Clarification from the agency

This announcement is open to a specific area of consideration: Current, permanent VISN 5 employees assigned to the following station numbers are eligible to apply: Legacy VISN 20, Station 496; VISN 21, Station 497; and Legacy VISN 22, Station 498. Location negotiable after selection.

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Major duties include, but are not limited to:

• Oversees scheduling, clinic templates, consult workflows, and Community Care scheduling.
• Tracks appointment delays, consult backlogs, clinic capacity, and access performance.
• Sets scheduling standards, directs improvements, and supervises access-related operations.
• Review scheduling dashboards, consult backlogs, appointment delays, and access targets.
• Check clinic templates, provider capacity, scheduling accuracy, and Community Care consult workflows.
• Contact facilities about missed scheduling standards and require corrective action.
• Coordinate scheduling training, standard procedures, and access-improvement projects.
• Meet with access supervisors and clinical leaders to remove barriers to timely appointments.
• Provides VISN wide leadership, oversight, and accountability for Community Care scheduling operations and clinic practice management across all Health Service Areas(HSAs), VA Medical Centers (VAMCs) and Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs).
• Exercises expert judgment and authoritative direction to ensure consistent adoption of standardized practices, system integrity, and timely access to care for Veterans.
• Provides direct oversight of Community Care scheduling operations across the VISN, ensuring alignment with national expectations and VISN priorities.
• Holds VISN level accountability for adherence to national standards and directives, including responsibility for instituting corrective actions when performance deficits, system issues, or noncompliance are identified.
• Establishes and enforces standardized scheduling policies across VISN facilities, including clinic profiles, templating, panel management, business rules, and consult workflows.
• Ensures scheduling and Community Care staff are trained in approved tools and processes; monitors SOP adherence; and directs corrective actions when deviations occur.
• Establishes VISN wide training standards, validates facility compliance, and ensures staff competency in scheduling systems and consult workflows. Directs mandatory corrective training when gaps are discovered and holds supervisors and facility leadership accountable for maintaining compliance and proficiency.
• Serves as the VISN's authoritative subject matter expert on clinic practice management, provider productivity, scheduling efficiency, consult management, and Community Care coordination; advises VISN leadership on operational risks, strategic priorities, and system wide performance expectations.
• Director provides both direct and second level supervisory leadership across complex multi facility program segments, ensuring VISN level priorities are effectively translated into facility level execution and adhered to across subordinate organizations.
• Provides full supervisory oversight of the Ambulatory Care Operations Director, including establishing performance standards, assigning and prioritizing work, conducting performance evaluations, resolving complaints, and recommending personnel actions.
• Exercises second level supervisory authority over the Community Care Lead, reviewing hiring recommendations, performance ratings, disciplinary actions, and grievance decisions.
• Ensures subordinate managers and staff receive the training required to maintain compliance with scheduling tools, consult workflows, SOPs, and national policy requirements; verifies competency and corrective-action follow-through.
• Upholds EEO principles and ensures equitable treatment, accountability, and fair performance management across the supervised organization; implements VISN expectations for professionalism, compliance, and continuous improvement.

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00am-4:30pm. Other work schedules within the core business hours may be discussed during the interview process.
Telework: This position may be authorized for Ad Hoc telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Location: This posting lists the VISN 5 headquarters location in Vancouver. Selected candidate will maintain their current duty station in accordance with return to office procedures.
Position Description/PD#: Supervisory Health System Specialist (Access Operations Director)/PD00033VS
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized
Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not approved
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
• To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. This position requires the application, assessment, and questionnaire to be fully completed. The assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the 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, 11/18/2026.

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-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.

Individual Occupational Requirement: All applicants, regardless of grade level must meet one of the following individual occupational requirements and the grade determination listed below.

• Undergraduate and Graduate Education: Major study -- hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration. (TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED)

-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 (TRAINING DOCUMENTATION REQUIRED). 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 requirements, applicants must meet the below specialize experience requirements.

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

• 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. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Oversight and administrative management of multiple program areas to meet the needs of a healthcare organization; identify and implement improvements to optimize processes, access strategies, and decisions through an in depth analysis; coordinating cross-program projects or initiatives in the health care field. This work must have been performed in an operating health care facility or a higher organizational echelon with advisory or directional authority over such facilities.

Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), your responses on the application questionnaire, and your responses to all assessments required for this position. You will be assessed on the following Competencies for this position:

• Administration and Management
• Decisiveness
• Accountability
• Managing Human Resources
• Audit Reporting
• Technical Competence

Supervisory Situational Judgment Test. Applicants will be required to complete a Supervisory Situational Judgment Test (SSJT) as part of the assessment process for this position. The SSJT evaluates judgment and decision-making skills that align with relevant competencies, organizational values, and best practices. Assessment results may be used as part of the evaluation, ranking and referral process. This is not a timed test, however, the assessment is expected to take approximately 45 minutes or less to complete. The assessment for this application does not include a cut score for a minimum level of required proficiency in these critical general competencies. However, you must answer each item in the assessment.

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: Work is primarily sedentary and performed in an office or telework setting. Typical activities include reading, analysis, meetings, and computer use. Occasional travel to VISN facilities may be required.A pre-placement physical examination is not required.

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.