HEALTH TECH (Telehealth Clinical)

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.

Qualifications:

BASIC REQUIREMENTS
a. Citizenship. Citizen of the United States. After a determination is made that it is not possible to
recruit qualified citizens, non-citizen personnel may be appointed on a temporary basis under authority
of 38 U.S.C. 7405, without regard to the citizenship requirements of 38 U.S.C. 7402 or any other law
prohibiting the employment of or payment of compensation to a person who is not a citizen of the
United States. Candidates must meet all other requirements for the grade and position concerned.
b. 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
(2) Education. Four academic years above high school leading to a bachelor's degree with courses
related to the occupation.
OR
(3) 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.

Preferred Experience: Telehealth experience within the last 1 year

c. Certification. None
e. Physical Requirements. See VA Directive and Handbook 5019.
f. 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.

4. 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)
(1) Experience. One year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade level.
(2) Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, the
candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs.
(a) Ability to use independent technical judgment to analyze, evaluate and resolve problems.
(b) Knowledge of quality control and assurance procedures and principles of performance
improvement.
(c) Ability to function effectively between competing priorities.
(d) Knowledge of proper maintenance and troubleshooting of telehealth equipment.
(e) 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.
(f) Ability to assist in Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical) development, outcome management
and strategic planning.
(g) Ability to perform successful knowledge transfer regarding the use of telehealth technologies.

(3) 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.

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.

Responsibilities:

Functions or Scope of Assigned Duties:
This position functions above the full performance level for the Health Technician
(Telehealth Clinical) position and serves in an advanced role. The incumbent performs
a full range of duties and is responsible for day-to-day operation of telehealth services
at the assigned location and between the assigned location and remote sites of care as
well as participating in the programmatic development and advanced support of the
facility-wide telehealth program. The incumbent is expected to be able to exercise
independent judgement and will often provide guidance to less experienced staff
members and will require minimal direct supervision. This advanced 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.
The higher-level duties associated with this advanced-level position may include, but
are not limited to:
- coordinating, installing, maintaining and managing the inventory of telehealth
technologies including hardware and software with assistance of Biomed and IT;
- providing established standardized competency based training, guidance and
information on the use of advanced telehealth technologies to patients, staff, and
providers;
- providing established standardized competency based training for telehealth
technology, facilitating interactive simulations for clinical staff participating in
telehealth programs;
- participating in performance improvement activities aimed at improving the
efficiency of the patient telehealth processes;
- developing reporting procedures, sampling techniques and measurements at
various points in the telehealth processes to identify/analyze inherent
weaknesses in work and procedures;
- coordinating clinic set up and monitoring of workload capture and issues for
assigned patient and provider clinics including telehealth resource based
scheduling;
- supporting designated complex telehealth programs that require advanced
technical skillsets'.
Full performance level assignments associated with this position include, but are not
limited to:
- preparing the clinical environment, which may include preparing medical and
telecommunications equipment to be used for clinical examination and treatment;
- 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 inter
facility telehealth appointments using an electronic resource-based scheduling
system;
- referring patients to providers for screening for Telehealth;
- monitoring and maintaining schedules of rooms, patients, technologies, clinical
providers and presenters as needed to ensure efficient telehealth operations;
- providing patient education via approved materials;
- supporting the Veteran in completing patient satisfaction surveys;
- communicating effectively with clinical and administrative staff at the assigned
local site and those located at remote sites of care;
- coordinating and. or directly configuring, installing, troubleshooting, inventory
management, cleaning, and performing minor routine maintenance of assigned
telehealth technology;

And all other duties assigned


Work Schedule: 0730-1600 M-F
Telework: Ad-Hoc
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required