Job Information
Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration Health System Specialist in United States
Summary This position serves as Health System Specialist (Actions Officer/Workflow Coordinator) and supports the following, action tracking/workflow coordination duties and responsibilities for the Office of Suicide Prevention (OSP), including the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL). OSP also leads the implementation of VA's public health approach to suicide prevention which encompasses both community-based prevention strategies and clinically-based interventions. Responsibilities This announcement will close on 11/14/2024. Employs current, in-depth knowledge and understanding of mission and project requirements, as well as a thorough understanding of the Director's goals and intent to orchestrate the critical, complex, and sensitive preparation and analysis of administrative documents and processes for OSP. Speaks on behalf of the Director regarding assignments. Based on expert knowledge of the National Strategy for Preventing Veteran Suicide (NSPVS)and all lanes of effort to support its implementation across the enterprise, ensures all action suspense items are triaged appropriately to the required subject matter expert (SME) within the office for prompt response; this includes knowledge and awareness of current and proposed suicide prevention legislation, active Office of Inspector General (OIG) and Government Accountability Office (GAO) reviews of VA's suicide prevention and national policies related to suicide prevention. Provides consultation and advice to the OSP leadership team and staff on a wide variety of technical and administrative issues. Responsible for maintaining the administrative workflow for action/suspense item tracking in OSP which includes complex items related to congressional responses, media inquiries, OIG/GAO response, and implementation of VA's NSPVS. Resolves administrative problems related to action/suspense items for the Director with limited input or supervision by analyzing the problem and available information. Determines when escalation of an issue to leadership is necessary, and then communicates the issue and recommends a solution. Initiates, directs, prioritizes, expedites, and integrates tasking and requirements into effective and efficient activities within the organization's support elements and staff. Advises the Director on innovative ideas to develop and enhance administrative processes and resources to improve the efficiency of workflow and operations. Serves as the main point of contact for all action items assigned. Incumbent is responsible for ensuring a complete, correct and timely response to all Suicide Prevention internal and external suspense/action items. This also includes tracking and management of all action items related to congressional inquiries, media inquiries, responses to inspection bodies (e.g., OIG, GAO), external reviews (e.g., Creating Options for Veterans Expedited Recovery commission), and external stakeholders (e.g., National Veterans Service Organizations (VSO), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration). Provides triaging, assignment and tracking for urgent, emergent, and ongoing taskers. Ensures that action/suspense items are assigned and completed within stated timelines. Ensures that the Director and staff have responsive, accurate background information to make informed decisions. Stays thoroughly informed as to the missions, organizational structure, key personnel, current activities, status of current projects, and any issues over which the OSP leadership team has responsibility, as well as special interests. Refers sensitive or controversial matters to the Director or other staff for required action. Develops solutions to and makes decisions regarding administrative and procedural issues when directions are ambiguous or confounded. Determines when an issue rises to the level of needing senior leadership involvement and makes recommendations to senior leadership on how to proceed if escalation is needed. Acts with the full delegated authority of the Director regarding the tracking and completion of action and suspense items assigned to Suicide Prevention. Prepares a variety of official correspondence for the Director including letters and memorandums. Acts as the focal point for all actions involving the Director and handles a wide range of sensitive and confidential special assignments. Navigate a variety of software applications, utilize the data and information within those applications to provide effective tracking and management of Suicide Prevention. Coordinates agencies concerning task assignments and actions related to interagency suicide prevention efforts. Develops plans to move work as quickly and efficiently as possible between agencies. Other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: 8-4:30 pm Compressed/Flexible: Not available. Telework: Available (applicant is required on site 50% of work schedule per pay period) Position Description/PD#: Health System Specialist/PD03054A Financial Disclosure Report: Not required Requirements Conditions of Employment You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 You may be required to serve a probationary period Subject to background/security investigation Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP) Participation in the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination program is a requirement for all Veterans Health Administration Health Care Personnel (HCP) - See "Additional Information" below for details. Qualifications To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/14/2024. 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. Individual Occupational Requirement: Undergraduate or graduate level degree with a Major study in hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration -OR- Progressively responsible analytical or administrative, or clinical management or supervisory experience in the health care field. This work may have been performed in an operating health care facility or a higher organizational echelon with advisory or directional authority over such facilities. Work must have involved a close working relationship with facility managers and analysis and/or coordination of administrative, clinical, or other service activities, and provided knowledge of the following: Missions, organizations, programs, and requirements of health care delivery systems; Regulations and standards of various regulatory and credentialing groups; and Government-wide, agency; and facility systems and requirements in various administrative areas such as budget, personnel, and procurement. -OR- Special Provision of In-service placement: Successful completion of an agency-sponsored on-the-job training program may be substituted for qualifying experience, provided it included a formal individualized training plan. Such a training program must have been conducted in an operating health care system and included: Assignments providing a knowledge of basic health system administration philosophies, practices, and procedures, and basic government administrative policies and requirements; Practical assignments providing an opportunity to apply health system administration skills and principles (as the individual progresses, work assignments must be characteristic of the grade level to which he or she is assigned); and Oversight by an experienced health system administrator with periodic evaluation of the individual's progress and appropriate adjustment of the training program. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below. You must meet both the Individual Occupational Requirement and the Specialized Experience and/or Education: Preferred Experience: Demonstrated experience with multi-tasking, priority-setting, information management, and problem-solving in fast-paced environment utilizing effective communication skills across multiple levels of an organization. You may qualify for the GS-11 based on your experience or education as described below: Specialized Experience for GS-11: In addition to the IOR above you must also have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-9 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: using qualitative and quantitative methods for the assessment and improvement of program/organizational effectiveness; experience with budget management, planning events, correspondence control and other administrative functions; and conducting special projects or studies to analyze, evaluate and provide recommendations on administrative programs or issues. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the experience required for the GS-11 level. Must possess a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or three full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree, or LL.M., with courses related to the duties of this position. (Transcript must be submitted) OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. 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-9. 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. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Planning and Evaluating Communications Administrative and Management Manages 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: This position is primarily sedentary, some travel 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. Additional Information The Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well-qualified: applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the required competencies of the job. Information about CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.