Senior Clinical Coding Specialist

Fulfil your potential in hospitals that make history:

Charing Cross, Hammersmith, St Mary's, Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea and Western Eye.

With five world-renowned hospitals, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust is full of opportunity if you are looking to develop your healthcare career.

We are an NHS Trust of approximately 16,000 people, providing care for over a million and a half patients from north west London and beyond every year.

We have a rich heritage and an ambitious vision for the future of our patients and local communities.

With our partners, Imperial College London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, we form Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre, one of 6 academic health science centres in the UK, working to ensure the rapid translation of research for better patient care and excellence in education.

We are proud of our heritage in innovation and we are early adopters of new insights in technologies, techniques and treatments for improving health.

Job overview

An opportunity exists for an experienced senior qualified coder to join the team and assist heading up the daily run to deadline in one of the 5 clinical coding pods. You will assist in coding and stream-lining an efficient and cohesive monthly rotation to target date and build up experience of coders' profiles and specialism worklists.

You will need to exhibit excellent analytical skills, logic, and a high level of interpersonal and communication skills both verbal and written. Flexible in your approach, you must be able to work as a part of the team to tight deadlines and to work closely with the management team. You must be a holder of the ACC qualification with broad experience throughout a variety of medical and surgical areas and over at least three years in an acute hospital setting. You should have some knowledge of Cerner and Medicode ideally and have an understanding of data flows and clinical pathways, be able to act autonomously and be able to influence, inspire and organize efficiently.

This role will be important to the efficient and responsive running of the department. Some experience in HRG4+ and the morbidity scoring system is essential and an interest in the wider aspects of clinical coding both corporate and national.The team works remotely 3 days a week, and is required to be in one of the 3 offices on a Tuesday and Wednesday. Also note; the recruitment and retention premium (RRP) is currently at 10% on this band.

Main duties of the job

• To coordinate the coding team across the corporate and individual pods in ensuring and efficient and streamlined provision of a high quality and responsive clinical coding service.
• Maintain own workload to a very standard and be able to work closely with senior clinicians where clinical engagement is paramount to delivering a highly accurate and efficient income re-imbursement. Provide a clinical coding function in areas of complexity and/or need as required.
  To provide expert clinical coding advice and support to the Divisions, trust clinicians and the coding teams.
• Assist the site coding manager in coordinating the monthly deadline target in a designated pod, liaising with team members, wards, support clerks and clinicians where relevant.
• To provide a coordinated approach to the running of the clinical coding team within one of the 5 clinical pods, deputising for the line manager when absent or when invited to by the Head of Coding. Assist the senior manager in the smooth running of the weekly and monthly workload rotation and advise on the Trust's complex case-mix in order to be one of the lead experts, advising senior clinicians, business managers, Finance and Information teams on areas where accuracy, income and trust reputation are vital.

Working for our organisation

At Imperial College Healthcare you can achieve extraordinary things with extraordinary people, working with leading clinicians pushing boundaries in patient care.

Become part of a vibrant team living our values - expert, kind, collaborative and aspirational. You'll get an experience like no other and will fast forward your career.

Benefits include career development, flexible working and wellbeing, staff recognition scheme. Make use of optional benefits including Cycle to Work, car lease schemes, season ticket loan or membership options for onsite leisure facilities.

We are committed to equal opportunities and improving the working lives of our staff and will consider applications to work flexibly, part time or job share. Please talk to us at interview. .

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge required.

For both overviews please view the Job Description attachment with the job advert.

Person specification

Education

Essential criteria

• Academic achievements to a degree level or the equivalent in work experience
• ACC (Accredited clinical coding qualification)
• Sound knowledge of Payment by Results/HRGs (Healthcare Resource Groups)

Desirable criteria

• Clinical Coding Auditor qualification`
• Very competent knowledge in anatomy and physiology

Experience

Essential criteria

• Not less than 3 years generalised clinical coding experience
• Experience in a wide range of specialties & their complexities
• Experience in Clinical coding terminologies and software encoding experience
• Hospital information systems & IT packages

Desirable criteria

• Project management experience/report writing
• Be able to meet the prerequisites of sitting either audit workshop or Train the Trainer courses
• Proven experience in supervising/coordinating a team function and/or staff

Skills/Knowledge/ Abilities

Essential criteria

• Excellent problem solving ability
• Strong administration skills
• IT literate - proficiency in all MS applications
• Highly communicative and literate
• Demonstrated ability in assessing complex coding issues and to make clear recommendations
• Coding abstraction skills
• Ability to analyse and justify complex HRG grouping

Please ensure you check your emails regularly as this is how we will communicate with you throughout the recruitment process. If you are shortlisted you will be contacted by email and text message (if you provide a mobile contact number).

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

Documents to download

• Job Description (PDF, 650.7KB)
• Functional Requirement (PDF, 44.0KB)
• Our Strategy 2023-25 (PDF, 230.4KB)