The position is located in the Salisbury VA Medical Center, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service. The Program Support Assistant (PSA) provides administrative support functions involving statistical reporting, tracking laboratory tests done outside the VA Hospital, and coordinates requests for all laboratory tests for the department which is essential in facilitating improvement of health access and patient outcomes.

Duties

Major Duties: Collects, compiles and maintains statistical information on the pathology and medical tests performed by and for Anatomic Pathology. The PSA is the point of contact for all new pathology test requests and research requests and acknowledges, records and assigns requests to the pathologists. Establishes protocols for incoming data on cytotech/histotech/pathologist workload, number of different tests requested under the same request, turnaround times, number of outside labs used, number of tests done externally, IHC antibodies percentages/wastage, etc. to include which data is relevant, data collection methods, and organization and presentation of the data. Analyzes and reviews the influx of information for trends and issues that affect the laboratory's performance, patient care, quality review, logistics, and budget. Develops recommendations for process improvement and presents goals to Anatomic Pathology QA meetings. Tracks newly implemented performance objectives for effectiveness and efficiency and synthesizes the information into reports on pathology and laboratory administrative, clinical , and technical components for submission to the Chief, Pathology and Laboratory Medical Sciences. Posts increases and decreases in monthly laboratory performance and communicates information to the laboratory staff and clinical departments. Maintains an automated system of program-specific data to track suspense on project progress reports and milestones, funding accomplishments, compliance strategies, etc. Coordinates specific programs with external departments in the hospital including surgery, medicine, oncology, emergency department, women's health, etc. Provides statistics on the Anatomic Pathology laboratory processing of specimens specific to each external department for their program effectiveness. The incumbent is the liaison between Anatomic Pathology and all services of the hospital and outside clinics to include surgery, internal medicine, oncology, primary care, the emergency department, women's health, Kernersville and Charlotte HCC, etc. Researches all requests/questions for the Pathology Laboratory on patient and administrative issues. Issues are forwarded to the appropriate departments in the laboratory as needed and ensures responses are provided. The incumbent coordinates, classifies, tracks and oversees that all molecular and genetic tests are packaged, shipped to outside laboratories and final pathology reports received. Performs work related to the acquisition and/or development of program information and resource materials/personnel to support the policy development and/or technical activities of the P&LMS. As the point of contact for the clinical staff, all molecular, genetic and new tests requests will be funneled through this position. Requests and processes must be coordinated through external departments of the hospital such as surgery, medicine, oncology, women's health, outside clinics etc. Receives and screens all telephone calls and correspondence related to the anatomic pathology program or operations, and refers to appropriate personnel for action. Attends anatomic pathology committee and staff meetings. Prepares and types minutes from meetings. Distributes and files minutes as needed. Types internal policy and procedure updates and new internal procedures in anatomic pathology. Serves as backup to schedule, attend and type minutes for laboratory departmental meetings. Performs other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Full-Time (7:00am - 3:30pm) Telework: Ad-Hoc Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Program Support Assistant (OA)/PD020850 Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/24/2023. 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-06 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05. 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 as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-05 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Technical knowledge of the assigned Service Administration, Operations and Mission. Knowledge of an extensive body of regulations, laws, procedures, methods and techniques unique to the service that require extended training and experience to perform such work as: extracting information from various sources when this requires considering the applicability of information and the characteristics and quality of the sources; and performing assistant support duties including answering inquiries for information and making administrative arrangements where necessary. Assignments range from interrelated to nonstandard procedural necessary to complete and/or resolve a wide range of assignments and problems. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Analytical ReasoningClericalCommunicationsComputer Skills 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 mostly sedentary but requires standing during presentations or training; may require some walking, bending, stooping, standing, stretching and carrying objects such as files/binders. 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.

Contacts

• Address WG Bill Hefner Salisbury VA Medical Center 1601 Brenner Avenue Salisbury, NC 28144 US
• Name: Quanetta Caudle
• Phone: 202-745-8000 X53524
• Email: [email protected]