This position is located in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Mid Atlantic Health Care Network (VISN 6), VA Medical Center, Salisbury, North Carolina. The Patient Representative reports to the Supervisory Program Specialist within the Care in the Community Service. The Patient Representative serves as a patient advocate who represents the interests of Veteran patients in all areas of the medical center.

Duties

MAJOR DUTIES: Patient Entitlements Assists patients in understanding their rights and responsibilities. Explains entitlements to patients and their families. Assists with congressional and/or patient inquiry letters as requested by the Office of the Director. Provides information with which to answer these inquiries and/or complaints. Clinical Liaison Assists patients, their families and representatives, and facility staff members in recognizing and removing institutional barriers to the provision of optimum health care to Veterans. Acts to resolve problems, expedite services or implement necessary corrective measures within established facility policies and where appropriate, through committee participation. Has the authority to review files or records, and discuss with staff or witnesses regarding any practice that appears to violate patient's rights or which causes unnecessary discomfort or embarrassment to patients, their families, or the health care facility; reports such findings with recommendations for improvements to the facility Director. Performs 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. Work Schedule: 8:00am-4:30pm Monday-Friday Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Patient Representative (Care in the Community)/PD017850 Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 05/31/2024. 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-9 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-7.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: GS-9: Applicants 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: works closely with members of the health care team within the facility and patients and their families, preparing and delivering briefing of studies of examined data, Investigating complaints, using automated equipment to track trends, developing concepts and improving processes with clinical staff, extracting data from existing sources and developing new sources as required. OR Education: Applicants may substitute education for the experience required for the GS-7 grade level. One (1) full year of graduate level education or superior academic achievement is acceptable for the GS-7 level. Applicants may substitute education for the experience required for the GS-9 grade level. 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 Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at the GS-7 or the GS-9 levels. To calculate, first identify the percentage of required education you have earned (when substituting, you cannot use the first 60 semester hours that you earned). Then identify the percentage of required experience you possess. Add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify at the GS-7 or the GS-9 levels. . For example, an applicant who has 9 semester hours of graduate level education (i.e. 50% of graduate education required) and 6 months of creditable specialized experience (i.e. 50% of the required experience) would equal 100% of the required experience for the position. A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on 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 is primarily sedentary, although some slight physical effort may be required. 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: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.

Contacts

• Address WG Bill Hefner Salisbury VA Medical Center 1601 Brenner Avenue Salisbury, NC 28144 US
• Name: Kelvin Nelson
• Phone: 980-267-1913
• Email: [email protected]