In accordance with the Mission, Vision and Values, and strategic directions of Provincial Health Services Authority, patient safety is a priority and a responsibility shared by everyone at PHSA, and as such, the requirement to continuously improve quality and safety is inherent in all aspects of this position.
In accordance with established policies, standards and procedures, the OR Booking/Slating clerk works in a team based environment and plays a significant role in ensuring that the overall surgical booking and slating requirements are met. As per established procedure protocols, uses computerized systems to schedule and assign the daily procedural bookings by performing duties such as identifying available booking options, preparing and editing preliminary Operating Room slate, completing and distributing final slate to designated areas, as well as compiling, maintaining and distributing designated operative statistical information and surgical waitlists, ordering office supplies, typing and filing correspondence. Responsibilities include communicating and collaborating with personnel such as operating room staff, ACU staff, slating anaesthetists, and physician's offices as required. Communicates and schedules surgical cases with patients in accordance with established procedures.
Duties/Accountabilities:
1. Receives/processes requests for surgical procedures and coordinates with the physicians and their offices in the scheduling of cases according to outlined procedures and standards by performing duties such as receiving booking requests from physicians, reviewing booking package for completeness, checking pre-admission forms for accuracy of information such as patient demographics, length and type of procedure, following up on missing information, and entering pertinent data into the computerized patient information and operating room scheduling systems to initiate patient waitlists.
2. Prepares Operating Room Slate using a computerized operating room scheduling system by performing duties such as compiling booking and scheduling information, identifying available booking options, assigning surgical cases according to allocated operating room time and anaesthetic care unit (ACU) bed availability, entering patient data, printing, and distributing booking information to designated areas.
3. Edits slate by identifying errors or conflicts such as procedure coding, equipment availability or length of case, assigning extra cases to the slate in accordance with cancellations or unused operating room time. Confirms final booking assignments (i.e. slate) with designated surgical leadership and forwards bookings to Operating Room for coding and equipment check to ensure procedure codes and case care configurations are correct. Prints and distributes copy of final approved slate to various hospital locations and physicians’ offices as appropriate.
4. Ensures equipment requirements such as microscopes, lasers and instruments are available and those procedures that require the same equipment are scheduled consecutively to ensure efficient use of equipment. Notifies Radiology of x-ray requirements.
5. Communicates and collaborates with personnel such as operating room staff, ACU staff, slating anaesthetists, physician's offices as required to determine operating room assignments, optimize utilization of operating room time, confirm booked procedures, identify any discrepancies/changes and facilitate daily slate revisions. Communicates and schedules surgical cases with patients in accordance with established procedures to ensure optimum booking time is used and patients’ appointments and surgeries are scheduled in a manner that meets their needs.
6. Maintains filing system for all surgical procedure booking requisitions by creating files, making labels and indexing as appropriate, establishing bring forward systems as well as filing and purging material according to established procedures.
7. Compiles, maintains and distributes designated operating room usage statistical data by methods such as gathering information, inputting statistical data into computer such as operative information, performing arithmetic calculations such as adding and multiplying, and generating reports and audits using computerized information systems and advanced word-processing and spreadsheet software. Forwards statistical data to designated personnel in accordance with established procedures.
8. Generates a variety of reports relating to operating room bookings and surgical waitlists following established processes, such as utilization reports for surgeons and waitlist data for Ministry of Health. Distributes the surgical waitlist to applicable surgeons for review. Maintains ongoing updates of the surgical waitlist when returned from the surgeon’s office by rescheduling or cancelling cases as indicated on the returned waitlist and forwarding an updated waitlist to surgeon’s office and other areas as required.
9. Orients new team members to the operating room booking and slating procedures through informal sessions by providing an overview of the area/resources, demonstrating use of various equipment and/or software packages such as photocopiers and operating room scheduling component of the operating room information system, and providing information about policies and procedures to promote effective resource utilization.
10. Performs other clerical functions such as answering telephone inquiries, operating office equipment, preparing and distributing operative charts, ordering supplies, and typing and filing correspondence as required.
11. Performs other related duties as required.
Qualifications:
Education, Training and Experience
- Grade 12 and three years’ recent related experience or an equivalent combination of education, training and experience.
- Ability to keyboard 45 w.p.m.
- Ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing.
- Knowledge of medical terminology.
- Ability to deal with others effectively.
- Physical ability to carry out the duties of the position.
- Ability to organize work.
- Ability to operate related equipment.