The Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical) - Advanced provides high level support, training, and advanced management of telehealth operations and is typically stationed at a clinical care delivery site (VA Medical Center, CBOC, VA Outreach Clinic, etc.), with duties that may require travel.

Duties

Major duties: Delivering established telehealth competency based training for clinicians and telehealth staff members. Supports clinical telehealth encounters for both the patient and provider locations by serving as the telepresenter within scope of practice, functioning as an imager and supporting clinical data for telehealth store and forward applications, managing real time clinical telehealth events, providing established patient education, and providing technical and administrative support of telehealth operations. Evaluating telehealth operations and supporting performance improvement efforts, providing technical support to end-users, scheduling simple and complex intra-facility and inter-facility telehealth appointments, installing, configuring, maintaining, and troubleshooting technology, and performing a variety of program support duties as assigned. Function as a preceptor for Clinical Video, and/or Store and Forward Telehealth Operations. Performs a full range of duties and is responsible for day-to-day operation of telehealth services at the assigned location and between the assigned location and remote sites of care as well as participating in the programmatic development and advanced support of the facility-wide telehealth program. Coordinating, installing, maintaining and managing the inventory of telehealth technologies including hardware and software with assistance of Biomed and IT. Developing reporting procedures, sampling techniques and measurements at various points in the telehealth processes to identify/analyze inherent weaknesses in work and procedures. Coordinating clinic set up and monitoring of workload capture and issues for assigned patient and provider clinics including telehealth resource based scheduling. Preparing the clinical environment, which may include preparing medical and telecommunications equipment to be used for clinical examination and treatment. Serving as an imager and manager of clinical data for store and forward telehealth (SFT) clinical encounters including tasks such as capturing images, collecting data and transmitting them electronically for clinical review in accordance with VHA national guidelines. Work Schedule: Full time, Monday - Friday, 7:30am - 4:00pm Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met. Basic Requirements: United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy. Experience and Education. (1) Experience. One year of experience in a health care field that demonstrates the applicant's ability to perform the work or provides an understanding of the work such as but not limited to a medical or clinical assistant (or technician) or health technician. OR (2) Education. Four academic years above high school leading to a bachelor's degree with courses related to the occupation. OR (3) Experience/Education Combination. Equivalent combination of experience and education are qualifying for entry level for which both education and experience are acceptable. Examples are listed below: (a) Six months of experience in the health care field and two years of education above high school that included at least six semester hours in health care related courses such as, biological science, surgical technician courses, nursing assistant or other courses related to the position; or an associate's degree in a health care related field; (b) Six months of experience in the health care field and successful completion of a course for health care technicians, hospital corpsmen, or medical service specialists given by the U.S. Armed Forces. c. Certification. None d. Grandfathering Provision. All Health Technicians (Telehealth Clinical) employed in VHA in this occupation on the effective date of this qualification standard are considered to have met all qualification requirements for the title, series, and grade held. For employees who do not meet all the basic requirements required in this standard, but who met the qualifications applicable to the position at the time they were appointed to it, the following provisions apply: (1) Such employees may be reassigned, promoted up to and including the full performance (journeyman) level, or changed to lower grade within the occupation, but may not be promoted beyond the journeyman level or placed in supervisory or managerial positions. (2) Employees who are appointed on a temporary basis prior to the effective date of the qualification standard may not have their temporary appointment extended or be reappointed, on a temporary or permanent basis, until they fully meet the basic requirements of the standard. (3) If an employee who was retained (grandfathered) under this provision leaves that occupation, the employee loses protected status and must meet the full VA qualification standard requirements in effect at the time of re-entry to the occupation. Grade Determinations: At least 1 year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade level that demonstrates the technical competencies described at this level. Experience for this position includes that which provides a working knowledge and ability to screen patients for Telehealth modality and refer patients that do not meet established criteria to appropriate care; capture and transmission of clinical images and/or data, obtains consent as necessary, generates consults according to established procedures for each telehealth specialty, transmits images or clinical data to the electronic medical record, provides patient education regarding general anatomy, disease processes and prevention as appropriate, and takes appropriate action based on the providers' findings and recommendations; provides hands on assistance and reports clinical observations under the direction of a licensed independent Practitioner or clinical specialist; work out process issues, equipment needs, problems, data collection and any other logistical issues; conducts routine inventories and consistently tracking location/status of Telehealth technology located at assigned site; troubleshoots, repairs, and coordination of replacement equipment as necessary. (3) Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: In addition to the experience above, you must demonstrate all of the following KSAs.(a) Ability to use independent technical judgment to analyze, evaluate and resolve problems.(b) Knowledge of quality control and assurance procedures and principles of performance improvement.(c) Ability to function effectively between competing priorities.(d) Knowledge of proper maintenance and troubleshooting of telehealth equipment.(e) Ability to work with a team to provide technical guidance, plan, organize and coordinate activities of a Health Technician in order to effectively complete job duties of assignment such as distributing workload, monitoring the status and progress of work, monitoring accuracy of work.(f) Ability to assist in Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical) development, outcome management and strategic planning.(g) Ability to perform successful knowledge transfer regarding the use of telehealth technologies. References: VA Handbook 5005-96, Part II, Appendix G50, Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical), GS-0640 The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-7. Physical Requirements: The work requires some physical exertion such as prolonged periods of standing, bending, reaching, crouching, stooping, stretching, and lifting moderately heavy items such as manuals, record boxes, equipment or assisting patients. The work requires above average agility and dexterity. The incumbent may be required to travel between VA and/or Non-VA clinical care sites and possession of a valid driver's license may be required.

Education

IMPORTANT: 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 Tomah VA Medical Center 500 East Veterans Street Tomah, WI 54660 US
• Name: Joseph Tourek
• Email: [email protected]