This position is assigned to the Medical Service at the VAMC Cincinnati, Ohio. The incumbent serves as a Program Specialist for the Medical Service. The Medical Service is a multi-disciplinary clinical service. Sections include Allergy/Immunology, Cardiology, Dermatology, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, General Medicine, Geriatrics/Palliative Care, Internal Medicine (Hospitalists), Oncology/Hematology, Radiation/Oncology, Nephrology, Respiratory Therapy, Pulmonary, Sleep, and Rheumatology.

Duties

The major duties of the Program Specialist position are: Clinic Operations: The incumbent drives start-up procedures for clinics within their area of responsibility. Incumbent provides updated patient schedules to providers and ensures patient medication lists are provided along with arranging for the availability of any outside patient records relevant to the episode of care. Drives daily specialty care morning huddles to ensure all required staff are aware of information relevant to the flow of the specialty care clinic. Maintains the specialty huddle board either virtually or in person, ensuring staff have access to up-to-date information and resources and information needed to maintain efficient clinic operations. Incumbent ensures that all same-day business is completed prior to the end of the clinic day. Monitors for incomplete notes, unfinished encounters and unmet patient needs and resolves any outstanding business before the end of the clinic day where possible. Incumbent ensures incoming patient calls are answered promptly. Provides coverage for phone triage as needed. Provides coverage for incoming patient calls in areas outside of the Program Specialist's normal area of responsibility on an as needed basis. Engages with the patient advocate's office on all concerns/comments from patients involving clinical staff as needed. Ensures staff are made aware of patient feedback (positive and negative) and takes a team-based approach to addressing patient concerns. Triages work from the Cerner pool relevant to their area of responsibility, ensuring that any immediate scheduling of patients needed is completed in a timely manner. Reviews pool for any critical lab values and ensure provider is aware for needed follow-up. Incumbent maintains up-to-date process maps for critical operational procedures within their area of responsibility. Provides reports and supporting data to the Office of the Chief regarding clinic metrics including but not limited to utilization, wait times, and consult volume. Office Administration: Provides administrative support of their area of responsibility. Incumbent will process travel and Continuing Medical Education requests for providers within their section. Ensures clinic space is operational by entering work orders as needed to ensure functional furniture, equipment and other material needs of the clinic are met. Works with the Office of the Chief Administrative Staff to ensure all equipment / purchasing needs for their section are addressed. Assists with grant funding applications where needed. Produces department schedules and ensures time keeping needs for their section are met. Serves as a first level reviewer for leave requests on the behalf of the Section Chief. Ensures clinic cancelations are completed with a minimum of 45 days advanced notice for all planned leave and in-lieu of holiday schedule changes. Works with the Office of the Chief administrative staff to complete critical employment related paperwork (ie, MSLE, Market pay reviews, credentialing documents, point of care reviews, maintaining mandatory training compliance).Incumbent ensures Section Chief and supervisors in their area of responsibility are aware of all deadlines and other requirements for staff evaluations. Process Improvement: The incumbent is responsible for driving continuous process improvements within their area of responsibility. Maintains a familiarity with process improvement methodology as serves as a project lead for process improvements .Ensures balance between continuity and improvement, adjusting processes as needed to meet the needs of patients and staff. Maintains LEAN certification and serves in advisory role for department process improvement projects. Incumbent may drive population health initiatives for the specialty care areas of responsibility (i.e., identifying patients who may need to be referred to the service).Assists with implementation of novel delivery of care models including telehealth, VA video connect, and others. Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 7:30am to 4:00pm Telework: VA supports the use of telework as a way to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Program Specialist/PD917990 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: 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, 11/09/2023. 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 grade level. For a GS-9 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-7 grade level. 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. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience and/or Education Requirement, GS-11. Specialized Experience. Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-9 grade level. This specialized experience can include: - Provides updated patient schedules to providers and ensures patient medication lists are provided along with arranging for the availability of any outside patient records relevant to the episode of care. - Ensures incoming patient calls are answered promptly and provides coverage for phone triage as needed.- Provides administrative support of their area of responsibility. - Produces department schedules and ensures time keeping needs for their section are met. - Engages with the patient advocate's office on all concerns/comments from patients involving clinical staff as needed. - Triages work from the Cerner pool relevant to their area of responsibility, ensuring that any immediate scheduling of patients needed is completed in a timely manner. - Responsible for driving continuous process improvements within their area of responsibility. - Ensures that all same-day business is completed prior to the end of the clinic day and monitors for incomplete notes, unfinished encounters and unmet patient needs and resolves any outstanding business before the end of the clinic day where possible. OR, Education: Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M. in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the Program Specialist position. OR, Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience may be used to qualify for this position as long as the computed percentage of the requirements is at least 100%. To compute the percentage of the requirements, divide your total months of experience by 12. Then divide the total number of completed graduate semester hours (or equivalent) beyond the second year (total graduate semester hours minus 36) by 18. Add the two percentages. Specialized Experience and/or Education Requirements, GS-9. Specialized Experience. One year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-7 grade level which includes experience such as: - Provides updated patient schedules to providers and ensures patient medication lists are provided along with arranging for the availability of any outside patient records relevant to the episode of care. - Ensures incoming patient calls are answered promptly and provides coverage for phone triage as needed. - Provides administrative support of their area of responsibility. - Produces department schedules and ensures time keeping needs for their section are met. OR, Education: Master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.B. or J.D. in a related field to the Program Specialist position. OR, Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience may be used to qualify for this position as long as the computed percentage of the requirements is at least 100%. To compute the percentage of the requirements, divide your total months of experience by 12. Then divide the total number of completed graduate semester hours (or equivalent) beyond the first year (total graduate semester hours minus 18) by 18. Add the two percentages. 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 requires no special physical demands. It may involve some walking, standing, bending, or carrying of light items. 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 Cincinnati VA Medical Center 3200 Vine Street Cincinnati, OH 45220 US
• Name: Amanda Flores
• Email: [email protected]