Clarification from the agency

Open to current, permanent employees that are currently assigned to the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center. NOTE: The 2-page Resume requirement does not apply to this position. For more information, refer to Required Documents below.

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The Dental Department Head is the primary subject matter expert to FHCC Dental leadership on all oral health care matters pertaining to the beneficiaries at the FHCC Hospital Dental Department. This position is responsible for planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the operations of the FHCC Hospital Dental Services.

Duties include but not limited to:

• Ensuring dental staff provide appropriate dental care to promote, preserve, and restore the oral health of Veterans.
• Upholding standards for the correct documentation and coding of completed dental procedures.
• Reviewing dental provider panels and clinical productivity goals/expectations and manage them accordingly.
• Monitoring, reviewing, and implementing plans to improve dental service performance on the Office of Dentistry Dental Quality Indicators.
• Ensuring the dental service follows FHCC policies.
• Ensuring FHCC medical facility-level dental service operational procedures and SOPs are consistent with national policies and guidelines.
• Enforcing personnel policies, ethical standards, and performance standards; and promoting the VA Core Values of Integrity, Commitment, Advocacy, Respect, and Excellence.
• Ensuring all staff under their supervision have an appropriate functional statement or position description.
• Collaborating with the VISN Lead Dentist to ensure implementation of VHA national policy and VISN policy at the FHCC medical facility.
• Providing regular dental service briefings to FHCC Dental Directorate leadership on all matters affecting the delivery of Veteran dental care.
• Carrying out fiscal and budgetary planning activities.
• Assisting the FHCC Dental Associate Director in following recommendations set by the VA Office of Inspector General, the Joint Commission, and other survey bodies.
• Ensuring all Dental beneficiaries treated at the FHCC Hospital Dental Department are eligible for care based on VA/DOW guidelines.
• Maintaining clinical practice within their specialty or General Dentistry at 50% capacity.

Work Schedule: Monday to Friday, 7:00am - 3:30pm
Telework: Not Available
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

VA offers a comprehensive total rewards package.

Conditions of employment

• All qualified candidates encouraged to apply. Open to U.S. Citizens but non-citizens may be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens.
• All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• 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 identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• 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).
• You may be required to serve a probationary period.
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

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.

Dentist Basic Requirements

• A degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery or dental medicine resulting from a course of education in dentistry. The degree must have been obtained from one of the schools approved by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs for the year in which the course of study was completed. Approved schools are (1) United States and Canadian schools of dentistry listed by the Commission on Dental Accreditation(CODA), in the list published for the year in which the course of study was completed.(2) Schools (including foreign schools) accepted by the licensing body of a State, Territory, or Commonwealth (i.e., Puerto Rico), or the District of Columbia as qualifying for full and unrestricted licensure provided the licensure requirements include a written examination measuring science achievement and a performance examination measuring clinical competence certification, and must obtain a copy of the ECFMG certificate, if claimed by the applicant. ~AND~
• Completed, or you are currently completing, a residency program in general practice or specialty, or comparable experience as a dentist actively involved in treating medically compromised patients. ~AND~
• Currently hold, or will hold, a current, full and unrestricted license to practice dentistry in a State, Territory, or Commonwealth of the United States, or in the District of Columbia. Note: Dentists must maintain current registration in the State of licensure if this is a requirement for continuing active, current licensure.

Preferred Experience: Incumbent of FHCC for 2 or more years.

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/.

Physical Requirements: To perform in a fully successful manner, the individual must have the physical ability to perform job-related duties which may require light carrying (under 15 pounds), reaching above shoulder, use of fingers, both hands required, walking (up to 1 hour), standing (up to 1 hour), and both legs required. In addition, there may be exposure to the following environmental factors: working inside and outside, working closely with others, and protracted or irregular hours of work. A health examination must be successfully completed prior to this assignment and periodically thereafter as required by the Occupational Health Clinic policy. There may be intermittent exposure to blood and body fluids.

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.

NOTE: A formal pay-setting process will be used to determine your salary. The salary may be at any point in the range listed for this vacancy.

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.