Emergency Department Medical Secretary

Position Summary / Details of Service:

The Emergency Department provides consultant lead acute emergency care to adult patients. Presentations number in excess of 66,000 patients per year. The secretarial service within the department provides direct administrative support to the Emergency Medicine consultant body. The secretarial role is diverse and varied. As part of the role the post holder will be required to engage with multiple stakeholders to ensure the efficient operation of the department’s activities. Stakeholders include; Solicitors, Coroners, An Garda Siochana. Patients and other healthcare services.

Principal Duties & Responsibilities:

Administration

• Provide secretarial cover for multiple consultants to include typing and dictation.
• Ensure the efficient day-to-day administration of area of responsibility and providing cross-cover for other secretaries as required.
• Ensure deadlines are met and that service levels are maintained.
• Ensure an even distribution of workload among team, taking into account absence due to annual leave etc.
• Support the preparation and issuing of office documentation (correspondence, reports, etc.) to the highest possible standard by monitoring and reviewing the work of the team to ensure quality and accuracy.
• Ensure that archives and records are accurate and readily available.
• Maintain confidentiality of documentation, records, etc.
• Maximise the use of technology in ensuring work is completed to a high standard.
• Ensure line management is kept informed of issues.
• Ensure that stakeholders are kept informed and that their views are communicated to middle management.
• Organise and attend meetings as required.
• Take minutes at meetings and prepare for timely circulation following meeting.
• Dealing with all Consultant’s post in a prompt and precise manner.
• Dealing with radiology/blood reports, verifying data
• Typing dictated letters by Consultants and their teams on T-Pro.
• Records managed including retrieval, storage, digitisation and archiving departmental records, both locally and with service providers.
• Issuing new and follow up patient appointments.
• Organising relevant reports for patient clinics
• Any duties that may be assigned by your Line Manager
• Liaising with relevant staff of the department concerning any difficulties or queries regarding clinical information.

Patient Service

• Promote and maintain a patient focused environment including monitoring efficiency of service provided by the team and notifying Line Manager of any deficiencies.
• Ensure that service users are treated with dignity and respect.
• Act on feedback from service users and report same to Line Manager.

Human Resources

• Ensure an even distribution of workload amongst the team, considering absence due to annual leave etc.
• Co-operate and work in harmony with other teams and disciplines.
• Assist consultants with the management of NCHD and on-call rosters.
• Support the consultants to manage the performance and evaluation of NCHD staff.
• Under the guidance of the consultants; engage with locum agencies and locum doctors to ensure safe staffing levels in the department.

Service Delivery and Improvement

• Actively participate in innovation and support change and improvement initiatives within the service; implement agreed changes to the administration of the service.
• Encourage and support staff through change processes.
• Ensuring compliance with Freedom of Information legislation as it applies to the post of medical secretary.
• To act as appropriate as secretary to other groups or committees as may be required, from time to time.
• Managing the performance, accuracy and efficiency of workload associated with duties and responsibilities of the grade of medical secretary.
• Support consultants and NCHD’s with research activities including records retrieval and management.
• Planning, organising and prioritising tasks assigned by the Line Manager and setting objectives for completion of these tasks/duties.
• Ensuring that area goals are met on a daily/weekly/monthly/annual basis.
• Interpretation and implementation of Hospital and Health Board policies and procedures.
• In consultation with line manager, conduct audits of procedures within the department to ensure best practice.
• Preparation and completion of statistical data relevant to the speciality.

Standards, Policies, Procedures and Legislation

• Maintain own knowledge of employer policies, procedures, guidelines and practices, to perform the role effectively and to ensure current work standards are met by own team.
• Maintain own knowledge of relevant regulations and legislation e.g. Financial Regulations, Health & Safety Legislation, Employment Legislation, FOI Acts, GDPR.
• Ensure consistent adherence to procedures within area of responsibility.
• Adequately identifies, assesses, manages and monitors risk within their area of responsibility.
• Engage in the HSE performance achievement process in conjunction with your Line Manager and staff as appropriate.
• Have a working knowledge of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) Standards as they apply to the role for example, Standards for Healthcare, National Standards for the Prevention and Control of Healthcare Associated Infections, Hygiene Standards etc. and comply with associated HSE protocols for implementing and maintaining these standards as appropriate to the role.
• Support, promote and actively participate in sustainable energy, water and waste initiatives to create a more sustainable, low carbon and efficient health service.

The job description is an outline of the post as it is currently perceived by the hospital and will be subject to review and amendment. This job description will therefore be subject to change in light of the various strategies for the hospital and the development of the Clinical Directorate model and any future developments that arise and will evolve and change over time.

Selection Criteria: 

Selection criteria outline the qualifications, skills, knowledge and/or experience that the successful candidate would need to demonstrate for successful discharge of the responsibilities of the post. 

Applications will be assessed on the basis of how well candidates satisfy these criteria.

Mandatory:

1. Professional Qualifications, Experience, etc

(a) Eligible applicants will be those who on the closing date for the competition:

(i) Have satisfactory experience as a Clerical Officer in the HSE, TUSLA, other statutory

health agencies, or a body which provides services on behalf of the HSE under Section

38 of the Health Act 2004

Or

(ii) Have obtained a pass (Grade D) in at least five subjects from the approved list of

subjects in the Department of Education Leaving Certificate Examination, including

Mathematics and English or Irish1. Candidates should have obtained at least Grade C on higher level papers in three subjects in that examination.

Or

(iii) Have completed a relevant examination at a comparable standard in any equivalent

examination in another jurisdiction

Or

(iv) Hold a comparable and relevant third level qualification of at least level 6 on the

National Qualifications Framework maintained by Qualifications and Quality Ireland,

(QQI).

Note1:

Candidates must achieve a pass in Ordinary or Higher level papers. A pass in a foundation level paper is not acceptable.

Candidates must have achieved these grades on the Leaving Certificate Established programme or the Leaving Certificate Vocational programme.

The Leaving Certification Applied Programme does not fulfil the eligibility criteria.

and

(b) Candidates must possess the requisite knowledge and ability, including a high standard of suitability, for the proper discharge of the office.

Desirable:

• Knowledge and experience of Microsoft Office, in particular MS Outlook/Word/Excel
• Experience with dictation software e.g. T-Pro and analogue formats.
• Qualification/experience as medical typist. Evidence of minimum 50wpm desirable
• Highly motivated, enthusiastic with skills and experience in the area of healthcare
• General knowledge of the health service and how it works.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills including the ability to present information in a clear and concise manner.
• Excellent planning and organisational skills including using computer technology effectively.
• Commitment to providing a quality service and customer service skills.
• Flexibility, problem solving and initiative skills including the ability to adapt to change.
• The ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
• Experience in working in healthcare settings and using medical terminology to deliver accurate typed reports.
• Desirable, experience with dictation typing of medical reports.
• Medico-legal experience in preparing case files.

Informal Enquiries ONLY to: (Please note NO APPLICATIONS will be accepted via the Informal Email)