Clarification from the agency

1. Open to current, permanent employees of VISN 9. 2. Open to current, permanent employees of the VA Nationwide.

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A CRH is a repository of clinical and administrative staff that serve all VA facilities within a VISN. Staff within a CRH are expected to provide interprofessional services to facilities that are underserved or experiencing gaps in clinical services due to the inability to match provider supply with demand. Services provided by CRH staff are conducted via multiple modalities, including telehealth and in-person care. The VISN CRH Advanced Medical Support Assistant (AMSA) is responsible to ensure CRH services are completed at the highest standard and in alignment with national CRH standards. The VISN CRH AMSA will coordinate with various spoke site facility and other VISN MSAs to ensure that scheduling practices and standards are implemented across the VISN. The individual will ensure that all CRH services are utilized appropriately and follow specific CRH and telehealth, and other pertinent program office policies and procedures.

Major Duties:

• Processes medical release of information requests that pertain to the patient's current hospitalization, following all rules and regulations regarding the Privacy Act, Freedom of Information Act and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
• Initiates and carries out a variety of clerical duties associated with patient care and treatment of one or more CRH primary care, mental health and specialty clinics.
• Answers a multitude of telephone calls and records messages pertaining to such things as detailed laboratory reports, x-rays, and basic medical/pharmacy information.
• Recognizes and refers urgent issues to the professional staff for immediate action.
• Develops and refines scheduling processes and training for the CRH Hub.
• Arranges/schedules appointments for patients with a variety of telehealth clinics, services and consultants, coordinates appointments for timeliness to avoid conflicts in provider and patient telehealth clinics and to meet the schedule of the clinic or service to which referred.
• Manages the daily appointment list which requires scheduling, cancelling, or no- showing appointments.
• Monitors the Electronic Wait List (EWL) which requires entry, deletion and scrubbing the lists daily.
• Monitors the clinic consultations in accordance with the VHA National Scheduling Directive guidelines.
• Orients new medical staff and all medical/nursing students to such things as the location of the patient files, as well as formatting of CPRS, VISTA, and Visual Aid.
• Facilitates communication between providers and patients, serving as the point of contact for incoming provider calls from patients, spoke sites, and others, communicating tactfully and effectively both orally and in writing if needed.
• Retrieves and inputs pertinent data into VISTA and CPRS programs, maneuvers and retrieves medical documentation from the VISTA Capture/Display Program and is knowledgeable with Remote Data and is able when needed to retrieve appropriate data requested.
• Inputs and extracts data of a highly technical nature, ensuring productivity is maintained at the established level.
• Participates in team huddles and team meetings to manage and plan patient care.
• Coordinates with the patient care team to review the clinic utilization by using various reports, ensuring that the clinic setup is closely monitored to effectively support the needs of the clinic and make any necessary adjustments.
• Trains others in a variety of clerical duties in telehealth.

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 trial period.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued dentification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.

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 or Education:
  • Experience: Six months experience of clerical, office, customer service or other work that indicates the ability to acquire the particular knowledge and skills needed to perform the duties of the position; OR
  • Education: One year above high school (transcript is required with application); OR
  • Experience/Education Combination: Equivalent combination of experience and education are qualifying for entry level for which both education and experience are acceptable.(transcript is required with application);

• Experience: One year of experience equivalent to the GS-5 grade level.
• Assignment: The Advanced MSA provides specialized and expert administrative patient support while working collaboratively in an interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery model. Work involves specialized administrative judgment and the flexible use of a wide range of clinical flow processes relating to access to care across multiple clinics, specialties, and/or care in the community resources. Recommends changes to existing clinic procedures based on current administrative guidelines. Expertise in utilizing numerous advanced patient systems in support of multiple clinics involved in an interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery model. Coordinates with the patient care team to review clinic appointment availability (utilization) to ensure that clinic schedules are closely monitored to effectively support the needs of the clinics, and makes adjustments as necessary. MSAs at this level develop and/or maintain effective and efficient communication with the patient, interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery model teams , VA medical centers, and other agencies (e.g., assist with communications during the inpatient to outpatient discharge; communicate with non-VA medical facilities; prepare correspondence to notify patients of normal lab results; manage a system for follow-up care such as consults, tests, etc.).
• Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs): In addition to the experience, candidates must demonstrate all the KSAs below:
  • Ability to collaborate and communicate with a wide range of medical clinicians across multiple disciplines (e.g. medical doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, clinical pharmacists, and nursing staff) to accomplish team goal setting to ensure medical care to patients is met.
  • Ability to independently set priorities and organize work to meet deadlines, ensuring compliance with established processes, policies, and regulations.
  • Ability to communicate tactfully and effectively, electronically, by phone, in person, and in writing, with internal and external customers. This may include preparing reports in various formats and presenting data to various organizational levels, as well as resolving patient concerns.
  • Advanced knowledge of the technical health care process (including, but not limited to, scheduling across interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery and/or care in the community models and patient health care portals) as it relates to access to care.
  • Advanced knowledge of policies and procedures associated with interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery and/or care in the community operational activities that affect patient flow, and patient support care administrative functions to include, but not limited to appointment cycles, outside patient referrals, follow-up care, overbooking, provider availability, etc.
  • Advanced knowledge of medical terminology due to the technical nature of language utilized by clinicians.

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.