Administration Support and Office Arrangements

Administration Support

Adequate secretarial and administration support is vital for the efficient working of the orthopaedic surgeon.

Tasks
The secretarial and administration support includes and is not confined to:

• Dealing with enquiries by phone and email from patients and clinicians
• Typing and management of clinics
• Management of waiting lists and support for patient pathways for admission
• Coordination of out-patient clinics and appointments
• Diary management, meeting arrangements and minute taking
• Creating and updating spreadsheets and data management

Electronic Patient Records (EPR)
As EPRs are rolled out, there is a need for all staff to have detailed and relevant training for their roles.  The tendency for an EPR to require a surgeon to perform additional administrative tasks through the system should be avoided to prevent those tasks eating into clinical time, and these tasks would include typing clinic letters.

Team Working
The administrative teams may be separately defined by more specialised roles.  For example, theatre scheduling may be managed by a different team from out-patient booking.

Each individual team member should have access to and understand the previous interactions and communications with the patients, as they are often the first point of call for those patients.  They should also be able to communicate with each other without using the surgeon as the intermediary.  The secretary should oversee and coordinate these communications.

Overall there should be one whole time equivalent (WTE) administrative support worker for each WTE consultant.  Adequate cover for leave must be provided. Where a consultant is working across sites ideally these roles should not be duplicated.

Patient Access
Patient access should be maintained through telephone and/or email that is regularly and appropriately answered.  These access events should be centrally documented so that all the sub-teams are aware of them.

Data Management
Collecting and controlling data and submission onto national registries is vital for audit, research and peer review processes.  This requires a dedicated clerical support and IT infrastructure.  One WTE data/audit clerk would be required for 6 WTE consultants.

 

Office Arrangements

Private office space should be available for every consultant to enable clinical administration work, consultations with other staff, video conferencing and telephone calls can be made with appropriate confidentiality¹  

Individual access is required to cover Direct Clinical Care, patient administration sessions and the Supporting Professional Activities in a consultant job plan. This also allows a space for reflective thought, rest and well-being.

Ideally the office spaces for a clinical team, including administrative support, should be co-located to facilitate both clinically relevant discussions and team-working.  
It should be recognised that there are some benefits in ‘working from home’ for some office tasks, reducing travel and improved work/life balance ^2,3.  Appropriate equipment for remote access work should be available on any work site.

Equipment

• Furniture should be ergonometric and adaptable

• Computer and internet access including facilities for remote conferencing

• External line telephone

• Locked storage for files and valuables

References for administration and office

1. ^{www.ico.org.uk}
2. ^{Working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic: benefits, challenges and considerations for future ways of working.  Director-General Strategy and External Affairs, Scottish Government.  5 October 2022.}
3. ^{Aczel B, Kovacs M, van der Lippe T, Szaszi B. Researchers working from home: Benefits and challenges. PLoS One. 2021 Mar 25;16(3):e0249127. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249127. PMID: 33765047; PMCID: PMC7993618.}