Job Summary

This vacancy is only open to candidates currently working for Herefordshire and Worcestershire NHS organisations. An opportunity has arisen for a motivated and enthusiastic individual to join the Validation Team as an 18 Week RTT Validation Officer. The post holder will join a team responsible for the validation of patient records against last clinic letter and clinical systems to ensure the patient is accurately recorded on the Trust Patient Administration System (PAS) or where the relevant information is not available, to note this on the patient record for further investigation. Full training will be provided and supporting Standard Operating Procedures will be made available. The purpose of the Validation team is to improve RTT pathways and ensure that patient pathways are accurate and are visible to divisions for chronological booking. The post holder will also be expected to work within the validation team potentially supporting other data quality projects as and when necessary, with a view to actively reduce patients waiting times and improving data quality across the Trust to improve patient flow. The successful candidate must be able to work on their own initiative, manage own workload once set, meet Trust and Government targets as instructed, ideally will have previous NHS/hospital experience. For further information or an informal discussion, please contact Judith Shervington [Employer hidden — sign up to reveal] or Luke Kelsall [Employer hidden — sign up to reveal].

Main Duties of the Job

• To become an expert in 18 week rules and guidance and become an expert in the Trusts Access Policy.
• Undertake extensive validation of data derived from medical records and Trust systems to ensure primary source items of dataset are accurate.
• To acquire and maintain knowledge and skills in the interpretation of relevant medical terminology.
• To identify and action data quality issues as appropriate.
• Identify and amend inaccuracies on the PAS system.
• To validate and enter 18 week RTT data accurately and efficiently onto the computerised information system (PAS) for the monitoring of patients pathways and for the collection of statistics.
• To analyse and make informed decisions regarding patient pathways from viewing electronic clinical notes.
• To respond and update all enquires sent to the Validation Queries mailbox.
• To attend any meetings and training courses as relevant to the post.
• To collect additional data on an ad-hoc basis when required by the Validation Manager/Team Leader.
• To support the RTT performance team in all aspects of monitoring the 18 Week Target to sustain the criteria necessary for the Department of Health requirements.
• To record accurately the reasons for patient breaches through documentation and submission to the performance team managers.
• To develop and maintain effective working relationships with other staff in the departments and the Trust.

About Us

[Employer hidden — sign up to reveal] is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond. The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester. Our workforce is more than 7,000 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care. You could be one of them. We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us. Our values, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do. Being open and honest, Ensuring people feel cared for, Showing respect to everyone. We are committed to developing a culture of continuous improvement by embedding the principles of our Improvement System. We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer. DBS Checks and Costs: Any applicants who are offered posts requiring a DBS check as part of their employment check will have the cost of this check (at the current rate) deducted from their salary.

Job Responsibilities

Key Working Relationships: Validation Manager, Validation Team Leader, Validation Team Members, Medical Secretaries, Information team, Directorate Management, All other Trust staff as appropriate.

Risk Assessment: Sitting at computer desk viewing computer monitors for long periods. Consistently high level of concentration required to analyse and edit patient data on PAS. Able to work in a pressured environment to external reporting deadlines.

Job Purpose: The 18 week pathway requires the NHS to measure the total period waited by each patient and to manage each patients journey from referral to treatment in a timely and efficient manner. Providing accurate information on how long pathways are is essential; improvements to services rely on information being reliable and being provided as close to real-time as possible, and reports to the DOH are produced and published so that patients can see how long they will wait at each Trust. To enable the Trust to monitor, report and performance manage the 18 week target. Referral to treatment data has to be recorded across all consultant led clinics and some other outpatient functions. The role of the Data Quality Validator is to validate and input patient information in relation to patients 18-week pathways into OASIS (PAS) on a daily basis so as to keep patient records up to date.

Key Duties include: Become an expert in 18 week rules and guidance, become an expert in the Trusts Access Policy, locate missing data by contacting medical secretaries and reviewing case notes, undertake extensive validation of data, ensure outcomes are updated, acquire medical terminology skills, identify data quality issues, amend inaccuracies on PAS, maintain confidentiality, validate RTT data into OASIS, analyse electronic clinical notes, establish good working relationships, support Validation Manager with weekly and monthly returns, answer telephone queries, respond to Validation Queries mailbox, attend meetings, liaise with Directorate Managers and Information Department, help complete returns to CCGs, support RTT performance team, record reasons for breaches, develop effective working relationships.

Standard Clauses: The purpose of this post should remain constant, but the duties and responsibilities may vary over time within the overall role and level of the post. The post holder may from time to time be asked to undertake other reasonable duties.

Person Specification

Skills and Knowledge (Essential)

• A thorough understanding of Patient Administration Systems
• Ability to understand, interpret and implement relevant national and local policy on 18 weeks
• Proven experience in the use of Microsoft Excel
• Experience of inputting and extracting data
• Ability to work independently and proactively

Experience (Essential)

• NHS Experience

Experience (Desirable)

• At Least 3 years NHS experience with managing patient pathways

Qualifications (Essential)

• Educated to GCSE standard or equivalent relevant experience

Qualifications (Desirable)

• European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) or equivalent certificated training

Employer Details

Employer: [Employer hidden — sign up to reveal]
Address: Charles Hastings Way, Worcester, Worcestershire WR5 1DD
Website: https://www.worcsacute.nhs.uk/