Patient Experience/Pals Assistant

Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a dynamic, motivated and professional individual to join the PALS and Complaints Team at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. The role is offered on a full-time basis, working 37.5hrs per week Monday to Friday. This is an office-based role.

The post holder will be responsible for independently managing their own caseload, which will include providing advice, information and support to patients, their families/carers and members of the public. If you are able to work well under pressure and enjoy dealing directly with people we would like to hear from you. Previous experience of managing PALS/complaints is essential and ideally you will have experience of working in the NHS and in a customer-focused role. Meticulous attention to detail and a high standard of written work is also paramount for this role. It is vital the post holder is a good listener and effective team player. A professional, caring and respectful manner must be demonstrated at all times.

In return, we can offer you a role where no two days are the same and which enables you to improve the experience of patients, visitors and carers who use our services.

Main duties of the job

Contribute to a high-quality integrated PALS and Complaints service for patients, carers and members of the public who want to make a complaint or are seeking information, help, advice and/or the resolution of concerns or enquiries.

Acting as a point of contact for patients raising queries or concerns on the phone, via email or in person. Providing compassionate support and advice for patients, families and staff members involved in the Complaints/PALS process. Build and maintain good relationships with clinical and non-clinical staff across the Trust to help resolve patients' concerns quickly and efficiently, negotiate solutions on their behalf and ensure they receive practical advice and support in a sensitive, appropriate and effective way.

Recognise and escalate concerns or risks appropriate to senior staff and work closely with the Complaints Officer and collaboratively with all members of the Quality Team and other members of the Trust.

This role provides the main interface with complainants, some of whom may be challenging. It is therefore vital the post holder is a good listener and effective team player and will need to be able to communicate information effectively to members of the public, staff and volunteers and provide support to them as required. A professional, caring and respectful manner must be demonstrated at all times.

About us

RNOH Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust (RNOH) is the largest orthopaedic hospital in the UK and a global leader in our field. We provide a dynamic working environment where we support frontline staff to implement improvements so that we can realise our vision of being a world-leading neuro-musculoskeletal hospital providing the best patient care and staff experience in the NHS, delivering world-leading research, and offering a strong foundation of education, training and career progression. Our dedicated staff come from diverse backgrounds, and our patients benefit from the wide range of experience they bring to the trust. RNOH brings unrivalled expertise together in one place allowing us to deliver some of the world's most complex and innovative care to our patients. RNOH is rated good by the CQC and covers two sites, one in central London and one in Stanmore - which has recently opened The Stanmore Building, a new, state-of-the-art inpatient facility.

Job responsibilities

Key relationships

• Patients and the Public
• Colleagues in the Quality Team
• Interpreting Services
• Divisional/Unit Management Teams
• Executive Team
• External Solicitors
• Other relevant agencies
• Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO)
• Advocacy Services

Job Purpose

The PALS/patient experience assistant is the main point of contact for individuals wishing to raise concerns or seeking advice or information about Trust services. The post holder is required to adopt a flexible and supportive approach to resolving requests for information regarding Trust services via the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) or its complaints functions. The post holder provides a visible and effective service by ensuring patients, their families, carers and representatives, and the public have access to and receive high quality and timely information and signposting about the Trust, related health and social care services, and their own personal information.

The post holder is an essential point of contact in working closely with front line staff to receive, manage and respond to formal and informal enquiries and complaints in line with Trust policy and procedure and NHS Complaints Regulations. This role provides the main interface with complainants, some of whom may be challenging. It is therefore vital the post holder is a good listener and effective team player and will need to be able to communicate information effectively to members of the public, staff and volunteers and provide support to them as required. A professional, caring and respectful manner must be demonstrated at all times.

