Operation Smile is a global nonprofit organisation that provides free life changing surgery to children and adults suffering with facial deformities, more specifically cleft lips and/or cleft palates.
Operation Smile South Africa seeks to appoint a Patient Coordinator, to be based in Western Cape.
Responsibilities:
Patient recruitment and partnerships:
- Set up meetings with hospitals and clinics; arrange meetings with chiefs and traditional authorities in the areas; find point person at each health care facility or in each town/village and establish a working relationship with them
- Access existing community health care worker structures, set up trainings on cleft recognition for health care workers and arrange to implement cleft awareness programmes in the community
- Collate data forwarded from community health care workers, chiefs, and patients/guardians into regional and national data bases; send databases to the Senior Programme Coordinator on a weekly basis
- Register patients take their full names, their contact numbers, and where they live (Province, city, village) and specifications related to transport options for a mission
- Create a database of all the contacts that Operation Smile has in each region, update weekly and send report to Senior Programme Coordinator
- Meet with NGO and corporate sponsors regionally to set up partnerships focused on patient recruitment and/or sponsorships; strengthen relationships with organisations referring patients to us
Surgical Missions:
- Assist Senior Programme Coordinator with patient needs prior to, during and post-mission, including patient supplies, patient meals, patient transport, and patient accommodation
- Support and arrange patient transportation to the mission
- Arrange patient supplies for distribution on arrival
- Ensure food is handed out to patients and guardians on time
- Ensure patients have water during the mission
- Organise patient information sessions on what will happen the next day (screening process, selection and announcement, surgery days)
- Create patient return lists after patient announcement; ensure all patients have transportation home
Other Duties:
- Facilitate integration of education programme initiatives across all provinces
- Create a database of World Care Patients (WCP) and help facilitate care with regional stakeholders
- Travel with WCP may be required if necessary
- Create a database of patient referrals and follow up regularly with local surgeon or partner organisations
General Team Performance:
- Prepares for and actively participates in scheduled team meetings
- Prepares for and actively participates in team reviews
- Updates all current working documents including patient database, schedules and timelines across programmatic areas that he or she is responsible for
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s Degree
- Database experience
- Driver’s license
- Experience in community health care mobilisation
- Medical field exposure would be helpful
- NGO experience a plus
- Oral and written English communication skills required. In addition, fluent in at least 1 South African vernacular is required
- Computer skills (Microsoft Office required)
- Ability to travel frequently around the country and potentially internationally
- Self-motivated, able to plan ahead, flexible, adaptable under pressure with short deadlines
- Ability to work off hours (on-call), sometimes responding to calls or e-mails early in the morning, late at night or on weekends
- Must have organisation and time management skills and be able to prioritise requests efficiently and effectively
- Ability to travel to remote areas
To apply, submit your CV and letter of motivation as well as salary expectations to [email protected]
For more about Operation Smile South Africa, refer to southafrica.operationsmile.org