GENERAL SUMMARY:

Reporting to the Practice Manager, arranges all surgical procedures of assigned surgeons, prepares the daily surgery schedule and coordinates the scheduling of surgical procedures with hospital surgical services.

II. REPRESENTATIVE FUNCTIONS: 

Corresponds with surgeons and office staff to obtain all required information to schedule hospital-wide surgical procedures.  Clarifies the exact procedure(s) details, verifies the physicians procedure code and corresponding equipment list.
  Enters all surgical requirements into the scheduling system and reviews potential scheduling options with physician and staff.  Estimates the approximate case time required based on past practice and varied surgeon requirements.  Reviews all case requests for potential consideration for scheduling into reserved specialty time blocks.  Enters procedure CPT codes for all patients to facilitate the reimbursement process.  Continually manipulates and re-arranges surgical cases to resolve scheduling conflicts and develop the daily surgical schedules optimizing utilization of time and resources.

Coordinates with hospital OR/DSC Unit Leaders and supply consignment department on specialty surgical case arrangements and issues related to booking a case with special needs related to time and room requirements, support resources, equipment, and instrumentation.  Updates office staff on outstanding or resolved arrangements. 

Communicates up-to-date surgical schedule information and special provisions for inter-related departmental services (localization coordination, shared equipment availability, technician resources, etc.) with various coordinating departments including Admitting, OR, DSC, Endoscopy, Mammography, Nuclear Medicine and Radiology.  Verifies that each coordinating department has addressed any outstanding requirements to finalize the scheduling of the surgical case.

Documents all procedure related changes and information with appropriate notations in the surgery scheduling system.  Notifies physician and surgical assistants.

Coordinates requests for hospital surgical assistants assigning them to cases based on availability, type of procedure and physician’s preference. 

Adheres to all Northwest Community Hospital standards, policies, and procedures.

III. SPECIAL SKILLS AND ABILITIES REQUIRED:

The verbal communication skills necessary to obtain and disseminate information clearly and concisely, and to maintain professionalism in stressful situations.

The organizational skills necessary to prioritize and arrange multiple complex surgical schedules in a manner that optimizes available resources.

The ability to type proficiently and utilize a computer for entry and retrieval of data.

The ability to pay acute attention to detail and utilize excellent follow-up skills

Must possess the ability to complete multiple detail-oriented tasks simultaneously including keyboarding schedule entry while conducting a professional conversation on the telephone.

The customer service skills necessary to interact positively with physicians, physician’s staff and various internal NCH departments.

IV. KNOWLEDGE, PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE AND LICENSURE/REGISTRATION REQUIRED:

The level of knowledge normally acquired through the completion of High School or the equivalent. 

A minimum of two years experience working in a hospital or physicians office required.

Familiarity with medical/surgical terminology required.

Previous medical/surgical scheduling experience and experience using computerized scheduling systems preferred.