Perioperative Services Practice Assistant BWH

Job Summary

Perioperative Services Practice Assistant - 24hr Weekend Day - BWH OR Clinical Support. Schedule: Saturday and Sunday; 12-hour shift each day. Under the direction of the Senior Operations Manager, the Practice Assistant coordinates the safe, efficient, and effective flow of patients through the unit. The position accomplishes a breadth of simultaneous tasks necessary to the support and efficient functioning of the Peri-Anesthesia Units with an average of forty to sixty separate admissions and discharges daily. Consistently interacts with frequently anxious perioperative patients, their families, and a highly stressed multidisciplinary surgical unit.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

• Courteously greets patients and family members, completes all admission information for them upon arrival, correctly identifies each patient, places correct armband, and determines NPO status.
• Notifies appropriate nurse of the arrival of Day Surgery patients, Pre-op Holding of same day admissions and/or PACU of inpatient admissions from the Main OR.
• Assigns patients to beds according to the plan set forth by the Nurse in Charge.
• Logs in all patients into Epic promptly, accurately for event times and length of stay ensuring correct statistical data and financial reimbursement.
• Corrects patient file in the Epic system by deleting discharged patients.
• Prepares the patient schedules for the front desk check in area, the pre- and postoperative areas, and the PACU. Updates schedule and informs all appropriate personnel and areas of OR time changes.
• Ascertains that valuables are properly cared for.
• Documents family member information for MD and determines discharge transportation status for day surgery patients.
• Periodically and independently updates family as to patient's status, changes and delays, and acts as general liaison among patient, family, and surgical staff.
• In the preoperative area reviews charts for abnormal flagged items in conjunction with Epic notes.
• Maintains and updates MD service lists as well as those of radiology, respiratory, and EKG technicians and others with correct page numbers. Records and updates list of Anesthesia staff coverage for PACU.
• Courteously and appropriately answers a multi-line telephone set within four rings, confirming scheduled arrival times, issuing preoperative instructions to patients, accepting clearance calls from 48 operating rooms, eliciting any special patient requirements, directing post-operative patient calls to the appropriate medical or nursing staff, and screening and routing all other calls to proper areas.
• Interprets or arranges language interpretation for patients and families.
• Maintains par levels for all supplies for the unit, including, but not limited to, forms and secretarial supplies, respiratory, value links supplies, food stuffs, patient controlled anesthesia supplies, epidural pumps, oximeter probes, and EKG supplies.
• Follows up with Clinical Engineering on the status of repaired or replaced equipment and reports same to the Nurse in Charge.
• Documents quality assurance activities for various procedures and devices as needed.
• Arranges for, or participates directly in, the transportation of patients from the unit.
• Ability to float to all other areas as necessary. Is cross-trained to perform essential secretarial duties of the PACU, Preop, ERU, and OR desks. Performs all other duties as assigned.
• Runs reports from EPIC electronic medical record system to determine the number of out of OR patients expected, flags arrival times and external appointment times for PreOp Nurse In Charge.
• Runs daily report from EPIC for next day reminder calls to place to all surgical patients.
• Walks all out of OR patients to their appointment destinations prior to surgery (Mammography, Nuclear Medicine, CT Scan, Radiology).

Qualifications

High school diploma, partial college preferred. Customer service and secretarial experience in a hospital setting. Bilingual desirable.

Skills and Abilities

• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Knowledge of current medical and surgical technology, electronic medical record systems helpful.
• General computer literacy; data entry skills.
• Self-direction, independent thinker, ability to prioritize and maintain confidentiality.
• Physical ability to push/pull occupied beds and wheelchairs.