This position serves as a Patient Experience Officer (PXO), organizationally reporting to the Assistant Director. This position is located within a Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Western North Carolina VA Health Care System (WNCVAHCS) at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The mission of the VHA is to honor America's Veterans by providing exceptional health care that improves their health and well-being.

Duties

The Major Duties and Responsibilities of the Patient/Veterans Experience Officer includes but is not limited to the following: The incumbent will be the facility's key person to lead efforts of building, sustaining, and implementing Patient Experience and Employee Engagement practices and environments to promote the culture of positive patient experiences using a patient-centered approach. The incumbent will also consider those who support patients such as staff, family, caregivers, visitors and the community. They will be primarily responsible for bringing systems and process together to function seamlessly, promoting a culture that considers the needs of many key stakeholders, identifying opportunities to improve experiences, prioritizing and designing action plans for leadership endorsement. The incumbent will respond to current Patient Experience affairs and proactively plan for a sustainable culture that is patient centric and enhances the patient experience. The incumbent's primary role is to enhance the patient experiences through proactive approaches based on satisfaction and experience data; resolutions to complaints; identification and correction of system issues impacting experience and satisfaction; education of staff regarding efforts and strategies; and application of data analysis to identify trends and patterns that may negatively impact experiences. Direct support is provided to the development, maintenance and operation of the Patient Experience Model at the healthcare facility level. The incumbent is responsible for translating policies, theories and strategies into action within the complex interrelationships that exist related to the Patient Experience Model and customer service programs. The incumbent may develop local policies to support relevant customer satisfaction models. The incumbent has primary responsibility for leading and implementation of the Patient Experience initiatives, including but not limited, initiatives for clinicians, management, and support personnel at the local facility to foster the culture centered around the patient. The incumbent is responsible for maintaining clear communication at the local facility on patient experience efforts, both to communicate relevant Patient experience information and lessons learned which have potential spread impact and to gain insight of opportunities for the local facility to improve or sustain positive practices. The incumbent must have the ability to build a culture of patient-centeredness considering the significance and impact the experience has in overall Patient satisfaction and the perspective of the care received. The Patient Experience Officer will develop and manage programs based on data and analysis collected and representative of the voice of the Veteran, family members, caregivers, survivors and staff. Some of the data sources include but are not limited to: The Patient Advocate Tracking System (PATS), Veteran Signals, Strategic Analytics for Improvement and Learning (SAIL), Survey of Healthcare Experience of Patients (SHEP), and the All Employee Survey (AES). The incumbent will foster clear communication between patient, family members, caregivers, survivors, staff, community members and facility leadership to support positive experiences and a patient-centered culture. The incumbent will be responsible for supporting proactive patient experience training and initiatives which may include Own the Moment, patient centered care training, customer service training, New Employee Orientation, New Patient Orientation, and supervisory training on the topic of Patient Experience and associated initiatives. The incumbent is responsible for addressing training needs and seeking tools to support the efforts to develop, build, implement and manage programs to support a culture centered around the Patient and respect to employee needs to support such a culture. The incumbent functions as Health System Specialist working closely with the Medical Center Director and Executive Leadership Team. The incumbent works with services and programs including patient advocates and program/service managers which provides a channel of feedback from patients seeking solutions to problems, concerns, and unmet needs. Performs other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: M-F 7:30am - 4:00pm Telework: This position is approved for Ad-Hoc Telework Only. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Program Specialist (Patient Experience Officer)/PD04430-0 Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 04/11/2024. 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-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-9. 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: For the GS-11 Grade Level, You must have at least one (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level (GS-9) in the Federal Service, that is directly related to the work of the position and has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties as a Patient Representative/Advocate. Qualifying specialized experience includes providing customer service to patients and staff with resolving problems or complaints; identifying problem areas and suggesting solutions or alternatives; explaining policies and procedures; keeping accurate records and preparing reports and/or written correspondence; collaborating with facility staff to improve the patient experience. NOTE: Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hours worked per week. ~OR~ Education: Successfully completed three (3) years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree, or Ph.D., or equivalent doctoral degree in the related field of the position to be filled. The education portion must include courses that demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of this position. Education must have been obtained in an accredited college, or university. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. ~OR~ Combination: Combinations of successfully completed graduate level education (beyond the first 2 years) and specialized experience as described above to meet total experience requirements. The education portion must include graduate courses that demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do to the work of this position. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. Experience must be clearly indicated in your resume. 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. Preferred Experience: The ability to demonstrate leadership, experience in Patient Advocacy, the ability to use creative approaches to managing practices to support positive Patient experiences at multiple levels of the healthcare system. Strong analytical and evaluative skills are an essential part of a high-functioning Patient Experience Officer. 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. The work environment involves the normal risks typical of an office with the additional risk of dealing with patients who may be hostile and/or are not in touch with reality. Visits are routine to the units/clinics, as well as administrative offices in the Facility. This position may encounter patients with medically emergent needs/situations and illnesses/conditions that are considered infectious. 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/.

Contacts

• Address Charles George VA Medical Center 1100 Tunnel Road Asheville, NC 28805 US
• Name: John Westling
• Phone: 828-333-3451
• Email: [email protected]