Supervisory Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical)

Summary

This position serves as the Supervisory Health Technician (Clinical Telehealth) at the John J. Pershing VAMC as the direct supervisor of a team of Health Technicians and may also supervise other telehealth staff. This position provides 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 may require travel.

Learn more about this agency

Help Help

Duties

This supervisory position functions above the full performance level and therefore requires the performance of higher-level duties which must consist of significant scope, complexity (difficulty) and range of variety and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time.

• Ensure production and accuracy requirements are met.
• Develop performance plans, recommending standards and ratings, and evaluating performance, making promotions, reassignment, and recognizing outstanding performance, responding to questions or matters not covered by standards and problems in meeting performance standards.
• Oversee attendance and reviewing and approving leave requests of direct reports while ensuring adequate staff is available to perform all needed telehealth duties.
• Provide guidance and technical direction relating to the telehealth program and relevant administrative matters to direct reports.
• Work with the Facility Telehealth Coordinator to develop assignments for team members in order to facilitate all operations of the facility's telehealth program.
• Monitor the status and progress of team members' work and directing adjustments in accordance with established priorities.
• Ensure that new employees (local and at the CBOC sites) receive on-the-job training to and are adequately instructed in specific tasks and job techniques, ensuring that written instructions and reference materials are made available for use by team members in the accomplishment of tasks or projects.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to develop new programs and processes to ensure telehealth programs are meeting the strategic plans of the healthcare system.
• Independently review quality and performance data (e.g. patient satisfaction surveys, image quality, performance metrics, clinic wait times) for telehealth programs effectiveness and satisfaction and developing process improvements as required.
• Serve 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.
• Ensure that patient privacy is protected by complying with all information security and patient privacy regulations.
• Coordinate with vendors, Biomed and IT to upgrade and or replace telehealth technologies to minimize impact on patient care.
• Maintain 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.
• Independently plans the work, resolves problems, carries out successive steps of assignments, and makes adjustments using accepted standard operating procedures or practices;
• Handles problems and/or deviations that arise in accordance with established policies, regulatory and administrative guidelines, directives, instructions, and accepted practices in the occupation.
• Refer new or controversial issues to the supervisor for direction and/or assistance.
  
  

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM

Virtual: This is not a virtual position

Functional Statement #: 000000

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized

Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Help Help

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.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• 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.
• Must pass pre-employment physical examination.
• 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

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.

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.
  
  

(1) 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: (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.
  
  

Grandfathering Provision: 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:

• 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.
• 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.
• If an employee who was retained (grandfathered) under this provision leaves that 7 11.20.2024 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: Supervisory Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical), GS-9

• 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 perform the full range of supervisory duties which includes responsibility for assignment of work to be performed, performance evaluations, selection of qualified staff, and recommendations of awards, advancements, and when appropriate disciplinary actions.
• Ability to plan, organize, and coordinate clinical workflow and set short and long-term goals for the program.
• Ability to work independently, to set priorities, delegate tasks, meet multiple deadlines, analyze organizational problems, and develop and implement effective solutions to optimize quality, efficiency, performance, and productivity within the service.
• Ability to develop policy, manage equipment requests, and provide workload analysis.
• Knowledge of all Connected Care programs and operations.
• Assignment. At the supervisory level, in addition to the regular clinical and administrative duties of a Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical), the incumbent performs a full range of supervisory duties to include complex assignments and program management in the direct oversight of a team of Health Technicians (Telehealth Clinical). Supervisory duties will include: interviewing and selecting staff; assigning, amending or rejecting work; ensuring production and accuracy requirements are met; the development of performance plans including recommending performance standards and ratings, and conducting regular performance appraisals of staff. Additionally, the incumbent will respond to questions or matters not covered by standards and problems in meeting performance standards and effect corrective and disciplinary measures to address conduct and performance issues; responsible for the creation and modification of work schedules to meet anticipated and unanticipated changes in the workload and to oversee attendance and review and approve leave requests of direct reports ensuring adequate staff is available to perform all needed telehealth duties; involved in the development of policies and standard operating procedures, analyzing program workload, the acquisition and deployment of telehealth equipment. The incumbent will work independently to set priorities, delegate tasks, meet multiple deadlines, analyze organizational problems, and develop and implement effective solutions to optimize quality, efficiency, performance, and productivity. 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: 2 years of Telehealth Communication Technician experience and 2 years of Supervisory experience preferred.

References: VA HANDBOOK 5005/96 PART II APPENDIX G50 II-G50-1 [APPENDIX G50. HEALTH TECHNICIAN (TELEHEALTH CLINICAL), GS-0640 Veterans Health Administration

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/.

Additional information

Receiving Service Credit or Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed.

During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status.

VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply. The health-related positions in VA are covered by Title 38, and are not covered by the Schedule A excepted appointment authority.

Pursuant to VHA Directive 1193.01, VHA health care personnel (HCP) are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 subject to such accommodations as required by law (i.e., medical, religious or pregnancy). VHA HCPs do not include remote workers who only infrequently enter VHA locations. If selected, you will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and submit documentation of proof of vaccination before your start date. The agency will provide additional information regarding what information or documentation will be needed and how you can request a legally required accommodation from this requirement using the reasonable accommodation process.

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.

Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act.

Read more

• Help Help A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.
  
  

Review our benefits

Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE MAY NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Your application, resume, C.V., and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect consideration for employment.

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.

The Department of Veterans Affairs performs pre-employment reference checks as an assessment method used in the hiring process to verify information provided by a candidate (e.g., on resume or during interview or hiring process); gain additional knowledge regarding a candidate's abilities; and assist a hiring manager with making a final selection for a position.

It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment.

Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members.

Help Help

Required Documents

To apply for this position, you must provide a complete Application Package which includes:

• Resume
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
  
  

The following documents are accepted, and may be required if applicable to your eligibility and/or qualifications for this position. Please use this checklist to ensure you have included all documents required for your application, such as a copy of your transcript (if using education to qualify), SF-50's (current/former Federal employees), etc.

• Cover Letter
• License
• Professional Certification
• Resume
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
• Transcript
  
  

Veterans' Preference: When applying for Federal Jobs, eligible Veterans should claim preference for 5pt (TP), 10pt (CP/CPS/XP), or for Sole Survivor Preference (SSP) in the questionnaire. You must provide a legible copy of your DD214(s) which shows dates and character of service (honorable, general, etc.). If you are currently serving on active duty and expect to be released or discharged within 120 days you must submit documentation related to your active duty service which reflects the dates of service, character of service (honorable, general, etc.), and dates of impending separation. Additionally, disabled veterans and others eligible for 10-point preference (such as widows or mothers of eligible Veterans) must also submit an SF-15 "Application for 10 Point Veteran Preference" with required proof as stated on the form. Documentation is required to award preference. For more information on Veterans' Preference, please visit Feds Hire Vets - Veterans - Job Seekers - Veterans' Preference.

Veterans' preference does not apply for internal or other current permanent Federal agency employees.

If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.