The Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center is seeking to hire an Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical)(Advanced) to help serve our Veterans in our outpatient Primary Care clinics. Travel to and from Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) will be required.

Duties

Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center is committed to Diversity and Inclusion. Together, we strive to create and maintain a working and learning environment that promotes professional growth and teamwork. We offer an inclusive, equitable, and welcoming environment where we celebrate our individual differences and unite as a team toward a common goal of providing outstanding service to our Nation's Veterans. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) supports the provision of patient care using telehealth technologies which increase a Veteran's access to care and support a Veteran's self-management. This includes developing and delivering virtual and digital technologies which help Veterans communicate synchronously and asynchronously with their health care teams and coordinate, track and manage their health care. These technologies may include, but are not limited to, Clinical Video Telehealth (CVT), Store and Forward Telehealth (SFT), Video Conferencing, VA Video Connect (VVC), VA Mobile, My HealtheVet (MHV), Home Telehealth (HT), and other telehealth applications. These technologies are used to deliver care to Veterans located at various institutional and non-institutional settings, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMCs), Community-Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs), State Veteran Homes, Vet Centers, homeless shelters, Indian Health Services (IHS) clinics, Department of Defense (DOD) facilities and other affiliated organizations as well as directly to Veterans in their home. Duties of the Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical)(Advanced) include but are not limited to: Providing high level support, training, and advanced management of telehealth operations and is typically stationed at a clinical care delivery site (VA Medical Center, CBOC, VA Outreach Clinic, etc.), with duties that will require travel. Delivering established telehealth competency based training for clinicians and telehealth staff members. Evaluating telehealth operations and supporting performance improvement efforts, providing technical support to end-users, scheduling simple and complex intra-facility and inter-facility telehealth appointments, installing, configuring, maintaining, and troubleshooting technology, and performing a variety of program support duties as assigned. The Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical) might be certified and function as a preceptor for Clinical Video, and/or Store and Forward Telehealth Operations. Governed in accordance with relevant VHA, VISN and facility regulations, standards, and guidance including telehealth operations manuals, guidelines, and specialty supplements. These activities shall be consistent with national, VISN, and facility level policies and procedures; and support national, VISN, and facility strategic goals. Preparing the clinical environment, which may include preparing medical and telecommunications equipment to be used for clinical examination and treatment; Supporting clinical telehealth encounters for both the patient and provider locations by serving as the telepresenter within scope of practice, functioning as an imager and supporting clinical data for telehealth store and forward applications, managing real time clinical telehealth events, providing established patient education, and providing technical and administrative support of telehealth operations. Serving as a telepresenter, within scope of practice, during clinical video telehealth (CVT) and VA Video Connect (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; Serving as an imager and manager of clinical data 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; Taking 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; Completing standardized clinical questionnaires and templates within scope of training and applicable guidelines; Ensuring that patient privacy is protected by complying with all information security and patient privacy regulations; Receiving and scheduling requests for simple and complex intra-facility, and interfacility telehealth appointments using an electronic resource-based scheduling system; Other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 0800-16300 Telework: Not available. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 000000 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized. Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized. Travel to/from Community Based Outpatient Clinics will be required.

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 Proficiency: A candidate will not be appointed under authority of 38 U.S.C. chapters 73 or 74, to serve in a direct patient-care capacity in VHA who is not proficient in written and spoken English. See chapter 2, section D, paragraph 5a, this part. 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: (a) 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 (b) 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. 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: In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates: Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical), GS-7 (Advanced) Experience. One year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade level. Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs. 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. Assignment. At the Advanced Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical) level, the incumbent will monitor and capture workload credit, develop reporting procedures and participate in performance improvement activities aimed at improving patient care access and Telehealth processes. This would include; sampling techniques, taking measurements at various points in the telehealth process; and develop and provide reporting procedures that identifies and analyzes inherent weaknesses in work and telehealth procedures. The incumbent will coordinate and work with Biomed and IT staff for the installation and upgrade of hardware and software for all telehealth technologies; will be responsible for advanced telehealth technical support to patients, staff and providers; provides technical consultation and support for staff and patients via phone, web chat, social media and face to face sessions; provides instruction, training and resources on the use of advanced telehealth technologies to patients, staff and providers alike for the delivery of care using telehealth technologies. For all assignments above the full performance level, the higher level duties must consist of significant scope, complexity (difficulty) and range of variety and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time. Preferred Experience: Telehealth, skin, and retinal experience as an imager is preferred. 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-7. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-7. 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 Robert J Dole VA Medical and Regional Office Center 5500 East Kellogg Drive Wichita, KS 67218 US
• Name: Cynthia Hildebrandt
• Phone: (913) 421-7980
• Email: [email protected]