Incumbent serves as a first line Lead Medical Support Assistant for the Buffalo VA Medical Center in the department of Health Administration. Incumbent will serve one of the following sections in Health Administration: Primary Care, Specialty Care, Call Center operations, Medicine and Imaging Services or Surgical and Supportive Services.

Duties

The Lead Medical Support Assistant is responsible for the coordination of Advanced MSA assignments and workflow in the Health Administrative Service. The Lead MSA is responsible for daily workload assessments, assigning work, and assuring proper staffing coverage; evaluating training records; and determining training needs of MSAs to provide support across interdisciplinary settings. The Lead assists the unit with complex and non-standard procedures, including clinical flow processes related to access to care across multiple clinics, specialties, and/or community resources. The Lead MSA is also responsible for ensuring accurate and timely scheduling of clinic appointments; monitoring productivity of the schedulers, providing guidance to staff members, to include changes in policies and procedures; creating and maintaining employee work schedules; and acting as a liaison among Advanced MSA staff, patients, providers from a variety of specialties and other interdisciplinary staff to resolve day-to-day conflicts. May be required to present at various meetings on behalf of the section or may be required to hold meetings to benefit the workload in the section. In addition to the above the Lead MSA will also function as a working scheduler and will be expected to cover any absent staff within the section. The Lead MSA may be asked to produce reports related to unscheduled surgeries, backlog, productivity, etc within the section. Incumbent is responsible for orientation and training of new schedulers including training on the applicable software applications, databases, and functions. The incumbent provides initial and continuing education to schedulers, providing training in the utilization of VISTA, VSE, VVC, and other software systems as well as how to run workload reports from VSSC and VISTA. The work is administrative in nature and requires advanced knowledge of applicable systems as well as the ability to identify learning/training needs, provide training in a variety of manners, work directly with users, and trouble-shoot basic operating problems. In this role, the incumbent is responsible for the assignation of scheduling workload, ensuring that workload is balanced amongst the schedulers. In addition to this, they are required to redistribute workload to ensure that scheduling backlog is kept to a minimum. They are the initial point of contact between providers and other schedulers, helping to troubleshoot any issues. Incumbent serves as a point of contact for questions regarding the scheduling of all clinical appointments. Additionally, the Lead is responsible for pulling workload, productivity, and report card date for each of the AMSA in the section. May be required to perform other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday through Friday 7:30 am- 4:00 pm Telework: Ad-Hoc Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

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. Experience and Education. Experience. Six months experience of clerical, office, customer service, or other administrative work that indicates the ability to acquire the particular knowledge and skills needed to perform the duties of the position OR Education. One year above high school OR Experience/Education Combination. Equivalent combination of experience and education are qualifying for entry level for which both education and experience are acceptable. Certification. None required. 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). Grade Determinations: Lead Medical Support Assistant, GS-7 Experience. One year of experience equivalent to the GS-6 grade level. Assignment. The Lead MSA is responsible for the coordination of Advanced MSA assignments and workflow found in an interdisciplinary unit. The Lead MSA is responsible for daily workload assessments, assigning work, and assuring proper staffing coverage; evaluating training records; and determining training needs of MSAs to provide support across interdisciplinary settings. The Lead assists the unit with complex and non-standard procedures, including clinical flow processes related to access to care across multiple clinics, specialties, and/or community resources. Assignments at this level include, but are not limited to: ensuring accurate and timely scheduling of appointments; providing guidance to staff members, to include changes in policies and procedures; creating and maintaining employee work schedules; and acting as a liaison among Advanced MSA staff, patients, and other interdisciplinary staff to resolve day-to-day conflicts. For all assignments above the full performance level, the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope, administrative independence, complexity (difficulty) and range of variety as described in this standard at the specified grade level and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time. Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. Candidates must demonstrate all of the KSAs below: i. Advanced knowledge of medical terminology and a wide range of clinical flow processes relating to access to care across multiple clinics, specialties, and/or community resources. ii. Ability to utilize numerous advanced patient systems in support of multiple clinics in an interdisciplinary setting. iii. Ability to organize work, set priorities, and delegate tasks/responsibilities in order to meet deadlines. iv. Skill in communicating with individuals to obtain the desired effect and coordinating with a variety of interdisciplinary care team staff. v. Ability to provide staff development and training. vi. Ability to manage staffing requirements, manage workflow priorities, and adjust the flow of work to meet team and patient needs. This includes the ability to follow-up on pending issues and demonstrate an understanding of the impact of incomplete work across multiple clinics. Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-7. Physical Requirements. See VA Directive and Handbook 5019. English Language Proficiency. MSAs must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Chapter 3, Section A, paragraph 3.j.

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 VA Western New York Healthcare System 3495 Bailey Avenue Buffalo, NY 14215 US
• Name: Christina Morel
• Phone: 845-831-2000 X215041
• Email: [email protected]