Patient Navigator

At Peter Mac we aim to continuously improve cancer care, research and education across all cancers and for all people affected by cancer: changing lives, breaking new ground. Everything we do is underpinned by our core values, Excellence, Compassion and Innovation. Welcoming people from a wide variety of different backgrounds and experiences is critical to fostering innovation, cultivating compassion, attracting and retaining top talent and providing the best possible cancer care for our patients.
 

YOUR ROLE IN OUR FUTURE
Patient Navigator - Casual Role
Our Patient Navigators are administrative team members, working closely with clinicians to support patients throughout their pathway at Peter Mac.
 
The Patient Navigator is an integral member of each patients care team, playing an important administrative role in providing the first line response to incoming calls from patients, carers and referrers in the community needing assistance. The Patient Navigator resolves questions and concerns about how to organise appointments, change appointments or clarify appointment instructions. The Patient Navigator supports communication between patients and their clinical care team. They are an expert in supporting patient flow through the cancer care system and play a key role in facilitating timely patient access. Our patient care is delivered via a tumour stream model - this means that a patients' care is coordinated and provided by a multi-disciplinary team of people who have specialist knowledge of a specific type of cancer. Patient Navigators are primarily based in one tumour stream - making it easier to build relationships with patients and provide more personalised support.
 
This position is a casual position. Candidates must be available minimum 3 days a week (Monday - Friday). 
  
Applicants to this role should provide a covering letter outlining relative key skills and experience to assist us with our assessment. For further information about this opportunity, please visit the Peter Mac Careers page.
 
Hiring Manager: Rachel Laws/Michael Hrvojevic
Contact Number:
Email:  

Applications close: 11:59PM Tuesday 30th September 2025

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Position Summary

At the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre our patient care is delivered via a tumour stream model. This means that a patient's care is coordinated and provided by a multi-disciplinary team of people who have specialist knowledge of a specific type of cancer.

The Patient Navigator is an integral member of this team, playing an important role in providing the first line response to incoming calls from patients, carers and referrers in the community needing assistance. The Patient Navigator resolves questions and concerns about how to organise appointments, change appointments or clarify appointment instructions. If the caller needs clinician, input the Patient Navigator transfers the call to the most appropriate clinical staff member or service in a timely manner. They are an expert in supporting patient flow through the cancer care system and play an important role in facilitating timely patient access.

Patient Navigators are responsible for ensuring the patient's diagnostic, treatment and clinic review appointments are appropriately timed, sequenced and coordinated. This includes ensuring, where clinically appropriate, that multiple appointments are booked on the same day and or/ face to face consultation are replaced with video/telehealth consultations, to reduce the patients' travel burden.

The Patient Navigator works closely with the tumour stream specialist nurses and doctors who will provide support and direction regarding daily work priorities. This includes attending tumour stream based clinics to support the multi-disciplinary team to ensure the clinics run smoothly. In addition, the Patient Navigator provides administrative support for the weekly Multi-Disciplinary Meetings (MDMs) by ensuring all required patient diagnostic and pre- treatment assessment data is prepared and available for the meeting to facilitate timely treatment planning and recording of MDM outcomes.

The Patient Navigator also works closely with the Registrations and Referrals team to ensure that urgent patients are identified and prioritised quickly for Registration and first appointments.

Enterprise Agreement
Health and Allied Services, Managers and Administrative Workers (Victorian Public Sector) (Single Interest Employers) Enterprise Agreement Classification or Salary Range
HS2 Immunisation Risk Category
Immunisation Category C Key Relationships

Internal 

• Tumour stream medical and nursing staff
• Patient Navigators from other tumour streams
• Departmental Administration Leads 
• Patient Services Administration teams – Radiotherapy, Day Therapy, Cancer Imaging, Specialist Clinics, Support Services 
• Radiation Oncology
• Radiotherapy 

External 

• Clinical and administrative staff from Precinct partner hospital where appropriate 

Skills

Essential Requirements 

• Have or working towards a relevant Certificate/Diploma in accordance with the Australian Quality Training Framework or several years' work experience in an administration setting 
• Strong customer service skills, able to communicate effectively and respectfully with patients and staff 
• Demonstrated skills in the use of IT systems, preferably in a health care setting 
• Competent in use of the Microsoft Office Suite 

Desirable Requirements

• Experience providing direct line supervision to a small to medium sized team or experience in a specific technical activity 
• Experience developing and implementing standard operating procedures (SOP) 
• Experience participating in quality improvement projects 
• Previous health service administration experience. 
• Experience using patient administration systems and electronic medical records, in particular iPM and Epic (similar electronic medical record) 

Key Accountabilities

Key Accountabilities
Demonstrated by / Key Performance Indicators

1. (a) Work as part of a small team AND/OR (b) Provide technical or professional portfolio leadership and expertise   

•    Work closely within a small dedicated tumour stream administration team to prioritize daily activities and provide administration support to a clinical team.

•    Engage in staff training and development to maintain robust skills sets within the team.

•    Perform annual performance development in line with current People & Change policy

•    Ensure completion of all mandatory training requirements and comply with organisational policies and procedures under which they operate
•    

•    Engage with the broader Peter Mac community and its strategy through team meetings and regular communications

•    Support line management with the development and maintenance of administrative SOPs ( standard operating procedures) relevant to area of expertise

•    Participate in ongoing training relating to Electronic Medical Record (EMR), new system upgrades and implementation as required

•    Manage specialist portfolio and provide technical or professional advice in the designated area of expertise

•    Provide cover for other Patient Navigators in various tumour streams

2. Provide exceptional customer service   

•    Provide a high level of customer service to patients, carers and staff within a designated team or portfolio

•    Obtain the required information from patients, carers and staff in an efficient and courteous manner

•    Respond to patient and/or staff queries in a timely and respectful manner

•    Ensure phone and email enquiries are triaged to the correct destination

3. Engage in team performance   

•    Liaise with direct line manager to trouble-shoot any technical issues experienced by the work group in a timely manner to ensure quality is maintained

•    Manage patient records in accordance with hospital policy and Data Accountability Framework to maintain data integrity at all times

•    Ensure that the performance of the team meets the standards required by the organisation through a regular system of auditing performance

•    Assess situations or information, clearly and accurately communicate information and make recommendations to line management

•    Identify opportunities for process improvement and lead the team to implement appropriate solutions with support from the line manager

Key Accountabilities (Contd..)

Key Accountabilities
Demonstrated by / Key Performance Indicators

4. Support the work of the team and department

•    Work cooperatively as part of the team and assist other areas and staff as necessary

•    Ensure senior departmental staff receive adequate administrative support with rostering, meeting agendas and minutes, room bookings and database management.

•    Ensure invoices from external providers are collated and processed by the team

•    Monitor ongoing expenses, in consultation with line manager, against allocated budget

•    Complete orders for department consumables, as required

•    Other tasks as directed by your team leader or manager

5. Provide reports to line manager as requested and maintain key relationships   

•    Provide routine and/or ad-hoc reports as requested by the line manager

•    Maintain relationships with external providers contracted to support Peter Mac patients

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

For further information about this opportunity, click Apply to be redirected to the Peter Mac Careers page where you can review the position profile. Alternatively, please contact us for a confidential discussion.

Peter Mac is a child safe organisation and has a commitment to child safety and wellbeing.

WHY WORK FOR PETER MAC

• Peter Mac offer a range of benefits which support our people both personally and professionally.
• Our staff benefits include award winning facilities, professional development and events, a health and wellbeing program, flexible work practices and policies and financial benefits such as salary packaging.
• We encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, all members of the LGBTQI community and people with a disability.

---