The primary purpose of the position is to improve the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care by integrating integrating clinical and information processes necessary to achieve successful adoption and application of new technologies throughout the Veterans Health Administration. This position services as a health care professional who uses the knowledge to influence and adapt IT systems to drive management of the health system toward effectiveness and efficiency

Duties

This position involves a multi-grade career ladder. The major duties listed below represent the full performance level of GS-12. At the GS-11 grade level, you will perform assignments of a more limited scope and with less independence. You will progressively acquire the background necessary to perform at the full performance level of GS-12. Promotion is at the discretion of the supervisor and is contingent upon satisfactory performance, availability of higher level work, and availability of funds. Major Duties: As a primary VHA subject matter expert for Health Informatics, serves as the knowledge expert for the electronic health record and associated clinical software. Integrates knowledge of clinical and information processes to achieve successful adoption and application of new technologies to support health care operations and systems. Develops educational programs and instructional materials and appropriate tools to educate the users and support staff at all levels of the organization and trains others to deliver educational programs. Examines the need for change throughout the organization, determines what changes need to be aligned and how to do it, and leads or participates on process improvement, root cause analysis and system redesign teams. Exercises expertise in clinical operations, develops and/or oversees the development of information related to patient care, such as patient registries to allow the Clinical Team to track management of patient illnesses and develops performance management tracking tools. Extracts, analyzes and provides data to assess treatment impacts such as clinical endpoints, health status outcomes and utility estimates, estimated usage, characteristics of treating designated populations, evaluating patterns of substitution against other products such as resource impact assessments. Applies statistical analyses and interprets their significance including validity of measures used to generate outcomes related to patient management systems. Chairs/participates in a variety of information technology and information management committees. Integrates software applications for clinical services by (1) evaluating the unique needs of the specific clinical services in conjunction with the capabilities of the software and coordinating any required modifications; (2) reviewing the effectiveness of the systems and procedures to assure optimum benefit to patient care activities; and (3) troubleshooting when functionality is compromised by determining the cause of and/or the solution to the problem. Using the applicable software manager menu systems and tools, develops, modifies and tests components specific to fields and data that individualize/customize applications to user roles/needs while maintaining integrity among multiple software packages. Improves efficiency and effectiveness of processes by utilizing knowledge of human factors, usability of redesigned health information systems (i.e., software and hardware), and knowledge of human physical and psychological barriers to usability. Conducts tests to analyze usability, sequencing, flow, plain language, minimum key strokes, and comfort level of the user, ensuring adaptability of the process(es) to the workflow and that the processes used are the most efficient and effective. Drawing on extensive clinical input, redesigns and customizes business processes; adapts processes to work flow, making sure that they make sense and add efficiency and effectiveness to operation; eliminates redundancy and removes outdated processes. Performs other related duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 7:30am to 4:00pm Telework: Ad-hoc-Telework eligible for highly qualified candidates after 90 days Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 10/27/2023. 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-09. For a GS-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. 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. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: GS-11 Qualifications: Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-9 level in the Federal service GS-11 Specialized Experience: 1.) Experience in informatics involved in the improvement of the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of health care by integrating clinical and information processes in a health care environment; 2.) experience utilizing and training others in the use of an electronic health record system and associated clinical software to include troubleshooting and conducting evaluations of clinical software needs; and 3.) experience performing data input, retrieval, and analysis. OR; Education: A Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree. This education must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position - Program Analyst (Informatics). Qualifying education would include a major in a health science and/or allied scientific field such as health informatics, information science, health care and computer science, individual and public health care, biomedical research. (Transcript Required) OR; Combination: An equivalent combination of successfully completed graduate education and specialized experience as described above to meet the requirements for this level (e.g., 8 months of specialized experience and 1 year of education as described above). (Transcript Required) GS-12 Qualifications: Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience equivalent to at least next lower grade level (GS-11) GS-12 Specialized Experience: 1.) leadership (e.g., team lead, project lead, management) experience in informatics responsible for improving the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of health care by integrating clinical and information processes in a health care environment; 2.) experience utilizing and training others in the use of an electronic health record system and associated clinical software to include conducting evaluations of clinical software needs; 3.) experience using available tools to make modifications to, design, or enhance software applications; 4.) experience testing and troubleshooting software to identify root causes and solutions of problems; and 5.) experience in the planning, support and implementation of software packages that integrate with various clinical multi-service software packages. QUALITY RANKING FACTOR (GS-12 level only): Experience managing multiple clinical software packages and aggregation and analysis of data as it pertains to an electronic health record system. You will be rated on the following Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Other characteristics (KSAOs) as part of the assessment questionnaire for this position: Skill in applying a wide range of advanced practices, theories and emerging information in health care delivery, Health Informatics and applications. Knowledge of clinical environments including practices, procedures, policies, strengths and weaknesses in order to effectively use data to track and manage patient care. Knowledge of clinical software packages and clinical applications development techniques. Knowledge of data life cycle including data design, collection and management in order to input, retrieve, analyze, summarize and present information effectively. Ability to lead and manage Informatics-related projects and multidisciplinary teams. Skill in communicating both orally and in a variety of written media with all levels of end users, management and OI&T personnel, both internal and external to the facility. Physical Demands: The work is usually sedentary, but it requires periods of walking, standing, bending or climbing and employees may carry light items such as books, instruments, laptops and other similar materials. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Analysis and Problem SolvingCritical ThinkingPerformance MeasurementSelf ManagementTechnical Competence 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: You will be asked to participate in a pre-employment examination or evaluation as part of the pre-employment process for this position. Questions about physical demands or environmental factors may be addressed at the time of evaluation or examination. The work is usually sedentary, but it requires periods of walking, standing, bending or climbing and employees may carry light items such as books, instruments, laptops and other similar materials. ??????? 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

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

EDUCATION NOTE: (applicable to the GS-11 level only): If qualifying on education, one year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 1 year of full-time study. If that information cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester hours will be considered as satisfying the 1 year of full-time study requirement. Transcripts are required to verify quantity and content of 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 VA Nebraska-Western Iowa HCS - Omaha 4101 Woolworth Avenue Omaha, NE 68105 US
• Name: Jessica Echlin
• Phone: 651-405-5661
• Email: [email protected]