Job opening: Patient Representative

Salary: $59 966 - 94 317 per year

Published at: Feb 15 2024

Company: Veterans Health Administration

Employment Type: Full-time

The Patient Representative is primarily responsible for complaint resolution with service recovery, receiving compliments, working with Service Level Advocates to help resolve issues and concerns and communicating with patients about their experiences of care. Works exclusively in the Patient Advocate Tracking System (PATS-R).Collaborating with other facility staff in the creation, development, and implementation of initiatives and actions that improve the patient experience throughout the VAMC.

Duties

Duties include but are not limited to: Assisting patients in understanding their rights, in addition to, their responsibilities. Assisting patients in understanding the Clinical Appeal Process and how to proceed with a clinical appeal request for reconsideration. Collaborating with other facility staff in the creation, development, and implementation of initiatives and actions that improve the patient experience throughout the organization. Managing the facility VCCR process, including complaint resolution, data capture and analysis of issues/complaints to make system improvements. Maintaining the attitude of taking a negative experience and turning it into a positive, memorable experience for patients and employees. Assisting SLAs and front-line staff in resolving issues that occur at the point of service, while also addressing more complex complaints that were not able to be resolved at the point of service. Working closely in identifying, training, and consulting with SLAs, and front-line staff, in resolving issues on first contact within their service area and use of PATS-R. Exploring all avenues, crossing all lines of authority and responsibility within the medical facility, in order to properly identify the nature and scope of the problem and to initiate appropriate action to expedite a resolution. Proactively identifies existing or potential problem areas and suggests solutions or alternatives to existing procedures which contribute to these problems. Resolve the most difficult and complex complaints, expedite services, and implement necessary corrective measures within established facility policies. Completes other duties as assigned. Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Patient Representative/PD99864S 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, 02/23/2024. 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-09 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. 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. Preferred Experience: 1 + year customer service, Working with multiple services to resolve issues, Administrative skills, 3 + years of VA work history. Minimum Qualifications to qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: GS-09 Level Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-07 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Excellent telephone etiquette and interpersonal skills. Assists patients in understanding their rights. Communicates patients' concerns, opinions, and needs to management. Reviews and interprets information contained in medical and administrative records. Reviews and interprets information contained in medical and administrative records. Collaborates with staff in the creation, development, and implementation of initiatives and actions to improve the patient experience. Resolves difficult and complex patient complaints. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a master's or equivalent graduate degree or, 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree, or, LL.B. or J.D., if related. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an an appropriate combination of specialized experience and education. GS-11 Level 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: Managing the facility VCCR process, including complaint resolution, data capture and analysis of issues/complaints to make system improvements. Participates in resolution of system problems by presenting the patient's perspective of the problem and the desired resolution. Collects, analyzes, and evaluates patient complaint data. Identifies existing or potential problem areas and suggests solutions or alternatives to existing procedures. Manages a patient centered complaint resolution process. Assisting SLAs and front-line staff in resolving issues at the point of service. Identifies, analyzes, and makes recommendations to resolve problems whose solutions may involve workflow, work distribution, staffing, and or organizational structure. Produces cumulative reports to track patient inquiries and trend the patterns to identify area of improvement needed. Identifies training needs for front-line staff in resolving issues on first contact. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have 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. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an an appropriate combination of specialized experience and education. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Analysis and Problem SolvingCommunicationConflict ManagementCritical ThinkingCustomer ServiceManages and Organizes Information 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 employee is constantly exposed to high levels of stress and anxiety. This position demands emotional stability, as the employee 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

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: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.