Health System Specialist

Summary

The primary focus of this position is to provide healthcare systems technical assistance, customer support and consultation to homeless program staff at VA Medical Centers (VAMC) and Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISN), specifically around the use and application of tools and capabilities to monitor and assess homeless program performance and identify other service needs for the homeless Veteran population.

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Overview

• Accepting applications

• Open & closing dates

07/24/2024 to 08/05/2024

• Salary

$68,405 - $88,926 per year

• Pay scale & grade

GS 9

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Location

1 vacancy in the following location:

• Washington, DC

• Remote job

No

• Telework eligible

Yes-as determined by the agency policy.

• Travel Required

25% or less

• You may be expected to travel for this position.

• Relocation expenses reimbursed

No

• Appointment type

Permanent

• Work schedule

Full-time

• Service

Competitive

• Promotion potential

None

• Job family (Series)

0671 Health System Specialist

• Supervisory status

No

• Security clearance

Other

• Drug test

No

• Position sensitivity and risk

Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk

• Trust determination process

Credentialing

Suitability/Fitness

• Announcement number

CBZY-12485591-24-YH

• Control number

801277200

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This job is open to

• Career transition (CTAP, ICTAP, RPL)

Federal employees who meet the definition of a "surplus" or "displaced" employee.

• Family of overseas employees

Family members of a federal employee or uniformed service member who is or was, working overseas.

• Federal employees

• Competitive service

Current or former competitive service federal employees.

• Federal employees

• Excepted service

Current excepted service federal employees.

• Individuals with disabilities

• Internal to an agency

Current federal employees of this agency.

• Land & base management

Certain current or former term or temporary federal employees of a land or base management agency.

• Military spouses

• Peace Corps & AmeriCorps Vista

• Special authorities

Individuals eligible under a special authority not listed above, but defined in the federal hiring regulations.

• Veterans

Clarification from the agency

Open to status eligible applicants.

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Duties

This announcement will close on 08/05/2024 , the first 50 applications received will receive first consideration. Applications received after the initial cut-off number has been reached will not receive consideration unless otherwise requested by management.

• Serves as a subject matter expert (SME) for homeless data and systems and provides customer service to VAMC and VISN clinical and administrative staff.

• Assists and provides authoritative guidance on the documentation of complex clinical situations, and interpretation and application of homeless program policies.

• Maximizes end user compliance with VHA Homeless Program policies by disseminating and referencing inquiry related regulations, directives, technical assistance and trainings.

• Oversees system access registries and provides support around the management of access requests by tracking supervisor approvals, managing the internal access database, disabling access for inactive users, managing and modifying access for existing users, and managing and tracking national read only access for administrative staff and local and VHA leadership.

• Participates in special information flow studies, analyses, presentations and briefings, as assigned. Conducts routine studies on particular operational processes, issue topics, or related special projects where successive steps in fact-finding are utilized.

• Uses standard reference materials to develop straightforward position papers that touch on sensitive issues such as the quality or timeliness of veteran care issues.

• Communicates with responsible staff agency members to ensure completion of all requested actions and appropriately closes out all requests.

• Works closely with senior management and others in implementing and evaluating policies, plans, and internal operational systems such as correspondence management, information tracking among pertinent offices and stakeholders, and internal/external communication flows.

• assist with the continued development of HOMES by reviewing programming requests, beta testing new system programming, reviewing and testing operational and management reports, and system updates.

• Participates in design reviews, analyzes end user research, and assesses usability by testing results to determine optimal solutions to improve user experience.

• Develops tools and training guides for the user and participates in delivering training and educational programs to others as appropriate to knowledge and skill level.

• Collects, analyzes and provides feedback on effectiveness of training and suggests improvements/enhancements.

• Other duties as assigned.

Work Schedule: Required to work Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm

Compressed/Flexible: Available

Telework: Available (applicant is required on site 50% of work schedule per pay period)

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Position Description/PD#: Health System Specialist/PD03226A

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized.

Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not approved.

Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized.

Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

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Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job

• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959

• You may be required to serve a probationary period

• Subject to background/security investigation

• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process

• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP)

• Participation in the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination program is a requirement for all Veterans Health Administration Health Care Personnel (HCP) - See "Additional Information" below for details.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 08/05/2024.

Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-09 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR):

IOR Education: Possess undergraduate or graduate education with major study in hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration. Transcript is required with application and unofficial transcripts are acceptable.

OR

IOR Specialized Experience: Possess qualifying IOR specialized experience, defined as progressively responsible analytical or administrative, or clinical management or supervisory experience in the health care field. This work may have been performed in an operating health care facility or a higher organizational echelon with advisory or directional authority over such facilities. Work must have involved a close working relationship with facility managers and analysis and/or coordination of administrative, clinical, or other service activities, and provided knowledge of the following:

• (1) Missions, organizations, programs, and requirements of health care delivery systems;
• (2) Regulations and standards of various regulatory and credentialing groups; and
• (3) Government-wide, agency, and facility systems and requirements in various administrative areas such as budget, personnel, and procurement. At this level, applicants would have obtained this experience working within a health care setting, working directly with clinicians and local leadership to develop performance improvement techniques; applying organizational and system-wide strategies for continuous quality improvement; and experience running and supervising an administrative component of a health care system customizing in facility wide performance improvement programs, projects, and products.

NOTE: Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

OR

IOR Special Provision for In-service Placement: Successfully completed an agency-sponsored on-the-job training program may be substituted for qualifying experience, provided it included a formal individualized training plan. Such a training program must have been conducted in an operating health care system and included:

• Assignments providing a knowledge of basic health system administration philosophies, practices, and procedures, and basic government administrative policies and requirements;

• Practical assignments providing an opportunity to apply health system administration skills and principles (as the individual progresses, work assignments must be characteristic of the grade level to which he or she is assigned); and

• Oversight by an experienced health system administrator with periodic evaluation of the individual's progress and appropriate adjustment of the training program.

AND

Specialized Experience Requirement: Must possess one (1) year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-07 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized experience can include, but is not limited to, the following examples:

• Provide customer support to clinical and administrative staff

• Implement and evaluate policies, plans and internl operating systems

• Analyze end user research and assess usability by testing results

• Information tracking for internal and external correspondence

• Guidance on complex clinical situations

• Conduct studies on operational processes where fact finding is required

• Express oral and written information to multiple audiences

• Develop technical and operational support documents

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

Communication

Customer Servcie

Technical Competence

Technical Documentation

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

Physical Requirements: The work is conducted in office type setting with prolonged use of computing systems. Work is primarily sedentary, although some slight physical effort may be required. There may be some walking, standing, bending, carrying of light items such as papers, etc.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Education

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Additional information

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.

Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer (TJO). Please visit the Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP), va.gov/EMPLOYEE/docs/The-Fair-Chance-to-Compete-Act.pdf for more information.

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• Benefits

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A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new window

Learn more about federal benefits.

Review our benefits

Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE.

Narrative responses are not required at this time. If you are referred for consideration, you may be asked to submit additional job related information, which may include, but not limited to; responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities; completion of a work sample, and/or contact for an interview. Your resume and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating or consideration for employment.

The Department of Veterans Affairs performs pre-employment reference checks as an assessment method used in the hiring process to verify information provided by a candidate (e.g., on resume or during interview or hiring process); gain additional knowledge regarding a candidate's abilities; and assist a hiring manager with making a final selection for a position.

For more information on the "Who may apply" eligibility requirements, please refer to the OHRM Status Candidates and Other Candidate Definitions document.

Placement Policy: The posting of this announcement does not obligate management to fill a vacancy or vacancies by promotion. The position may be filled by reassignment, change to lower grade, transfer, appointment, or reinstatement. Management may use any one or any combination of these methods to fill the position.

It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment.

Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members.