The purpose of this position is to serve as a liaison between Post 911 Veterans, Service Member and their families and the medical center staff to ensure Veterans receive prompt appropriate medical care . This position is located at a medical center withing the VISN and provides services to severely/non/severely injured, ill/non-ill Veterans/SMs throughout the Network. The incumbent is directly supervised by the facility Transition and Care Management Program Manager.

Duties

Serves as the point of contact to assist transitioning Post 911 Veterans, service members and their families to access VA services. Makes inquiry into patient complaints, initiates action, or changes necessary to correct problem situations, and reports on corrective measures taken. Receives and listens to complaints and grievances from patients or from individuals on behalf of patients. Assists Veterans, their families/representatives, and facility staff members in recognizing and removing institutional barriers to the provision of optimal health care. Assists Post 9/11 Service members and Veterans in understanding their rights and responsibilities. *Explores all avenues, crossing all lines of authority and responsibility within the VISN and medical center, in order to properly identify the nature and scope of the problem and to initiate appropriate action to expedite a resolution. Assists with completion of administrative tasks in conjunction with the application of benefits. Assist patients and their families with completion of paperwork to obtain certain benefits such as Combat related Special Compensation (CRSC) or Traumatic Service member Group Life (TSGLI). Provides information and assistance to Veterans and family members regarding benefits, entitlements, and eligibility to health care and Veteran benefits. Collaborates with Veteran's service organizations, community groups, and others whose interest is in helping and protecting Veterans, their families, and their representatives. Develops rapport and maintains effective relations with medical center personnel at all levels, i.e., management, supervision, professional staff, technicians, administrative and clerical staff. Communicates with individuals of different education, environmental, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Handles a wide range of difficult contacts and complex situations, including eligibility determination on all types of patients. Contacts the gaining or appropriate nationwide VA medical center facility for the given patient and transfers enrollment and clinical records as part of the transition assistance. Maintains relationships with military installation points of contact and community agencies providing services for Post 9/11 SM/V and their families. VA offers a comprehensive total rewards package: HR Specialist Total Rewards Work Schedule: Monday to Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Patient Representative/PD122300 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Approved Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 09/25/2023. 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-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-9. 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. SELECTIVE PLACEMENT FACTOR (S) 1. Must be proficient in spoken and written English. 2. Must be proficient in spoken Spanish. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-9 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: resolving patient and family complaints; assisting patients understand their rights and responsibilities when requesting medical care; providing transition assistance to active duty service members and veterans including entitlements, eligibility for health care, disability, and education; analyzing and presenting data with outcomes, working with military structure, services and planning outreach activities with DOD facilities and other agencies to provide services to service members and veterans among others and working with Veterans organizations. . OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related. Such education must demonstrate the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to do the work. . OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond . You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Customer ServiceInfluencing/NegotiatingIntegrity/HonestyInterpersonal SkillsPlanning and Evaluating 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 primarily sedentary, although some slight physical effor, may be required. Additionally, incumbent will be required to travel long distances, provide services outside the office at different community environment (DOD facilities, veteran's home among others). It si expected that a portion of the services provided will be conducted away from the office in the office of other agencies, in non-traditional setting and in military reserve and National Guard facilities. 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: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.

Contacts

• Address San Juan VA Medical Center 10 Calle Casia San Juan, PR 00921 US
• Name: Vilnalys Irizarry-Brisueno
• Phone: (939) 227-1856
• Email: [email protected]