job applicants via the e-mail address which has been provided on the application form. Please ensure that you check your e-mail on a regular basis. Please apply for this post by clicking "Apply Online Now." Applicant requirements The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions. Further details / informal visits contact Name Shadaine Douglas Job title Assistant Service Manager Email address [email protected]