Clarification from the agency

Open to current permanent Employees of the SAVAHCS Southern Arizona VA Health Care System only.

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Preferred Experience: Prior Experience in 1. Customer Service 2. Conflict Management 3. Knowledge of the Patient Advocate Tracking System 4. Knowledge of CPRS and JLV

Duties include but are not limited to:

• Contact members of the hospital staff at all levels concerning any matter or problem relating to patient care that has not been resolved by other services and seeks a resolution, whenever possible; within the full resources of the medical center and VA system.
• Explores all avenues, crossing all lines of authority and responsibility within the medical center, in order to properly identify the nature and scope of the problem and to initiate appropriate action to expedite a resolution.
• Identify existing or potential problem areas and suggests solutions or alternatives to existing procedures Which contribute to these problems.
• Resolve the most difficult and complex problems, expedites services, and Implements necessary corrective measures within established facility policies.
• Reviews files and records, and discusses with personnel or witnesses any practice that appears to violate patient's rights or which causes unnecessary discomfort or embarrassment to patients, their families, or the health care facility and reports such findings with recommendations for improvements to the facility Director and/or top management team.
• Serve as a staff member directly supporting the top management team responsible for the planning; organization, development, direction and evaluation of medical center administration,
• Ensure that national VA patient advocacy program requirements are met by collecting, analyzing, and evaluating relevant data; and preparing meaningful reports based on that data.
• Serve as an advocate for patients throughout the facility.
• Receive and listen to complaints and grievances from patients or from individuals on behalf of patients. Makes inquiries into patient complaints; initiates action or changes necessary to correct problem situations, and reports on corrective measures taken.
• Act as an advocate for patients to resolve problems.
• Serves as the liaison between the facility, patients, staff, and the community, ensuring Patient Rights and Responsibilities, advocacy, and services are available. Assists patients in understanding their rights, in addition to, their responsibilities. Provides a channel through which patients can seek solutions to problems, concerns, and unmet needs, recognizing that complaints are a gap between service expectations and the actual experience of the patient.
• Patient Advocates work directly with health care teams, Service Chiefs, and management to facilitate the resolution of problems beyond the capability of front-line staff and participate in resolution of system problems by presenting the patient's perspective of the problem and the desired resolution.
• Represents the Facility Director in safeguarding and ensuring ethical, statutory, and constitutional rights of patients are met. Assists patients, their families and representatives, and facility staff members in recognizing and removing institutional barriers to the provision of optimum health care to patients.
• Patient Advocates must maintain the attitude of taking a negative experience and turning it into a positive, memorable experience for patients and employees. The Patient Advocate works closely in identifying, training, and consulting with SLAs, and front-line staff, in resolving issues on first contact within their service area and use of the Patient Advocate Tracking System (PATS).Patient Advocates may respond to patient inquiries through multiple VA-approved forms of contact (e.g., Inquiry Routing and Information System (IRIS), MyHealtheVet, Secure Messaging, E-mail, Phone, Walk-in, Town Halls, etc.), where patients pose questions, complaints, compliments and suggestions.
• Serves as liaison with congressional offices, responding directly to their staff assistants on matters involving patient concerns or dissatisfaction.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 4:30 pm
Telework: This is not a telework position.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Patient Representative (Facility Patient Advocate)/PD99864S

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
• 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.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP)

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• your performance and conduct;
• the needs and interests of the agency;
• whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Upon completion of your probationary period or trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 07/02/2026.

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-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09. 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:

• Specialized Experience GS-11: In addition to meeting the time in grade, you must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-9 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: manage problem resolution and patient advocacy, collecting, analyzing, and evaluating relevant data and customer service. Knowledgeable of hospital systems to effectively address services which are responsible for patient concerns; Comprehensive knowledge of the principles and practices, federal laws, regulations, policies and procedures governing eligibility, benefits, care, access, services, clinical appeals, and privacy and skill in applying this extensive knowledge to the most difficult and complex problems which patients. Thorough knowledge of various Public Laws as well as the Privacy Act, Freedom of Information Act, Advance Directives Act, and others are required. Comprehensive knowledge of major issues, program goals and objectives, work processes, and administrative operations of the medical facility to evaluate and recommend solutions to measure, evaluate, and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of key medical center operations that have (or may have) a significant impact of the patient experience.
  
  OR,
• Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have
• Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree. OR,
• 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree. OR,
• Related LL.M.

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 is primarily sedentary, although some slight physical effort may be required. The work includes walking, standing, bending, carrying of light items, and occasionally assisting with a wheelchair. In some instances, relationships with patients and caregivers can become intense and the incumbent is constantly exposed to high levels of stress and anxiety, This position demands emotional stability, as the incumbent is deeply involved with many challenging, seriously ill, and/or dying patients and their caregivers.

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.