The Lead Patient Advocate reports directly to the Veteran Experience Coordinator in the Office of Veteran Experience under the Director's Office within the VAMC Pittsburgh. Leads complex patient concerns, issues, and contacts for the Facility to document and provide resolution. Key POC for patients and staff and works in collaboration with facility Patient Advocates on complex issues or complaints that cross service lines. Leads in resolving complaints for improvement throughout the facility.

Duties

The Lead Patient Advocate, provides leadership in the day-to day work of Patient Advocates. Works with SLAs to resolve issues and concerns and communicates with patients about their experiences of care. Collaborates with facility staff to create, develop, and implement initiatives and actions that improve the Veteran experience throughout the organization. Oversees the comprehensive Veteran Centered Complaint Resolution (VCCR) processes, including final resolutions, data capture, trend analysis of issues and complaints, and communication of trends to facility leadership to help drive system improvements. Team Lead Duties, Data Management, and Process Improvement: Ensures that VHA's strategic plan, mission, vision and values are communicated to the team and integrated into the team's strategies, goals, objectives, work plans, and work products and services. Ensures work assignments are prioritized, assigned and accomplished, in accordance with program requirements. Provides day-to-day work direction, review, distribution, balance, and adjustment of workload. Provides information to the supervisor relative to individual and team performance standards, ratings, promotions, and awards. Conducts, regularly, internal audits of documentation in PATS to ensure documentation and process execution meets OPA established requirements, works with appropriate personnel to correct identified issues. Leads and increases team problem-solving effectiveness, increase awareness of team operations and fosters an increased commitment to shared objectives. Serve as a coach, facilitator, and/or negotiator in coordinating team initiatives. Provides the team formal and informal training information related to patient advocacy service, customer service, techniques, and resources needed about specific issues. Develops and maintains organizational dashboards and data sets. Works closely with facility management to discuss trending concerns that may indicate the need for system improvements, service management intervention or executive leadership support or action. Complaint Resolution: Responsible for leading and overseeing the facility Veteran Centered Complaint Resolution (VCCR) process, including complaint resolution, data capture, and analysis of issues/complaints to make system improvements. Resolves difficult and complex complaints independently, expedites services and implements necessary corrective measures within established facility policies. Conducts interviews in daily encounters with patients, family members, staff members, and external organizations that intercede on behalf of patients. Reviews appropriate artifacts, documents, and discusses with personnel or witnesses regarding any practice that appears to violate the patient's rights, or which causes unnecessary discomfort or embarrassment to patients. Keeps informed of numerous government laws, directives, and policies to provide information to individuals representing various levels of educational and cultural backgrounds. Patient Advocate Representation and Relationship Management: Serves as liaison between the facility, patients, staff, and community, ensuring Patient Rights and Responsibilities and advocacy services are available. Ensures patients understand their rights and responsibilities, including the Clinical Appeal Process. Produces reports that are used to track and trend patterns. Responds both verbally and in writing to a congressional, service organization, community group, or other inquiries related to patient inquiries. Leads and ensures that rounds throughout the facility are conducted on a routine basis to solicit patient feedback and build strong relationships with SLAs and service leadership. Leads staff in responding to patients' inquiries through multiple VA approved forms of contact (e.g., Inquiry Routing and Information System (IRIS), My HealtheVet, Secure Messaging, E-mail, Phone, Walk-in, Town Halls, etc.), where patients pose questions, complaints, compliments, and suggestions. Ensures the current Joint Commission Standards and other regulatory requirements which may govern the Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration pertaining to patient advocacy are met. Ensures safeguards for privacy data/sensitive policy-making data against unauthorized disclosure. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm Compressed/Flexible: not authorized 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#: Lead Patient Representative/PD99734S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: not authorized 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, 12/19/2023. 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-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. 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-11 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: train staff to resolve issues, resolve system level issues by presenting the patient's perspective and desired resolution, present patient issues and data, provides trends of patient inquiries utilizes information to improve services to patients, collects, analyzes and evaluates data and prepares reports, conduct internal audits of documentation by users in PATS, oversees the veteran centered complaint resolution (VCCR) process, provides information on individual and team performance standards, ratings, promotions and awards. Create, develop and implement initiatives and action that improve the veteran experience, explains assignments, projects, program issues and deadlines. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Conflict ManagementCreative ThinkingCustomer ServiceFlexibilityInterpersonal SkillsLeadershipManaging Human ResourcesProblem SolvingStrategic Thinking 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 includes walking, standing, bending, carrying of light items, and occasionally assisting with a wheelchair. In some instances, relationships with patients and caregivers can become intense and the incumbent is constantly exposed to high levels of stress and anxiety. This position demands emotional stability, as the incumbent is deeply involved with many challenging, seriously ill, and/or dying patients and their caregivers. 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 Pittsburgh VA Medical Center 1010 Delafield Road Pittsburgh, PA 15215 US
• Name: Christene Ammoscato
• Phone: (570) 824-3521 X24536
• Email: [email protected]