The Patient Safety Officer takes the lead in creating a culture of safety and a corporate sense of "safety mindfulness" among staff and leaders in the Network Office and at each Network facility. Central to this role is the discovery of system level vulnerabilities that result in close calls and adverse patient events at the local and network level, followed by the development, implementation and sharing of preventive actions that result in measurably safer care delivery.

Duties

The Patient Safety Officer contributes to the strategic planning and administrative management of Network health care delivery, through assessing, organizing, developing, managing, and evaluating the network's patient safety programs and initiatives. These executive level functions require the ability to apply the specialized principles and practices of health care management. The overall responsibilities includes but are not limited to: Addresses system issues to ensure timely completions of RCAs Reviews RCAs for thoroughness and provides constructive feedback to facilities Verifies that adverse events and close calls are classified correctly according to the SAC matrix Verifies that RCA Actions/Outcomes Measures are being implemented Uses VISN SPOT, VHA's national and VISN-Level patient safety software applications Reviews and evaluates program elements such as: Facility compliance with actions identified in the Patient Safety Alerts/Advisories, Facility Healthcare Failure Mode Effects Analyses (HFMEA), Patient Safety Training within the VISN Consults with facility PSMs on local patient safety programs, and develops training plans as necessary to improve operations Develops, assesses, designs, measures, and evaluates the network patient safety program Assists network leadership in setting institutional priorities related to patient safety, and in the forecasting of requirements necessary to improve patient safety program within the network Forecasts, develops, justifies, implements, and maintains financial components of the VISN patient safety program to maximize the utilization of network resources Utilizes current trends and relevant theory to identify, analyze, and resolve problem areas in patient safety Analyzes and interprets data to identify the effectiveness of patient safety initiatives and programs within the network to identify opportunities for improvements Initiates and leads educational activities to promote and enhance the clinical understanding and utilization of the RCA process by senior management and other health care professionals within the VISN Assists facility PSM with culture change at the local management level, if needed Trends and analyzes adverse event and close call across the network Conducts periodic environmental patient safety inspections at VISN facilities Participates in VISN Patient Safety Committee activities Serves as the VISN expert on the VHA Patient Safety Improvement Handbook Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, From 8:00 a.m. to 4:30p.m. Telework: Reg teleworks 6+ days per pay period Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Health System Specialist (VISN Public Safety Officer)/PD094150 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, 12/07/2023. 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-14 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-13. 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. Individual Occupational Requirement: The 0671 series requires specific education or experience to be met in order to be appointed into a position of this series. You must meet the pre-determined Education or Experience Individual Occupational Requirement below as set by Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Education: Undergraduate and Graduate in a Major study of hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration. Experience: Experience of progressively responsible analytical or administrative, or clinical management or supervisory experience in the health care field. This work may have been performed in an operating health care facility or a higher organizational echelon with advisory or directional authority over such facilities. Work must have involved a close working relationship with facility managers and analysis and/or coordination of administrative, clinical, or other service activities, and provided knowledge of the following: Missions, organizations, programs, and requirements of health care delivery systems; Regulations and standards of various regulatory and credentialing groups; and Government-wide, agency, and facility systems and requirements in various administrative areas such as budget, personnel, and procurement Special Provision for In-service Placement: Successful completion of an agency-sponsored on-the-job training program may be substituted for qualifying experience, provided it included a formal individualized training plan. Such a training program must have been conducted in an operating health care system and included: Assignments providing a knowledge of basic health system administration philosophies, practices, and procedures, and basic government administrative policies and requirements; Practical assignments providing an opportunity to apply health system administration skills and principles (as the individual progresses, work assignments must be characteristic of the grade level to which he or she is assigned); and Oversight by an experienced health system administrator with periodic evaluation of the individual's progress and appropriate adjustment of the training program. GS-14 Grade Level Requirement - In addition to the Time in Grade and the Individual Occupation Requirement, you must have the specialized experience below. You may continue qualify based on your experience as described below: Specialized Experience: The position requires knowledge of health care delivery systems, management principles, practices, methods, and techniques of medical center operations, policies, and procedures as well as VA regulations, policies, and program guidelines. Applicants must have knowledge of quality improvement concepts, team facilitation skills, statistical processes, VHA Healthcare delivery system(s) and understanding of local activities to improve performance in such areas. Qualifying Specialized experience includes: * Developing, analyzing, evaluating, advising on, and improving the effectiveness of work methods or procedures to monitor clinical operations workload, demand, capacity, and productivity. * Coordinating, communicating, identifying, and developing mechanisms to streamline processes and plans program management policies, concepts, practices, and principles. * Analyzing and developing recommendations for the improvement of administrative practices/policies, program operations and objectives, and foreseeing administrative problems/requirements. * Applying principles, practices, methods, and techniques of program analysis to obtain, compile, summarize and analyze qualitative and quantitative methods for the improvement of complex clinical operating systems and processes. * Experience in programing design, research techniques, benchmarking, statistical analysis and adapting analytical techniques and evaluation criteria to determine program effectiveness related to health care systems. * Utilizing management information systems, office automation systems and processes, computer applications, principles and techniques to study and analyze program specific-data; compiles final reports of evaluation efforts, notes discrepancies, and plans initiatives for effecting actions and/or reaching established goals. Preferred Experience: Patient Safety Manager or Patient Safey Officer experience. Quality Ranking Factor: Lean Six Sigma Green or Black Belt training, experience teaching HRO Baseline and/or Team Training You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Customer ServiceInterpersonal SkillsKnowledge ManagementOrganizational AwarenessProblem SolvingQuality Management 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, with no special physical requirements. The work is performed in a typical office setting. Some travel between sites of care may be required to coordinate initiatives and to represent the agency at meetings and events and to do demonstrations and presentations. 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 for specialized experience at this grade level.

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 VHA VISN 8 Human Resources 8900 GRAND OAKS CIR Tampa, FL 33637 US
• Name: Iris Steward
• Phone: 706-631-8152
• Email: [email protected]