Trainee Clinical Coder / Senior Clinical Coder / Coding Specialist
Work in an organisation that supports its staff and focuses on staff experience as much as it does the experience of its patients? You can live and breathe in an area that has the cleanest air, cost effective living, great nightlife, some of the best schools with a wealth of history available on your doorstep.
Sound too good to be true? Well it isn’t, this is what you get when you work for Northumbria Healthcare and, this is…the Northumbria Way!
What the Northumbria Way means for you:
- Extensive staff health and well-being programme including access to our specialist Wellbeing Hub
- Support and connection through a variety of Staff Network groups
- A range of flexible working opportunities
- Generous annual leave and pension scheme
- Access to lease car and home electronics scheme (qualifying criteria applies)
- Opportunities to improve your professional development through our vast training programmes
- On-site nursery places via salary sacrifice
- Access to savings scheme via salary sacrifice with Northumberland Community Bank
Our teams deliver care from hospitals, a range of community venues and people’s homes. Our hospitals include a specialist emergency care hospital (the first of its kind in England), three general hospitals and community hospitals. In the community we deliver a wide range of community and public health services.
We lead in innovation and quality, having opened the Northumbria Healthcare Manufacturing and Innovation Hub during the Covid-19 pandemic and have recently launched our Community Promise – a pledge to make a real impact not just in healthcare but on the wider factors that affect people’s lives, such as education, employment and the economy.
If Northumbria Healthcare sounds like somewhere you could belong we would love to hear from you. Visit our website to catch up on our latest news.
Whilst Northumbria Healthcare are a highly innovative organisation, the use of Third Party Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a risk to the integrity of our Recruitment & Selection processes. If you use AI, and it poses a risk to the integrity your individual recruitment process, we may withdraw your application at any stage of the process.
Job overview
We are recruiting a Clinical Coder to join our busy Coding department at Northumbria Healthcare. We have three coding teams covering seven sites. The successful post holder will be based at Cobalt Business Park - but may be required to work at any of our acute hospital sites within the Trust.
We welcome applications from both experienced and inexperienced candidates.
An inexperienced Coder will commence as a Trainee Clinical Coder Band 3 and must be prepared to commit to the training and development required to become a qualified Clinical Coder and attain the National Clinical Coding Qualification (NCCQ).A trainee applicant will be expected to work fully on site for a minimum of 18 months to ensure adequate training, mentoring and support can be delivered.
An experienced applicant will commence on either Band 4 (Senior Clinical Coder), or Band 5 (Clinical Coding Specialist), depending on their level of knowledge and experience.
We are able to offer hybrid and/or fully remote working to an experienced person who is able to demonstrate that they can work confidently and independently with minimal supervision.
The successful applicant will join our large clinical coding team and will be responsible for accurately assigning clinical codes to reflect patients' diagnosis and operative and intervention procedures using ICD-10 and OPCS-4 Classifications,Main duties of the job
Abstracting and analysing complex clinical information from a patient's health record, including electronic discharge summaries, nursing notes and diagnostic tests including imaging, in order to assign classification codes. The post holder will be responsible for accurately assigning clinical codes from ICD-10 and OPCS-4 to reflect patients' diagnoses, operative and intervention procedures.Clinical Coding provides vital information to support improvements in patient care, supporting clinical purpose such as clinical audit, clinical governance, outcome measurements, treatment outcomes and statistical purposes to support research, aetiology studies, health trends, epidemiology studies, clinical indicators and casemix planning.
The importance of accurate data is widely recognised across the NHS. Clinically coded data derived from the coding service plays and integral part in the management of hospitals and services.
Please refer to the attached job descriptions for the Band 3 Trainee Clinical Coder, Band 4 Senior Clinical Coder and Band 5 Clinical Coding Specialist for the essential requirements.
Working for our organisation
We manage three major locality hospitals at North Tyneside, Wansbeck and Hexham, plus a number of smaller community hospitals and clinics from Tynemouth to Berwick on Tweed, covering one of the largest geographical areas of any NHS trust in the country.Leading in innovation and quality – opening a state of the art Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, the first of its kind in England. Do you want to work in one of the best performing NHS organisations in England? Work in an organisation that supports its staff and focuses on staff experience as much as it does the experience of its patients?
You can live and breathe in an area that has the cleanest air, cost effective living, great nightlife, some of the best schools with a wealth of history available on your doorstep. Sound too good to be true? Well it isn’t, this is what you get when you work for Northumbria Healthcare, this is the Northumbria Way!
Please read ‘applicant guidance notes’ before submitting your application.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The post-holder is responsible for abstracting and analysing information from case notes; translating it accurately into diagnostic and operation/procedure codes, across all specialties in accordance with current coding classifications; enter the patient data on to the Trust’s PAS system; deal with enquiries; liaise with clinicians; locate and collate missing source material e.g. missing case notes, histology.
Appropriate clinical information from patient health records is translated into diagnoses and procedure codes in accordance with National Clinical Coding Standards - which accurately reflect the patients stay.
Confidentiality of all coded and other patient information is maintained at all times.
A minimum of 5 GCSE’s at Grade C / Grade 4 equivalent & above are required, including English and Maths, or equivalent qualification and/or experience.
Knowledge of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Health Related problems, Revision 10 (ICD10), and the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys Classification of Surgical Operations and Procedures, Revision 4.9 (OPCS4) would be advantageous, as would knowledge of clinical terminology and anatomy and physiology.
Other skills Knowledge of NHS data systems relating to Inpatients and Day cases, Inpatient Waiting Lists, and some knowledge of Outpatients.
Keyboard skills.
Attention to detail.
Ability to work to a high degree of accuracy within tight deadlines is essential.
Effective interpersonal skills to liaise with Clinical and Administration staff on issues of coding, and the associated administrative processes.
Person specification
Essential
Essential criteria- A minimum of 5 GCSE’s at Grade C / Grade 4 equivalent & above are required, including English and Maths, or equivalent qualification and/or experience.
- Successfully complete National Clinical Coding Standards Course and commit to continued professional development.
- ECDL
Applicants who are members of the Armed Forces, and those who have a disability that requires support in the work place (two ticks pledge) and who meet the essential criteria will be interviewed under the Trust's interview guarantee scheme.
We recognise the positive value of diversity and inclusion and are committed to a workforce that is diverse, equal and inclusive. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as BAME people are currently under-represented in our workforce as well as other under-represented groups such as LGBT+ and disabled candidates.We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, a Stonewall Diversity Champion, we have a Gold award from the Defense Recognition Scheme, and we are delighted to support Apprenticeships, Age Posi+ive and are a mindful employer.
If you require any reasonable adjustments to attend interview please make the recruitment team aware as soon as possible by calling our HR Recruitment Team on 0191 203 1415 option 2.
Applicants who meet the Fit and Proper Person Requirements (FPPR) will require additional pre-employment checks in line with CQC and NHS England statutory guidance.
Make sure to read the ‘applicant guidance notes’ before submitting your application and make sure you know everything there is to know before joining our fantastic trust!
Please note that it is a requirement of this Trust that all successful applicants pay for their own DBS certification if a DBS check is required for the post. The method of payment is a salary deduction from your first monthly pay.