Run clinic reception on a surgery morning

What is going on

It is Thursday, a surgery day, and the regular receptionist is away at training. Between 7:45 am and 9:00 am three surgical patients are being admitted, an emergency laceration is arriving from a farm supplies client, and the waiting room will fill with vaccination appointments. The Clinic Case Log is the single source of truth for who is booked, who has arrived and what stage each case is at. The nurses are busy preparing theatre and rely on reception to check consent forms and fasting status before they see each patient. One owner has already phoned to say their dog vomited overnight.

Your brief

Manage reception for the morning: admit surgical patients with complete paperwork, triage the emergency correctly, keep the waiting room safe and calm, keep the Clinic Case Log current and communicate clearly with owners and the nursing team.

Work through it

You do not need to do it all. Doing a few of these will show you what the work is like. Your ticks and notes stay on this device.

• Read the Client Records and Privacy Policy and identify what information you collect at admission and who you can share it with.
• Review the Clinic Case Log for today, list every booked case in arrival order and note the fasting and consent checks each surgical patient needs.
• Admit each surgical patient: confirm identity, sight and record consent, confirm fasting, note the owner's contact for the day and update the case status to admitted.
• Triage the emergency laceration on arrival, alert a nurse immediately, and record the case in the Clinic Case Log with the presenting reason.
• Respond to the owner whose dog vomited overnight, applying the triage rule that vomiting goes straight to a nurse, and record the outcome.
• Arrange the waiting room to separate cats from dogs and describe how you would handle a distressed or aggressive owner using the two-person and escalation steps.
• Phone or draft confirmation messages for Friday's recheck appointments and update each case status to booked with any notes.

What someone in this role would produce

• Updated Clinic Case Log entries for the morning
• Admission checklist for each surgical patient
• Triage notes for the emergency and the vomiting dog
• Confirmation notes for Friday's rechecks