This Program Support Assistant position is located in the Mental Health service at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Chicago, IL and serves as the principal office clerical and administrative support position of the office.

Duties

Duties Include: - Receives and/or gives out forms; assists patients and visitors with the completion of forms or documents. - Provides general telephone and visitor referral services. Directs patients, visitors, and callers to the appropriate staff member based on specific request or by ascertaining the nature of the call. - Receives, reviews, and investigates incoming correspondence, reports, and memoranda received. - Maintains a control record on incoming correspondence and action documents and follows up on work in progress to insure timely replies or actions. - Reads outgoing correspondence for procedural and grammatical accuracy, making certain that it conforms to medical center policy and factual correspondence. - Provides information of a routine nature and provides basic instructions to other staff on operational issues as instructed by the supervisor. - Determines the most useful and appropriate information, resolves inconsistencies in available information, and provides alternatives. - Calls and mail letters to Veterans, contacts them for appointment reminders and data collection purposes, and completes post-care follow-up questionnaires with Veterans. - Updates policy statements, SOPs, and plans at the direction of MHSL leadership, ensuring accuracy regarding format, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and distribution of copies. - Makes individual purchases not exceeding $3000 unless specifically authorized to do so. - Reconciles purchase card charges within the established time limits. - Resolves disputes of unknown or incorrect charges also within the established time limits. -Assists with scheduling space, notifying participants, and providing supplies and equipment for conferences and meetings. -Prepares agenda and handouts, records, and transcribes minutes of meetings. -Acts as timekeeper which includes publishing daily staff leave notices, collecting and assembling weekly staff telework schedules, prepares and transmits time and attendance records, etc. - Collaborates with facility entities on All-Employee Survey (AES) efforts as regards mental health staff and coordinates survey efforts across the service line. - Monitors and administratively coordinates internal PATS-R and Vsignals processes, acting as the champion of both, and generally supports service line patient experience efforts. - Assists clinical and administrative staff in the setup and maintenance of PCMM processes. - Supports other administrative staff in the onboarding of staff and trainees, and manages the logistics of the onboarding and movement of trainees across the various training programs. - Completes other project support duties as assigned. -Performs other related duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00am-4:30pm. Telework: Not Authorized Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Program Support Assistant - Mental Health Service/PD23567A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized. Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized. Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, facility applicants must meet all requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement. Non-facility applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/13/2023. 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-6 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-5. 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. GS-6 Specialized Experience: At least one (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-5 level in Federal Service. Specialized experience is defined as experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA's) to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. Specialized experience includes but not limited to: Experience in a medical clerical or administration position that required knowledge of medical terminology and interaction with a professional staff, management and patients; skill in the use of computers, printers, fax machines, copy machines and other office equipment; experience using software programs, including word-processing, databases, and spreadsheets; experience in preparing, updating, designing, organizing, collecting and gathering data, preparing reports, and maintaining databases using software applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and SharePoint; experience taking notes for minutes of meetings and typing in proper format; and experience dealing with patients, patient's families and the public in a appropriate and courteous manner. As a general rule, education is not credible above the GS-5 level for most positions covered by this standard; however, graduate education may be credited in those few instances where the graduate education is directly related to the work of the position. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Database AdministrationInterpersonal SkillsKnowledge ManagementSelf-Management Physical Demands: The physical demands required are essentially non-strenuous and include prolonged sitting, occasional extended mobility to various areas of the facility, standing, and bending. The incumbent may be required to lift light office items and files not exceeding 25 lbs. No special physical demands are required to perform the work. The incumbent may infrequently be required to travel to CBOCs and other medical centers within the VISN. Working Conditions: Work is typically performed in an adequately lighted and climate-controlled office at the medical center or other appropriate venue as designated by the supervisor and involves normal everyday risks and discomforts inherent to office settings. Coordination and participation in meetings and other activities requires presence in a variety of in-house areas and facilities as well as high availability in the incumbent's digital presence. The work includes a significant number of abrupt deadlines. 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. 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

There is no educational substitution at this grade level.

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 Jesse Brown Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center 820 South Damen Avenue Chicago, IL 60612 US
• Name: Joyce Ruffin
• Phone: 414-384-2000 X40575
• Email: [email protected]