Accredited Clinical Coder

Company Description

Working as a partnership, both Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust have a shared vision for excellence in care for our patients and communities; with a set of strategic aims underpinning how we will achieve this.

The single corporate service is delivered across both organisations. You may be based at either IWT or PHU and individuals may be required to undertake business travel between sites. For leaders managing staff across multi-site locations, you will need to be visible and provide in-person leadership. The arrangements and frequency will be agreed locally.

Job Description

NHS Band 5

Salary: £32,073 - £39,043 per annum

Hours per Week: Full-Time 37.5 hrs

Contract Type: Permanent

An excellent opportunity has arisen to appoint a Full-time trainee clinical coder to join our already successful, dedicated, and hardworking team. Candidates must have a methodical and detailed approach to their work and an enthusiasm to continue to learn.

The successful applicant will need to demonstrate a high level of ability to work to a high degree of accuracy with attention to detail. You must be self-motivated, able to work well under pressure, and be flexible in your approach. You must be able to work well as part of a team working to tight deadlines.

You should have a good understanding of medical terminology, anatomy, and physiology. Good IT skills are also necessary, as are good communication skills. The successful candidate will provide a vital and dynamic coding role within an excellent, high achieving and supportive coding team. The Trust has a reputation for consistently achieving targets and for high quality clinically coded data, which is achieved by providing excellent standards of training, mentoring and support for all team members.

Specific Core Functions:

• To abstract and analyze complex clinical information from the patients' case notes, and other sources as required, all relevant information concerning primary diagnosis, co-morbidities, procedures, investigations, and treatment for each period of care.
• To have the ability to maintain prolonged, intense concentration to translate this information into codes using ICD10 (International Classification of Diseases vol 10) and OPCS 4 (Office of Population Censuses and Surveys vol 4.11), which is then processed to create HRG’S (Healthcare Resource Groups) used to determine the amount of funding the trust receives from the commissioner.
• To apply the rules and conventions of ICD10 and OPCS4 and take responsibility for updating training manuals and publications when changes or clarifications issued by the NHSIA. Inform the Coding team leaders of any national and/or local coding changes in order that they may be documented in manuals and the Coding Policy and Procedures.
• To ensure all coded information extracted from provider spells/case notes is accurate and reflects the full extent of all diagnosis and procedures that are provided by the clinician for every patient episode within an agreed time from patient discharge which supports the requirements of commissioning.
• To investigate and collate as necessary information required, making informed decisions regarding code assignment, presenting findings for information or discussion during scheduled office meetings.
• To attend training sessions both external and internal and to participate in regular audits of coding.
• To supervise, mentor, and support less experienced/trainee coders, providing structured feedback to individuals and management team to improve quality and efficiency.
• To maintain a comprehensive knowledge of anatomy and physiology, medical procedures, diagnosis, and terminology as applied across specialties.
• To provide direct support to other coders and staff involved in the coding process by communicating appropriately with novice coders, taking care to understand the limitations of their knowledge.
• To participate in established clinical coding validation processes in the Trust.
• To be proactive in keeping up to date with all new clinical coding developments.