The incumbent serves as the Environment of Care/Life Safety (EOC/LS) Specialist reporting to the Administrative Officer. Reports to the Quality & Patient Safety Service Administrative Officer.

Duties

Duties include but not limited to: The EOC/LS Specialist is responsible for the appropriate interpretation of The Joint Commission (TJC) standards (Engineering, Life Safety, Emergency Management Chapters) for hospital, home care, and behavioral health survey activities; additionally, interpretation of Office of Inspector General (OIG) guides, VHA directives and guidelines, medical center polices, and other applicable accrediting bodies such as Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) and Long-term care survey contracts. The incumbent is the point of contact for all site visits. The EOC/LS Specialist tracks all internal and external surveys/reviews, completes action plans based on findings/recommendations, assigns to the responsible service to address, and continuously monitors the action plans until closure. The EOC/LS Specialist will be responsible for the ongoing development and maintenance of a continuous readiness program which ensures facility accreditation and compliance with external accrediting standards and internal performance expectations as delineated in VHA guidelines and directives. The EOC/LS Specialist coordinates all activity of the Joint Commission Survey Readiness Compliance Teams by providing education and the organization of teams for each Joint Commission chapter. This incumbent incorporates systems redesign and "Lean/Six-Sigma" Principles into work activities, finding creative solutions to practice and quality issues. S/he promotes and assists staff with locating and implementation of best practices to meet quality benchmarks. Maintains confidentiality of Quality Assurance and Risk Management data. Effectively applies data management and performance improvement techniques to utilize and interpret study designs, instrument development, sample size stratification, Root Cause and GAP Analysis. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 7am - 3:30pm Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Management & Program Analyst/PD005840 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved 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, 12/18/2023. 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. 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: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-09 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: applying knowledge of emergency management, life safety and engineering to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing with Medical Center staff and external reviewing bodies, as required; gather, assemble and display data via spreadsheet, graphical format, etc. to suggest appropriate solutions to identified problems and recommend ways to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of operations; tracks internal and external surveys/ reviews to prepare action plans, make recommendations and assign responsibility: analyze and develops ways to improve the accuracy, adequacy, timeliness and validity of data and systems for dissemination of information about Facility programs; serve as liaison for internal and external contacts regarding survey activity and quality management. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of this position. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with application. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond a Master's Degree level is qualifying. (Transcripts required).. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Compliance Inspection Communication Analysis and Problem Solving 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 sedentary. Some work may require movement between offices, hospitals, warehouses, and similar areas for meetings and to conduct work. Work may also require walking/standing, in conjunctions with travel to and attendance at meetings and/or conferences away from the work site. Incumbent may carry and lift light items weighing less than 15 pounds. 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.

1. Accreditation Information: Please site specific the accreditation information from the qualification standards or use the generic description for all others. Example - Sample for LPMHC: The master's or doctoral degree must be fully accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). Verification of accreditation may be made obtained from http://www.cacrep.org/directory/.
2. NOTE: If your school has changed names, or is no longer in existence, you must provide this information in your application.

Contacts

• Address Dallas VA Medical Center 4500 South Lancaster Road Dallas, TX 75216 US
• Name: VISN 17 SSU USAS Group
• Email: [email protected]