Clarification from the agency

This vacancy is open to current permanent VA Nationwide employees and CTAP eligibles.

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Duties includes:

• Serves on boards and committees on an ad hoc basis at the direction of the Associate Director.
• Performs duties directly contributing to the administrative management of a health care delivery system.
• Provides full staff assistance on administrative matters affecting operation of a VA Medical Center.
• Advises and assists management responsible for planning, organization, and development. direction, and evaluation of administrative programs.
• Provides reports, studies and recommendations to the boards and committees for action.
• Coordinates special systematic reviews, internal management reporting programs and other assigned projects.
• Reviewing, assessing, and developing ways to improve performance on various medical center performance measures.
• Assists in the development, tracking, and data compilation required for individual staff performance measures, in conjunction with the Executive Assistant to the Associate Director.
• Formulating and participating in the development of management policies, programs, and operations, reviewing, and coordinating actions to ensure compliance with policy.
• Conducting comprehensive studies or surveys to improve efficiency and economy of operations.
• Develop operational protocols, procedures, and methods for assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of operating programs in meeting goals and objectives.
• Provides comprehensive resource cost analysis and cost effectiveness studies to evaluate and, as appropriate, support decisions involving organizational funds.
• Review the cost effectiveness and utilization with appropriate recommendations of various programs.
• Developing service agreements/sharing agreements, standard operating procedures, and addressing problems impacting clinical program efficiency of' operations.
• Familiarity with Advanced Clinic Access (ACA) and with the facility and VISN ACA plans and objectives.
• Managing budgets in a cost-effective manner, preparing annual budget forecasts. And overseeing the preparation of submittals related to balanced scorecards, business plans, and management briefings.
• Preparing reports describing program effectiveness improvements to meet VA and Joint Commission (JC) accreditation standards.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm; subject to change based on facility needs.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Health System Specialist - Executive Assistant to the Associate Director/PD84377A
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

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/trial period
• Subject to background/security investigation
• Driving License required
• Pre-employment Physical Required
• 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.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP)

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 08/06/2025.

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-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. 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 (IOR): Applicants who meet the Individual Occupational Requirements described below are fully qualified for the specified entry grade and must also meet the specialized experience and/or education requirements.

Undergraduate and Graduate Education: Major study of hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration. OR,

Specialized Experience: 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 for Inservice 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.

In addition to meeting the above Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR) requirements, applicants must also meet the specialized experience directly related to this position.

Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-11 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: experience in clinical practice management; experience collecting and analyzing data, processes, and procedures to determine areas of effectiveness or improvement and make recommendations to leadership for change; experience in scheduling process to include consults, wait times, and encounters; and experience using VHA systems and applications such as VHA Support Services Center (VSSC), Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS), and Pyramid Analytics. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Administration and Management
• Analysis and Problem Solving
• Organizational Stewardship
• Strategic Thinking
• Technical Competence

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: There are no unusual physical demands. Work is performed in an office setting.

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.

Eligible applications will be reviewed and referred in the following order:

1st Area of Consideration - current permanent G. V. (Sonny) Montgomery VAMC employees including satellites and CTAP eligibles;
2nd Area of Consideration - current permanent Veterans Healthcare Administration employees;
3rd Area of Consideration - current permanent VA Nationwide employees.

Note: Veteran's preference is not applicable to VA employees or employees of other Federal Agencies.

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.