Clarification from the agency

Open to current/permanent Veterans Health Administration (VHA) employees and CTAP eligible only.

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This announcement will close on 04/17/2023, the first 75 applications received will receive first consideration. Applications that are submitted after 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the date in which the initial cut-off number has been reached will not receive consideration unless otherwise requested by management.

Major duties include, but are not limited to:

• Serving in a national leadership role in improving healthcare delivery processes for quality, safety, effectiveness, and efficiency.
• Providing direct oversight to a core team aligned with the VHA National Improvement Office, serving as one of the program office's deputy directors, and providing oversight of branch staff and multiple functions within the program office.
• Providing technical and administrative guidance to all program office staff aligned within the VHA National Improvement Office for healthcare process improvement and systems redesign; directly supervising Systems Redesign and Consultation branch employees for continuous process improvement, programmatic, and administrative support functions associated with all branch priorities and activities.
• Providing supervision of subordinate health system specialists and program support staff within the branch, establishing performance standards, evaluating the performance of direct subordinates, making recommendations on grievances, recommending training, assigning priorities and projects to staff, approving leave of direct subordinates, and other supervisory duties.
• Leading and facilitating branch operational planning activities and providing high level communication of branch priorities.
• Analyzing management techniques, processes, and styles for improving organizational effectiveness of VHA-wide programs, functions, and organizations to determine whether the management systems in current use efficiently accomplish objectives while using analytic techniques.
• Providing liaison, collaboration, and direction on behalf of the NIO program to internal (Office of Quality Management-17QM) and external offices to include but not be limited to: Chief Business Office (CBO), Office of Clinical Services, VHA Healthcare Operations Center (HOC), Employee Education Service (EES), Office of Information Technology (OIT), Human Resources (HR), VHA Support Service Center (VSSC), and other programs within and outside of VHA.
• Designing studies to identify resource issues and efficacy of care delivery as well as clinical and administrative outcomes.
• Developing and monitoring quality programs (with special emphasis on NIO education), plans, procedures, and methodologies; and/or analyzing quality initiatives and processes.
• Developing VHA-wide NIO improvement programs, plans, procedures and methodologies.
• Developing and presenting performance reports to VHA officials.
• Using innovative improvement strategies for performance improvement and quality improvement.
• Performing analytical and evaluative work associated with program activities and work involving development of life cycle or other cost analyses of projects or performance of cost-benefit or economic evaluations of improvement programs, including consideration of resource requirements and strategies to optimize efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare processes to provide timely, safe, high-quality care. Specific focus areas may include, but not be limited to, access, length of stay, diversion, transitions, utilization, staffing costs, smoothing discharges, no-shows cost, lost revenue, care in the community, and VHA educational needs in support of NIO projects such as implementation of improvement collaboratives and academies.
• Analyzing and evaluating, on a quantitative and/or qualitative basis, the effectiveness of programs or operations in meeting established goals and objectives.
• Evaluating VHA-wide activities against short and long-range objectives.
• Providing Associated infrastructure support that includes: soliciting participation, developing national and local improvement coaches, arranging national NIO conference calls, online meetings, face to face meetings, conferences, NIO improvement collaboratives, development of pre- work guides, development of guidebooks, coordinating applicable travel arrangements, managing associated budgets, managing conference packages, arranging for training/orientation for conference participants, tracking progress and following up where indicated, reporting on progress to key VHA staff/committees and outside stakeholders, and conducting outcome evaluations.
• Performing duties related to competency development and validation, curriculum development and evaluation/ assessment activities for additional NIO educational offerings, to include but not be limited to Academies (Flow, Improvement Advisor, Access) and other offerings such as those which are High Reliability Organization (HRO) experiential learning focused and other specialized improvement initiatives.

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

• Collaborating with Digital Librarian(s) and support staff to maintain VHA interactive web sites and SharePoint sites.
• Developing, interpreting, applying, and integrates objective criteria and acceptable standards for use in process improvement and system redesign educational activities.
• Developing, conducting, and reviewing NIO educational program assessments and evaluations to ensure that goals are being achieved and the result is optimal patient care being provided and that resources are being appropriately and fully utilized.
• Directing special NIO studies and developing special offerings to resolve administrative issues which may arise during normal operations and presenting conclusions and recommendations.
• Tracking the progress of VHA facilities and VISNs on VHA-wide NIO initiatives.

Work Schedule: 8:00am-4:30pm, Mon-Fri.
Compressed/Flexible: Not Available
Virtual: This is a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Supervisory Health System Specialist/PD243160
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized
PCS Appraised Value Offer (AVO): Not Authorized
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required
To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 04/17/2023.

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-14 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-13. 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.

You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:

BASIC EDUCATION REQUIREMENT- You must first meet Basic Education Requirements for this position as described below. Transcripts are REQUIRED.

Basic Requirement:
Individual Occupational Requirement: To meet the basic qualification of the 0671 Health System Administration Occupational Series, you must possess an 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- you must possess 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.

AND

In addition to meeting the basic education requirement, you must also meet the specialized experience requirement.

GS-14 Qualifications
Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-13 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.
NOTE: To be minimally qualified for this position, you must meet 5 of the 8 examples of specialized experience listed below. Specialized experience is:

• Analyzing and evaluating, on a quantitative and/or qualitative basis, the effectiveness of programs or operations in meeting established goals and objectives.
• Directing analytical and evaluative work associated with improvement activities of VHA medical centers and/or regional offices.
• Supervising staff, assigning work, evaluating work performance, etc.
• Expertise in the areas of improvement principles, healthcare administration practices and policies, personnel administration, budget and resource management, and strategic planning.
• Analyzing VHA-wide programs, functions, and organizations to determine efficiency of management and data systems in use.
• Collaborating with other healthcare executives in creating national and organizational programs to support systems redesign and improvement key objectives at the national, VISN, and facility levels.
• Applying performance improvement and analytical skills, advanced communication skills to facilitate and implement change management.
• Providing consultation to VACO program officials who have questions about systems redesign data, processes, and implementation.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Decision Making
• Leadership
• Organizational Performance Improvement
• Flexibility
• Analytical Thinking
• Systems Thinking

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: The work requires some physical exertion, such as periods of standing during in- person presentations; some walking, bending, crouching, stooping, stretching or similar activities when visiting work sites; and some moderate lifting and carrying of portable IT equipment and personal supplies. At other times, the work is substantially sedentary and requires the routine use of a personal computer and telephone.

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/.

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 WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE.

Narrative responses are not required at this time. If you are referred for consideration, you may be asked to submit additional job related information, which may include, but not limited to; responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities; completion of a work sample, and/or contact for an interview. Your resume and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating or consideration for employment.

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.

For more information on the "Who may apply" eligibility requirements, please refer to the OHRM Status Candidates and Other Candidate Definitions document.

Placement Policy: The posting of this announcement does not obligate management to fill a vacancy or vacancies by promotion. The position may be filled by reassignment, change to lower grade, transfer, appointment, or reinstatement. Management may use any one or any combination of these methods to fill the 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.