20 Sep
|
Melbourne Animal Specialist Hospital
|
Williamstown
20 Sep
Melbourne Animal Specialist Hospital
Williamstown
$33.74 per hour + super & shift loadings
Great medicine is our starting point, not our point of difference — every specialist hospital delivers it. What sets MASH apart is the service around it: we explain our reasoning and invite the conversation, we tell owners plainly about prognosis and cost, and we never judge the decision an owner makes. We turn ourselves inside-out to make their hard day easier. Our value is the empathy, the quality of our care and our communication wrapped around the medicine — that is what earns owners’ trust and keeps them with us.
For most of the people who come through our door, that service starts and ends at the front desk. You are the first voice they hear on the phone and the first face they see, and you are the last person they speak to before they take their pet home. The vets and nurses provide the medicine, but you have a huge impact on how the whole visit feels to the pet owner. If you want a front-of-house role where noticing that someone is upset, and quietly finding them a or a cup of tea before they have to ask, is the whole point rather than a nice extra — you will be right at home here.
You do not need veterinary experience
We hire for talent, not for terminology. If you have worked on a medical, hospital or emergency reception desk, you already have the hard part: staying calm when the waiting room is full, reading the person in front of you, keeping the record right when everything is urgent. The veterinary knowledge and the software we can teach you. Come and talk to us.
The role
We are looking for people to join our Client Services team — the team that runs the front desk, the phones and the administration behind a hospital that never closes. The role is advertised full-time, but we are open to part-time or a job-share for the right people, and we are always glad to hear from anyone wanting casual shifts.
The desk is busy and varied. In a single shift you might book a surgical referral and communicate with the referring vet practice, take a deposit for an emergency admission, talk an anxious owner through what happens next, and notice that the dog in the corner of the waiting room is starting to breathe harder than it was ten minutes ago and flag it to the clinical team. It is administration, and it has to be accurate — but it is done for people who are having a hard day, and that is the part we hire for.
The desk is staffed days and evenings, seven days a week, on a rotating roster that includes weekend and evening shifts; overnight, the clinical team covers the front desk. As the hospital grows,
the roster may in time extend to overnight shifts.
About MASH
Melbourne Animal Specialist Hospital (MASH) is a privately owned, patient-focused and fully independent 24-hour emergency and referral hospital in Ringwood, just off EastLink and twenty minutes from the inner suburbs. We opened in 2023 and have grown into a premier referral provider with specialists in emergency and critical care, small animal surgery, internal medicine, diagnostic imaging and anaesthesia.
The facility is purpose-built and has everything you would expect of a specialist hospital: in office CT, digital radiology, ultrasound, endoscopy, two theatres, an ICU and separate cat and dog wards. Because we are independent, the way we treat people is decided here, by the people who work here not by someone at head-office you never actually meet.
The team around you
You will be part of a small Client Services team led by our Client Services Practice Manager, whose job is to support the desk — training on our systems and workflows, clear procedures for the things that have to be right every time, and someone to elevate to when a situation needs more than you should be handling alone.
Around that team are the vets, nurses and specialists, and the referring practices who send us their cases. The clinical team relies on the desk: for an accurate record, a history and radiographs already on the file, and a heads-up when something in the waiting room is not right. In return, you are never on your own with a difficult conversation — a vet or a nurse is always a few steps away.
What the job looks like
Greet everyone who comes to the desk warmly, and by name where you know it — eye contact, a smile and an acknowledgement straight away, even when you are on a call or with someone else.
Treat the waiting room as part of the service rather than a holding area: check on people instead of waiting to be approached, get a wait‑time estimate from the clinical team before an owner has to ask for one, and offer a cup of tea on a long wait or colouring pencils where there are children.
Anticipate what someone is likely to need — a quiet room, a hand with a carrier or a large dog, help out to the car — and offer it before they ask.
Answer the phones and the client services inbox, and help owners and referring vets with enquiries about emergency presentations, specialist appointments and referrals.
Build and maintain the daily schedule and the client, patient and referring‑practice records it rests on, and make sure the history and imaging are on the file before the patient arrives.
Take payments and deposits, process pet insurance claims, and reconcile the day at the end of the shift.
Handle euthanasia and aftercare arrangements with care and accuracy — it is emotionally charged work, and getting the detail right matters most exactly then.
Keep an eye on the patients in the waiting room, and alert a nurse or vet immediately if one seems to be deteriorating or an owner is worried.
Keep reception, the waiting room and the client areas clean, calm and stocked.
What we are looking for
Experience in client service, reception or administration in a busy service environment. Veterinary, medical or emergency experience is a plus, and EzyVet experience is a real plus, but neither is essential — we can teach the systems.
Genuine warmth with people, and the emotional intelligence to notice when someone is upset, frightened or struggling — and to do something about it.
Calm under pressure. The desk is busiest exactly when the people at it are most stressed.
Clear, professional communication on the phone, in writing and in person.
Accuracy and attention to detail — an incomplete record or a mis-keyed payment becomes someone else’s problem very quickly.
Sound judgement about what is yours to handle and what needs a vet, a nurse or your manager, and the confidence to elevate early rather than late.
Reliability. You are where the roster says you will be, when it says you will be there.
Availability for a rotating roster that includes evenings and weekends, and the legal right to work in Australia.
What we offer
A base rate of $33.74 an hour plus superannuation, with loadings on evening, weekend and public holiday shifts.
A roster published in advance, so you can plan a life around it.
A MASH uniform, supplied.
Training on our systems and workflows, and a manager whose job is to support the desk.
A comprehensive Employee Assistance Program, and a leadership team that takes team culture seriously.
A workplace where the way you treat people is the point of the job, not a soft skill on the side.
A staff lounge and an automated espresso machine — the small things count on a long Sunday.
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📌 Receptionist - Emergency & Specialist Vet Hospital (Williamstown)
🏢 Melbourne Animal Specialist Hospital
📍 Williamstown