Mihaela, one of our administrators gave us a sneak peek behind the scenes of a day in the life of a Docflow/Medical Secretary.
Starting the day:
07:00 – I wake up, make my coffee, prepare lunches for myself and my kids and start getting ready for work.
Arriving at work:
09:00 – 10:00 – I start work at 9am and for the first hour I check the Docflow emails, the online system (queries that we receive via the forms on our website) and deal with any queries.
10:00 – 11:30 – I scan letters and documents that have been dealt with already on the patient’s medical records. I will also open the post, file and forward everything to the right inbox. We receive hundreds of letters weekly and it would be absolutely impossible for a GP to read every single one. It’s part of our job to read every letter, code important information and forward letters to the GP when something needs to be actioned (e.g. patient needs a referral, a review, safeguarding concern etc.) or to a pharmacist when new medication has to be added.
11:30 – 12:30 – Coding – I will carefully read the letters sent to the Docflow inbox and code information such as: a new diagnosis, medical procedures, results, blood pressure, weight, height etc. We always need to make sure that we don’t miss any important information and that everything is coded correctly on the patient’s medical records.
12:30-13:00 – lunch
13:00 – 14:30 – I will continue coding the letters.
14:30 – 17:00 – Secretarial duties – during this time I will send a variety of referrals, deal with any secretarial queries and check the worklists on the Electronic Referral Service.
Throughout the day we also answer the phone and deal with patients queries.
Whilst this is a typical day for me, the team rotates different duties throughout the week and these other duties include: providing copies of medical records for patients, solicitors, and insurance companies; redacting medical reports; summarising medical records; typing and submitting reports and letters for the GPs.
What’s the best part of your job and what is the most challenging part of your job?
I really enjoy my job. It’s a ‘behind the scene’ kind of job and not everyone knows exactly what it entails, but as described above my day is very busy. I think the administrative team has an essential role in helping the GPs and supporting the day to day running of the practice.
I think the most challenging part of the job is the volume of work. Sometimes seeing the letters or referrals numbers being very high can be overwhelming.
Luckily I work with a lovely team and we always manage to bring those numbers down and keep on top of everything.