General Summary:

Is responsible for scheduling surgery, endoscopy, percutaneous nephrolithotripsy, and eye laser procedures; completing and distributing the daily surgical schedule; completing all service related patient charges; perioperative case record data entry and reports for Perioperative Services.

Supports the Mission of Frederick Memorial Hospital and complies with the hospital’s Code of Conduct.

Minimum Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities Required:

Medical secretary degree or equivalent required and one year experience as a Surgical Scheduler preferred.

A minimum of one year of hand-on experience scheduling surgical procedures.

A strong knowledge of medical/surgical terminology.

Excellent verbal and oral communication skills in order to effectively interact with employees, managers, physicians, and physician office staff.

Attention to detail, with the ability to produce accurate work when frequently interrupted. Demonstrated organizational skills.

Proficiency in the use of appointment scheduling and Microsoft Office software applications.

Must demonstrate and maintain current knowledge and skills in providing appropriate care/contact for patients in all age groups.

Must demonstrate knowledge of the principles of growth and development over the life span and possess the ability to assess data reflective of the patient’s status. Possess the ability to interpret the appropriate information needed to identify each patient’s requirements relative to his/her age-specific needs and to provide the care needed as described in the unit’s/department’s policies and procedures – Not applicable.

Physical Demands:

Sedentary – Light Work – Lifting up to 15 pounds on an infrequent basis (less than one lift every three minutes). While work is mostly done sitting, a certain amount of walking or standing is often necessary.

Ergonomic Risk Factors:

Repetition: Repeating the same motion over and over again places stress on the muscles and tendons. The severity of risk depends on how often the action is repeated, the speed of the movement, the required force and muscle involved

Awkward Posture: Posture is the position your body is in and its effect on the muscle groups that are involved in the physical activity. Awkward postures include repeated or prolonged reaching, bending, kneeling, squatting, working overhead with you hands or arms, or holding fixed positions.

Working Conditions:

Blood borne Pathogen Exposure Risk Category B – MAY have exposure to blood or body fluids.

Reporting Relationship:

Position reports to the Perioperative Scheduling Supervisor.

Job Competencies and Essential Functions

• Schedules surgical, endoscopy, eye laser, percutaneous nephrolithrotripsy and PACU bedside procedures as well as all procedures done in other departments that require Anesthesia support.
• Accepts and processes requests from physicians and physicians’ staff to add, change, move or cancel surgical cases.
• Communicates to surgeons and surgeons’ offices any changes to the Surgical Schedule.
• Takes required procedure and patient information to book a surgical case.
• Reserves time, room, equipment, staff and other resources required for surgical procedures. Notes testing requirements and any special requests for the case.
• Performs conflict checking and resolves all conflicts, as necessary, before confirming a booking with the requestor.
• Coordinates scheduling of tests and procedures performed by ancillary departments and outside services requested for the case, e.g., x-rays, neuromonitoring, etc.
• Prepares daily and weekly surgical schedules for dissemination to various departments.
• Exercises good judgment when presented with a difficult situation and offers solutions that are appropriate for the situation. Makes constructive recommendations to improve current processes.
• Effectively communicates changes to the OR Schedule to physicians’ offices and all affected areas, as necessary.
• Links appropriate patient account number to booking record so that the case record, when initiated, is associated with the correct account number.
• Ensures all case record documentation required for patient billing and utilization reporting is completed and processed within accepted deadline. Verifies a case record exists for each surgery case performed, both scheduled and add-on cases. Verifies all times entered in time fields are in proper sequence, and all required fields have been completed. Confirms all required documentation has been received for records documented on paper. Requests any missing documentation be brought to the OR Posting Office.
• Performs timely post-op data entry of paper records.
• Reconciles supplies exception noted on the case record supply/billing screens to vendor documentation, implant logs, and handwritten supply charges. Performs inventory lookups and requests new Meditech item numbers for all unidentifiable items. Completes exception noting on the record after all items used on the case have been successfully identified.
• Notifies Circulator of any discrepancies or issues found with documentation that requires the Circulator to make corrections.
• Processes all patient charges within three (3) days of the surgery date before accounts are final billed. Executes a final check to verify all required information is appropriately documented in the case record.
• Closes all completed case record sections, and changes the status of the record to “Complete” when ready to transmit charges from OR Manager to the Meditech billing module.
• Processes the transmission of charges to Meditech, edits the control numbers in the batch to match the records successfully transmitted, and posts the charges to the patients’ accounts. Resolves any reported rejections.
• Meets established deadline for posting charges before accounts are moved to a final bill status.
• Manually processes any late charges due to delays getting new Meditech numbers, linking records to incorrect account numbers, etc.
• Files all billing documentation for storage.
• Ensures information being disseminated from the Perioperative information system is appropriate, timely and accurate. Performs quality assurance check on the accuracy of all information before it is disseminated.
• Produces reports in a timely manner on quality indicators, utilization data and other information disseminated inter/intra-departmentally, or to an outside regulatory agency.
• Produces reports to support clinical competency for licensing renewals for physicians and clinical staff.
• Produces reports in a timely manner to reconcile charges for services provided by contracted vendors.
• Departmental Team Member Actively engages in departmental efforts to promote retention of staff and provide for a high level of employee morale.

** An Action Plan for those tasks deemed unacceptable must be written

* The content of this document reflects the general duties, responsibilities, minimum skills, abilities and competencies necessary to perform the essential functions of the job and should not be considered as an exhaustive detailed description of all the work requirements of the position. Frederick Memorial Hospital may change the specific job duties with or without prior notice based on the needs of the organization.