The Post holder will need to be able to prepare and assist in the provision of data and reports for feedback on patient experience to the Divisions and Quality team. Post holders may come into contact with patients, their carers/family, with advocates and with staff who may express a range of emotions including distress or anger as a result of an incident, breach of confidentiality or alleged failing in care. The ability to act with diplomacy, empathy and professionalism is expected at all times.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• Acting as a point of contact for patients raising queries or concerns on the phone, via email or in person. This may include attending the ward to discuss issues with inpatients and their families.
• Providing compassionate support for patients, families and staff members involved in the PALS process.
• Advising patients and their families of the PALS and Complaints processes and assisting them with the process where required.
• Build and maintain good relationships with clinical and non-clinical staff across the Trust to help resolve patients' concerns quickly and efficiently, negotiate solutions on their behalf and ensure they receive practical advice and support in a sensitive, appropriate and effective way.
• Working collaboratively with a variety of staff to resolve queries and concerns in a timely way.
• Ensuring that concerns are escalated to relevant staff within the hospital if they cannot be resolved within set timescales.
• Manage a caseload of individual concerns from initial contact to liaising with unit managers who are responsible for providing the response. This will include administrative logging on Ulysses, identifying the key issues to be addressed and reviewing responses to ensure they cover all aspects of the concern raised.
• Maintaining accurate and detailed records of concerns and queries raised by patients and their families and the outcome of local resolution.
• Central point of contact for staff requiring information about PALS activity including the provision of reports based on information derived from the Ulysses Database.
• Identify and produce reports of themes highlighted through PALS and Complaints indicating any subsequent changes in practice for inclusion in departmental/quality reports.
• Exercise high levels of concentration given the unpredictable nature of the work. The post holder must be able to prioritise and manage the competing demands of their workload.
• Provide non-clinical advice to patients/service users or carers and be responsible for escalating a concern or complaint where patient safety appears to be at risk.

Complaints

• Provide compassionate support for patients or families who wish to make a formal complaint. This may include documentation of a verbal complaint or assistance in writing a formal complaint letter.
• Ensure that the complaints database and records are accurate and up to date.
• Communicate verbally and in writing with complainants to discuss the management of their complaint and offer information on the process that will be followed.
• Recognise and escalate concerns or risks appropriate to senior staff.
• Work closely with the Complaints Officer.
• Assist in the provision of data and reports in relation to complaints trends.
• Ensure that complainants are kept informed at all stages of the progress of their complaint including when changes or delays occur within the agreed timescale.
• Liaise with all levels of staff across the organisation to ensure that complaints are handled speedily and effectively.
• Provide administrative support in the organisation of internal or external meetings for the resolution of complaints, including minute taking.
• Contribute to learning lessons events so that local actions can be implemented across the Trust.
• Support the KO41 process, ensuring that all required information is in place.

Friends & Family Test

• Provide administrative support for the Friends and Family Test by monitoring response rates and preparing data for feedback to the wards and specialties to ensure that they are aware of reported patient experience.
• Prepare Friends and Family data for the monthly Quality report to ensure the trust is aware of reported patient experience.
• Providing support for external reporting of the Friends and Family Test data.
• Work collaboratively to help ensure that queries and concerns are dealt with or escalated effectively.
• Assist in the provision of data for the Monthly Balance Scorecard.

Interpreting Services

• Ensure that issues raised by service users are documented and escalated appropriately.
• Provide information and data to staff who wish to measure the impact of their quality improvement projects on patient experience.
• Use your knowledge of patient concerns to identify possible patient experience improvement projects.
• Participate actively in identified projects to improve patient experience including helping to develop patient stories.
• Provide administrative support for the Trust's Improving Patient Experience Committee.
• Provide training for other staff in the Trust in providing high-quality patient experience.
• Provide administrative support for identified Trust wide patient experience projects.
• Work collaboratively with all members of the Quality Team and other members of the Trust. The role is based at the Stanmore site but the post holder may be required to attend the Bolsover Street site on occasion. This role is office-based.

Person Specification

Communication & Relationship Skills

• Excellent written and spoken communication.
• Significant customer care experience.
• NHS experience.
• Experience of mediation or conflict resolution.

Knowledge, Training & Experience

• Educated to a minimum of GCSE/O level standard.
• Experience of dealing with the public.
• Experience in an administrative role.
• NHS and complaints handling experience.
• Experience of mediation or conflict resolution.

Analytical & Judgment Skills

• Ability to maintain an objective approach in gathering information following receipt of, and investigation into complaints.

Planning & Organisational Skills

• The ability to plan and deliver a structured work programme.
• Manage multiple tasks efficiently in a complex, changing environment.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer name

Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust

£31,944 to £34,937 a year Per Annum Inclusive of HCAS