The Health Care Technician (HCT) Telehealth Clinical Technician (TCT) serves in a generalist role to support and manage telehealth operations and is typically stationed at a clinical care delivery site. HCTs will deliver care to Veterans located at various institutional and non-institutional settings, with duties that may require travel.

Duties

Total Rewards: Total-Rewards-of-an-Allied-Health-VA-Career-Brochure.pdf Duties include but not limited to: Prepares the clinical environment, which may include preparing medical and telecommunications equipment to be used for clinical examination and treatment. Serves as a telepresenter per scope of practice, during clinical video telehealth (CVT) and VVC encounters including tasks such as establishing and maintaining video conferencing connections, making introductions between patient site and provider site, following instructions of a clinician to facilitate an effective clinical encounter. Serves as an imager and data manager 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. Takes measures to ensure patient care is delivered safely by following appropriate procedures for the cleaning of clinical equipment and the care environment while following all patient safety guidelines, protocols, and procedures. Completes standardized clinical questionnaires and templates within scope of training and applicable guidelines. Ensures that patient privacy is protected by complying with all information security and patient privacy regulations. Receives and scheduling requests for simple and complex intra-facility, and interfacility telehealth appointments using an electronic resource-based scheduling system. Screens patients for Telehealth modality and referring patients that do not meet established criteria to appropriate care; Monitors and maintaining schedules of rooms, patients, technologies, clinical providers and presenters as needed to ensure efficient telehealth operations. Provides patient education via approved materials. Supports the Veteran in completing patient satisfaction surveys. Communicates effectively with clinical and administrative staff at the assigned local site and those located at remote sites of care. Configures, installs, troubleshoots, cleans, and performs minor routine maintenance of assigned telehealth technology. Ensures assigned telehealth technologies are secured, ready for use, and accounted for by preparing and tracking maintenance work orders, information systems, inventory records, and communicating with National Telehealth Technology Help Desk to facilitate troubleshooting, repair, and coordination of replacement equipment as necessary. Provides established education and training to Veterans and clinicians on the use of telehealth technologies and serving as a point of contact to answer questions and address concerns related to these technologies. Maintains knowledge of and skill in applying an extensive body of rules, procedures, and operations in telehealth-related technologies and a variety of computer hardware and software used for telecommunications, data entry and retrieval, record maintenance, document and report generation. Maintains regular contact with more experienced staff members and the Facility Telehealth Coordinator to work out process issues, equipment needs, problems, data collection and any other logistical issues. Arranges and completes test video calls with Veterans to prepare the Veterans for clinical encounters using telehealth technologies. Ensures information and resources are maintained for local and remote telehealth providers so they can effectively execute contingency and emergency plans. Completes other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 7:30am - 4:00pm (Travel may be required to cover other CBOCs in the area) Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not authorized Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not authorized Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year) Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child. Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66. Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement) Telework: As determined by the agency Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #:58425F, 58426F, 57102F Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized

Requirements

Qualifications

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. English Language: Proficient in spoken and written English as required by 38 U.S.C. 7402(d). Experience and Education: 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, Education: Four academic years above high school leading to a bachelor's degree with courses related to the occupation. OR, 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: 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; or 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. Grandfathering Provision: May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria). 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: GS-5 Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical) (Entry Level) None above the basic requirements GS-06 Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical (Full Performance Level) Experience Requirement: One year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade level (GS-05) and demonstrate the following Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: Comprehensive knowledge of computer systems and programs to perform a variety of tasks. Ability to communicate, consult, and interact with other members of the healthcare team, external relations, customer service and patient education. Ability to provide and receive guidance and technical direction. Ability to plan, organize, set priorities, work as a team member, and effectively complete assignments. Ability to read, interpret, and apply complex written instructions. Knowledge of general clinical policies and procedures in a healthcare environment. Skilled in the use of telehealth technologies for the facilitation of telehealth clinical encounters. GS-07 Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical (Advanced) Experience Requirement: One year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade level (GS-06) and demonstrate the following Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: Ability to use independent technical judgment to analyze, evaluate and resolve problems. Knowledge of quality control and assurance procedures and principles of performance improvement. Ability to function effectively between competing priorities. Knowledge of proper maintenance and troubleshooting of telehealth equipment. 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. Ability to assist in Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical) development, outcome management and strategic planning. Ability to perform successful knowledge transfer regarding the use of telehealth technologies. Preferred Experience: Telehealth experience; VA administrative experience Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/. The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-06. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is in the range of GS-05 to GS-07. 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: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Contacts

• Address Ralph H Johnson Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center 109 Bee Street Charleston, SC 29401 US
• Name: Kunita Snead
• Email: [email protected]