Role of Clinical Navigator
The role of the Clinical Navigator (CN) is to actively monitor the IUC Advice Queue, increase patient safety and efficiency across the SevernSide service, working with the Clinical Co-ordinator, Shift Manager and other members of the Operations Team.
The CN will continually assess clinical acuity, deposition times and identify cases that may require additional support which may improve patient experience, safety, and quality of care. The role is particularly important during peak times and during escalation when volumes of case numbers are large and wait times are longer.
The Clinical Navigation role includes:
- Review cases on the queue to ensure that the priority / deposition assigned to the case is appropriate, using the information in the case summary.
- This may, in a small number of cases, include a review of other patient information such as, previous NHS pathways assessments, EMIS, or Connecting Care however this is not standard practice for navigation.
- Each case should be recorded as ‘validated’ in Adastra.
- A case may require escalation by attaching a priority tag. A priority tag will ensure a more rapid response from the Workflow and Capacity Coordinators (WACCs). They will allocate these cases first to clinicians to assess within their “My Work” queue.
- Identify appropriate cases and attach Pharmacy First Tags by following the SOP Referring from OOHs to Community Pharmacy- Pharmacy First
- Support case review and closure where the patient has declined further assessment when the ops team are trying to book a face-to-face assessment, and the original assessing clinician is not available.
- The CN should review the case and any associated clinical information to determine whether it is appropriate for closure without further assessment.
- This may include providing advice where the call handler or WACC is uncertain whether closure is suitable.
- Support case review and closure where the failed contact procedure has been met.
- These cases should be allocated to the CN’s ‘My Work Queue for review.
- Create a “Watch List” of patients that carry clinical risk but are safe to be monitored as the given case deposition is appropriate but should be reviewed later in the shift and a priority tag considered if the patient is not allocated during their disposition time.
- Liaise closely with the WaCCs, Call Handlers (CH), Shift Manager (SM), Assistant Shift Manager (ASM) and Clinical Co-Ordinator (CC) to indicate the level of risk the service is holding, particularly in busy times.
- A table to articulate the level of risk is offered below to ensure consistency
- Identifying cases which would benefit from early photo requests in accordance with the relevant SOP.
- These cases should have a ‘Request Photo’ tag applied by the CN.
- Assign appropriate identification tags to cases to better assist with allocation.
- Examples include; Mental health, Medication Enquiry, EOL/Palliative, etc.
- Identify and flag duplicate cases to the ops team.
- Assisting the Operations Team with rare occurrences, such as emergencies on the clinical queue that require immediate clinical attention and cannot wait for a Priority Tag intervention.
Clinical Navigation should not:
- Intervene with clinical interventions (assessment or consultation directly with patients) in an ad-hoc fashion for cases on the IUC Advice queue.
- The CN should avoid direct contact with patients unless in the case of an emergency.