Job opening: Biomedical Engineer

Salary: $123 928 - 161 111 per year

City: Aurora

Published at: Mar 13 2024

Company: Veterans Health Administration

Employment Type: Full-time

Supervisory Biomedical Engineer for the Biomedical Engineering Service at (ECHCS) serves as a technical resource at the facility in those areas requiring Biomedical Engineering expertise. The program includes medical technology assessment, acquisition support, project management, compliance support, performance analysis, and supervision of the Biomedical Engineers, Biomedical Equipment Support Specialists or Electronics Section of the Biomedical Engineering Department.

Duties

The Assistant Chief Biomedical Engineer provides professional healthcare technology services to clinical and administrative departments. These services include but not limited to healthcare technology assessment, cost analysis of equipment life cycle, acquisition support, project management, maintenance service contract procurement, training, compliance monitoring, and performance analysis. The incumbent assists the Chief Biomedical Engineer and Clinical Engineering Service in monitoring the Medical Equipment Management Program to ensure the program is within the compliance of the Joint Commission, NFPA, VA Information Security for medical equipment system, and FDA regulation of Healthcare Technology. He/she compiles analytical performance data for the Clinical Engineering Department maintenance and professional. Additionally, he/she is responsible for presenting data to local, VISN and National groups upon request. Incumbent is responsible for implementing the management of the medical equipment management program. He/she ensures that medical equipment in the Medical Center is safe for patients and staff, reliable in its results, and experiences minimal downtime. Achievement in these areas includes improving workflow processes and ensuring preventive and corrective maintenance is performed in accordance with polices. Additionally, incumbent employs innovation and technical expertise to develop techniques, protocols, standard operational procedures, and policies for ensuring equipment is maintained properly and effectively. In coordination with the Chief Biomedical Engineer, exercises budgetary authority over the program and is responsible for managing departmental spending. Metrics of the program must be tracked, and resource adjustments made to ensure efficient performance. Knowledge of requirements from VHA, the Joint Commission (TJC), NFPA, College of American Pathologists (CAP), SOARS, FDA, OSHA and other groups are met for the medical equipment management program. This requires incumbent to remain current with standards interpretation and implementation objectives. He/she is required to maintain competence by participating in continuing education activities. Incumbent assists with the oversight of the Recall and Alerts program for ECHCS's medical equipment. This specialized program is responsible for ensuring that medical equipment identified in an Alert or FDA Recall is accurately accounted for and all required actions taken. He/she is responsible for ensuring Clinical Engineering Staff follows recommendations form the FDA, manufacturer, or any other agency recommendations. Documentation must be sufficient for TJC or FDA audit and hold up to potential legal challenges. He/she actively participates as a member of the VISN 19 Biomedical Engineering Team and other medical center committees. He/she leads meetings with manufacturers, vendors and their engineers in matters involving medical equipment and systems for both the VISN and local medical center. Incumbent leads and develops the work performance specifications for medical instrumentation service contracts and monitors the work of service contractors to assure that the work performance meets the needs of the Medical Center and conforms to the terms of the contract. He/she leads interfaces with a multiplicity of services on solving problems related to contracts. Assists Chief Biomedical Engineer and/or supervisors during the technical responses to medical equipment-related incidents that occur within the Medical Center. This includes immediate documentation, chain of custody, staff interviews, communications with medical staff, patient safety and management, Regional Counsel, and often includes VACO, CEOSH and FDA contacts as well. Occasionally, such an incident is of the magnitude to necessitate national Alerts on the subject, and the incumbent and other biomedical engineering staff participate in drafting these Alerts. Preferred Experience: Supervisory experience. Work Schedule: Full-Time, Monday to Friday, 7:30 am - 4:00 pm. Financial Disclosure Report: Not required Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Authorized

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: Citizenship. Citizen of the United States. (Non-citizens may be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3g, this part.) Education and/or Experience (1) Bachelor's degree: Professional engineering. To be acceptable, the curriculum must: (a) Be in a school of engineering with at least 1 curriculum accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) as a professional engineering curriculum; or, (b) Include differential and integral calculus, and courses (more advanced than first-year physics and chemistry) in 5 of the following 7 areas of engineering science or physics: (1) statics and/or dynamics; (2) strength of materials (stress-strain relationships); (3) fluid mechanics and/or hydraulics; (4) thermodynamics; (5) electrical fields and circuits; (6) nature and properties of materials (relating particle and aggregate structure to properties); or (7) any other comparable area of fundamental engineering science or physics, such as optics, heat transfer, soil mechanics, or electronics. OR, (2) Combination of education and experience: College-level education, training, and/or technical experience that furnished: [a] a thorough knowledge of the physical and mathematical sciences underlying professional engineering; and [b] a good understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the engineering sciences and techniques and their applications to 1 of the branches of engineering. Physical Requirements. See VA Directive and Handbook 5019. English Language Proficiency. Biomedical engineers must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with chapter 2, section D, paragraph 5a Preferred Experience: Extensive experience in Biomedical Engineer and proficient engineering skills. The candidate must demonstrate knowledge of advanced concepts, principles and practices of Biomedical Engineering including electronics, networking and computer science as they apply to technology in health care delivery. Must also be well versed with office computer programs such as Word and Excel. The Biomedical Engineer has extensive knowledge of a wide array of complex healthcare technologies and a high degree of technical and management judgment and initiative to effectively anticipate, identify and solve unique technical, operational, and personnel related issues in the dynamic healthcare environment. Grade Determinations: GS-13 Experience: Completion of at least 1 year of experience equivalent to the next lower level, and must fully meet the KSAs at that level. In addition, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs: Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: i. Knowledge of the management of overall department resources, i.e., finances, space, equipment, supplies, and staffing at the local level. ii. Ability to draft and/or recommend local policies and/or directives related to healthcare technology management. iii. Ability to balance multiple responsibilities, set priorities, delegate tasks, meet multiple deadlines, analyze organizational problems, and develop and implement effective solutions. iv. Ability to analyze organizational and operational problems to develop and implement solutions that result in efficient operations, and use data effectively to manage workload, quality, performance, and productivity within the area of responsibility. v. Skill in interpersonal relationships in leading and dealing with employees, team leaders, and managers, both within and outside the biomedical engineering program, to include conflict management, dispute resolution, mediation, or reasonable accommodations. References: VA Handbook 5005 Biomedical Engineer, GS-0858 Series https://vaww.va.gov/OHRM/Directives-Handbooks/Documents/5005.pdfGS-0858 Physical Requirements: The majority of the incumbent's duties are sedentary in nature, however, duties may require kneeling, carrying, climbing, crawling, lifting and working in confined spaces or on ladders. The incumbent's duties require exposure to environments where there is a possibility of exposure to contagious diseases and infections, as well as exposure to high temperature, high voltage and amperage, ultraviolet and other radiation, and hazardous materials. The incumbent must have a thorough understanding of universal precautions in order to ensure the safety of him/herself as well as the Biomedical Section.

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.