Reading Room Coordinator (Administrative Assistant)

JOB LOCATION

Duke Hospital - 2301 Erwin Rd, Durham, NC

JOB SUMMARY

We are seeking a Reading Room Coordinator (Administrative Assistant) to provide clinical operations support of a complex and confidential nature to Radiology reading rooms located throughout the Duke University Hospital (DUH) campus. Utilize excellent customer service skills to function as the primary reading room coordinator for the Radiology Residents, Fellows and Faculty of the Neuro Imaging Division. Provide timely and accurate support for the reading room, multi-directional communication (phone, email, jabber, in-person), and actively facilitate key workflows such as imaging exam resulting, outside interpretation requests, and information exchange between Radiologists, technologists and all other healthcare providers.  Act as a positive, collaborative, and flexible team member willing to adjust to a dynamic and fast-paced environment.

JOB DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Politely greet and communicate with reading room customers via phone, email, page, inbox, instant messaging, and in-person. Manage a high volume of inquiries in a timely fashion, and appropriately screen and triage requests to support efficient reading room operations.
  • Facilitate efficient radiology workflows by answering questions that do not require radiologist input. Provides necessary education to internal and external parties as needed. Requires a thorough understanding of radiology-centric systems and operations to resolve inquires.
  • Must be able to recognize acute situations and act accordingly.
  • Must have a technical aptitude with knowledge of various software, including Maestrocare (EPIC), Powershare (PACS), Visage, and Qgenda.
  • Multi-tasking high volume of requests to obtain diagnostic patient images from facilities outside of Duke University Health System, including frequently investigating modalities needed, contact information of outside facility, and troubleshooting interoperability issues when the other facility uses a different image transfer application from what Duke uses. Multiple radiologists make multiple requests concurrently, frequently requiring urgent/emergent responsiveness. Provide guidance to external facilities on how to electronically transfer images to Duke for comparison/read and/or for file in the patient’s record. 
  • Oversees a queue of radiology reports for assigned clinical division(s) to help reduce report turnaround times per departmental quality standards. Follows-up on exams that are incomplete or incorrect to have the exams fixed by the Radiologist in a timely manner for dictation.
  • Assist radiologists with relaying crucial results by paging and/or calling referring providers.  
• Serve as liaison for all reading room inquiries and accurately obtain and deliver messages to Radiologists, referring providers, technologists and support staff. Demonstrate excellent customer service skills at all times, and adhere to clinical communication expectations for Stroke, Stat, ED and other critical test results.
  • Assist Radiologists in all aspects needed to enhance a productive workflow. Performs non-interpretive tasks in order to minimize avoidable disruptions to radiologists throughout the department, which is an active teaching environment in addition to being a busy clinical practice. Faculty, fellows, residents and medical students are focused on patient care by interpreting hundreds or thousands of images for a single patient study and preparing or reviewing patient diagnostic reports and performing interventional procedures on patients.  On average the Cardiothoracic Reading Room performs over 13,000 study interpretations/reports per month.
  • Requires an ability to work with minimum supervision, problem-solve, maintain high-level attention to detail, and to communicate effectively with residents, fellows, and Radiologists across multiple sites as well with referring providers.
  • Facilitate outside study reads by performing required safety and compliance checks, advising the referring provider and the Radiology Image Library department on uploading the outside images to the appropriate order.  Requires knowledge and solid understanding of all information systems utilized for the Radiology processes as well as medical terminology.
  • Requires knowledge and solid understanding of all information systems utilized for the Radiology processes as well as medical terminology.
  • Coordinates high volume internal and external image retrieval.  Must be able to recognize discrepancies and work to resolve the issues.
• Utilize Duke’s Electronic Health Record (MaestroCare) and several additional Radiology-specific systems (Visage, Powerscribe, Powershare, etc.) to support efficient workflows related to imaging protocols, interpretation, and results. Troubleshoot and analyze information from multiple systems and multiple locations, and act as a resource to all customers with respect to imaging orders and results.
• Following established quality review protocols, complete the pre-screening of all cardiothoracic outside interpretation orders. This includes carefully reconciling orders to the date and type of outside images on file, accurately confirming exam accession numbers, requesting outside images when missing, outreach and follow-up with ordering providers/Radiologists, and utilizing MaestroCare tools to fully document all stages of pre-screening. Work collaboratively with the Radiology Image Library team. Advise and supervise the outside interpretation work of other reading room coordinators, and identify and communicate trends to management.
• Respectfully collaborate and proactively assist other reading room team members with daily work activities to support efficient patient care and a balanced workload. Provide on-site support to assigned reading rooms, as well as support for other Radiology divisions, providers, and staff as needed. Work collaboratively with management to meet necessary departmental coverage requirements. Identify and embrace opportunities for reading room workflow improvement and optimization.
• Employ strong medical terminology, medical information system, and critical thinking skills to answer reading room inquiries and minimize Radiologist interruptions. Skillfully address questions related to all imaging modalities including CT, MR, Ultrasound, and X-ray, as well as non-vascular interventional procedures.
• Assist with Lung Cancer Screening CT eligibility reviews, following established guidelines. Compile and summarize Lung Cancer Program data, and assist in preparing regular or special reports to the Duke Lung Cancer Program Committee. Prepare additional reports requiring complex analysis and evaluation of data in work related to the outside interpretation pre-screening program, reading and protocol worklist reviews, and other departmental reports and projects.
• Assist with the training and on-boarding of reading room coordinator staff, as well as reading room orientation for new Radiologists and Medical Students.  Conduct all training activities in a positive and professional manner.

JOB ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

• High school education or equivalent.
• Two years of administrative support experience of increasing variety and/or complexity

JOB HOURS

The schedule for this position is day shifts, Monday-Friday, with no weekends or holidays.

Some roles within our organization may encompass essential job functions requiring distinct physical and/or mental capabilities. Further details and accommodation requests will be addressed by individual hiring departments.

Duke Health Integrated Practice is dedicated to Equal Opportunity Employment, fostering a diverse workforce without regard to age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status.

We aspire to build a community grounded in collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our shared achievements rely on a dynamic exchange of ideas, flourishing best when a multitude of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences thrive. Upholding these values is a collective responsibility within our community.

This job description aims to outline representative responsibilities for this title, not an exhaustive account of specific duties. Employees may be assigned job-related tasks beyond those explicitly outlined here.