Practice Manager – Paediatric Hearing & Allied Health

ABOUT THE COMPANY Our client is an Australian paediatric hearing services business that assesses children's hearing across clinic, school and home-visit settings, and delivers a growing program of hearing screenings in schools across NSW (expanding to 30–40 schools next year). Billing is mostly through Medicare and private patients, with a small but growing number of NDIS-funded families. The business is led by its Practice Owner, who this role reports to directly, supported by a small team of audiologists and casual screeners. ABOUT THE ROLE A full-time Practice Manager role — in Australian healthcare, this sits above a medical receptionist, owning the administrative and operational back end of the clinic (patient and referral administration, reporting, scheduling and compliance) rather than front-desk reception duties. The role is split across two core areas: day-to-day patient and referral administration in the practice's patient management system, and end-to-end coordination of the school hearing screening program — from first enquiry through to the results summary sent back to each school. This role is trusted with genuinely confidential information — referrals, clinical reports, Medicare and patient details, and student data — so accuracy and discretion matter on every task, not just the obvious ones. This role is not asked to just follow instructions — it's expected to review its own work, ask questions, and genuinely learn a process once rather than needing it re-taught. Day to day, this role works independently across several systems (a patient/practice management system, Excel, Outlook, Canva, SharePoint) and will regularly hit things that don't quite fit the standard process — a missing referral, a doctor not yet in the system, a parent's booking details not matching their child's. The right person investigates and resolves what they can before escalating, rather than deferring every question upward. There's a lighter, ongoing layer of practice support on top of this — scheduling and rostering audiologists and casual screeners, social media content, SOP updates and compliance record-keeping — that adds variety without taking priority over the patient and school-screening workload. PRIMARY PURPOSE To independently and accurately manage patient and referral administration, and to coordinate the school hearing screening program end to end — on schedule, with genuine attention to detail and confidentiality — while escalating only genuine exceptions rather than routine questions. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES ▸ Patient & Referral Administration Upload doctor referrals to the correct patient profile, and create new patient records directly from an incoming referral Create new doctor contacts in the system, sourcing correct details from the referral or the practice's website Send completed clinical reports to doctors and parents once clinicians have finished them, and prepare clinician letters, including uploading the relevant audiogram Keep patient profiles accurate and complete — correct formatting, Medicare details and contact information ▸ School Screening Coordination Manage enquiries from prospective schools and keep a database of contacted, interested, confirmed and declined schools Reach out to returning schools each year to confirm the following year's screening dates, and manage the confirmation, flyer, e-contract and parent-broadcast process for each Maintain the school screening schedule and prepare each school's screening list ahead of time, sending reminders at one month, two weeks and one day before the visit Support the day of the screening visit remotely, including flagging any new bookings that come through Process each school's PASS/REFER results after the visit, prepare the summary report, and update the master database ▸ Staffing, Systems & Practice Support Schedule and roster audiologists and casual screeners across clinic, school and home-visit services Maintain accuracy across the practice management system, Excel trackers and the practice's master database Support updates to SOPs and clinic guides, and help keep the staff compliance register (working with children checks, first aid, insurance, equipment calibration) current Coordinate university clinical placement enquiries — sending the clinical handbook and information to new students and organising an introductory call ▸ Marketing & Content Support Help produce 2–3 educational social media posts per week aimed at schools and parents, and support content scheduling ▸ Communication & Judgement Ask a specific, informed question rather than guessing or defaulting to escalation — investigate first using the available data and SOPs Recognise the difference between an inbound referral (confidential, internal use only) and an outbound report (requires parent consent to share) and handle each correctly Own a mistake immediately and follow the correct process rather than hoping it goes unnoticed ▸ Working Hours Full-time, aligned to Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) business hours, working the same calendar as the Australian-based team WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE Referrals, reports and patient records are accurate, complete and handled confidentially — first time, every time A process taught once, through training, SOPs or videos, doesn't need to be retaught Small discrepancies — a mismatched count, a missing contact — are caught and resolved independently, with only genuine exceptions brought to the Practice Owner School screening visits run to schedule from first outreach through to the results summary, with nothing missed along the way The Practice Owner can hand over patient and student information without needing to double-check the work behind it MUST-HAVE (ESSENTIAL) 3+ years' hands-on experience as a Practice Manager or running a clinic's admin — worth more than a formal qualification alone Meticulous attention to detail — checks their own work rather than assuming it's right, especially with patient and clinical information Learns a new system quickly from training and SOPs, retains it, and follows it independently without needing the same thing re-taught Genuine initiative — investigates a discrepancy using the data and SOPs available, and comes back with a specific question rather than deferring everything upward Understands, or can quickly learn, the difference between a confidential referral and an outbound report — and handles each correctly Comfortable in a patient/practice management system alongside Excel and Outlook — can sort/filter data and spot a broken list Discreet and professional handling genuinely confidential patient and student health information Strong organisational skills to manage several school screening visits at once against fixed deadlines Comfortable asking questions and raising concerns directly rather than waiting to be asked Own computer/laptop and a private home office suitable for full-time remote work Available full-time on hours aligned to Australian business hours (AEST) NICE-TO-HAVE (DESIRABLE) A formal qualification in practice management or healthcare administration (a bonus, not a substitute for experience) Familiarity with a patient/practice management system such as Splose, Cliniko or Halaxy Experience with Canva, SharePoint and/or scheduling social media content for a business Experience coordinating with schools or in the education sector Familiarity with NDIS-funded client coordination (most billing here is Medicare/private) Required Experience 3+ years' hands-on experience as a Practice Manager, or running the administration of a clinic or similar healthcare/allied health setting — this hands-on experience matters more than a formal qualification on its own Comfortable handling confidential or sensitive information as a matter of course — healthcare, allied health, education or a similar regulated setting preferred Demonstrated ability to learn a new system or process from training or SOPs and follow it independently afterwards, without repeated re-training Comfortable working across multiple systems at once (a patient/practice management system, Excel, Outlook) to coordinate multi-step, deadline-driven work Able to work full time on hours aligned to Australian business hours (AEST) Required Skills High attention to detail — checks their own work rather than assuming it's correct, particularly with names, dates, contact details and clinical information Solid working Excel skills — comfortable sorting and filtering data and spotting when a formula or list looks broken; doesn't need to be formula-building level, but needs to trust and verify what the spreadsheet is showing Genuine initiative — investigates a discrepancy or unclear situation before escalating it, and asks a specific question rather than a general one Strong written English for professional correspondence with doctors, schools and parents, and comfortable asking questions and raising concerns directly Comfortable and discreet handling confidential patient and student information Own computer/laptop and a private home office suitable for full-time remote work Highly Desirable experience matters more) Experience with Canva, SharePoint and/or scheduling social media content for a business Experience coordinating with schools or in the education sector Familiarity with a patient/practice management system such as Splose, Cliniko or Halaxy Familiarity with NDIS-funded client coordination — most billing here is Medicare and private, but some families use NDIS funding