Summary This Lead Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical Technician) position is in Connected Care services at the VA Maine Healthcare Systems, located at the Portland VA Clinic location. This position is a full-time at 40 hours per week. Responsibilities The Lead Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical) provides high level support, training and advanced management of telehealth operations and is typically stationed at a clinical care delivery site. The incumbent leads a team of telehealth staff by providing guidance and technical direction relating to the telehealth program. Duties may include, but are not limited to: Work with the supervisor to develop assignments for team members in order to meet routine and unusual deadlines and priorities. Distribute and balance workload and tasks among employees in accordance with established workflow and/or job specialization and required rotations. Serve as the work leader, monitors the status and progress of team members' work and makes day-to-day adjustments in accordance with established priorities. Provides information to the supervisor concerning promotions, reassignment, recognition of outstanding performance, and personnel needs. Resolves simple, informal complaints of employees and referring others, such as formal grievances and appeals, to the supervisor or an appropriate management official. Independently reviews quality and performance data (e.g. patient satisfaction surveys, image quality, performance metrics, clinic wait times) for Telehealth programs effectiveness and satisfaction and developing process improvements as required. Coordinate with vendors, Biomed and IT to upgrade and or replace Telehealth technologies to minimize impact on patient care. Develop and coordinate a wide variety of standard operating procedures with full and complete technical advice to ensure telehealth operations are timely, efficient, and appropriate. Provide standardized developed competency-based training for telehealth technology, facilitating interactive simulations for clinical staff participating in telehealth programs. Maintain national certification and serving as a Telehealth Preceptor to independently plan and carry out standardized developed training in accordance with established telehealth program policies and directives. Maintain responsibility for facility inventory management and registering and maintaining telehealth end points and scheduling of multi-point video conference calls. Performs other related duties as assigned. Total-Rewards-of-an-Allied-Health-VA-Career-Brochure.pdf Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 7:30a-4:00p Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases When setting pay, a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of higher or unique qualifications or special needs of the VA (Above Minimum Rate of the Grade). Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year)Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior [work experience] or military service experience. Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child. Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66. Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement) Telework: VA supports the use of telework as a way to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: F02653 Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Notification: This position is in the Excepted Service. This position is covered by a special rate. This position is an AFGE Bargaining Unit position. Veterans' preference does not apply for internal or other current permanent Federal agency employees. Due to a critical staffing shortage, 38 U.S.C. § 7412 waives the requirement to apply Veterans' preference for this job announcement. Narrative responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) may be required from the selectee in order to proceed with the appointment. Current Federal employees must submit copies of their most recent SF-50, (Notice of Personnel Action). The SF-50 must identify the position title, series, grade, step, tenure and type of service (Competitive or Excepted). In some cases, more than one SF-50 may be required to show a higher grade previously held. Requirements Conditions of 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. English Language Proficiency. A candidate will not be appointed under authority of 38 U.S.C. chapters 73 or 74, to serve in a direct patient-care capacity in VHA who is not proficient in written and spoken English. See chapter 2, section D, paragraph 5a, this part. Experience and Education Experience: One year of experience in a health care field that demonstrates the applicant's ability to perform the work or provides an understanding of the work such as but not limited to a medical or clinical assistant (or technician) or health technician. OR, Education: Four academic years above high school leading to a bachelor's degree with courses related to the occupation. OR, Experience/Education Combination: Equivalent combination of experience and education are qualifying for entry level for which both education and experience are acceptable. Examples are listed below: (a) Six months of experience in the health care field and two years of education above high school that included at least six semester hours in health care related courses such as, biological science, surgical technician courses, nursing assistant or other courses related to the position; or an associate's degree in a health care related field; or (b) Six months of experience in the health care field and successful completion of a course for health care technicians, hospital corpsmen, or medical service specialists given by the U.S. Armed Forces. Grade Determinations: In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates. Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs. Ability to work with a team to provide technical guidance, plan, organize and coordinate activities of a Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical) in order to effectively complete job duties of assignment such as distributing workload, monitoring the status and progress of work, monitoring accuracy of work. Skill in leadership and interpersonal relations and conflict resolution to deal with employees, team leaders, providers, and managers. Ability to communicate effectively in order to meet program objectives. This may include preparing reports in various formats and presenting data to various organizational levels. Knowledge of quality control and assurance procedures and principles of performance improvement. Skill in the assessment and resolution of complex workload capture issues using multiple data sources. Ability to develop and compose complex written instructions. Knowledge of analytical and evaluative processes to independently resolve complex issues. Assignment: The Lead Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical) provides an array of complex and specialized duties related to leadership, staff education, technology management, as well as project and program management related duties for all dimensions of virtual care and telehealth initiatives. Duties include: serves as an official team lead for telehealth staff; monitors and reports on the status of work to ensure that the supervisor's instructions on work priorities, methods, deadlines and quality have been met; works with the supervisor to develop assignments for team members and distributes workload and tasks among employees in accordance with established workflows and specialized requirements, and provides information to the supervisor regarding all conduct and performance related achievements or concerns. The Lead Telehealth Clinical Technician is responsible for independently reviewing performance metrics to ensure telehealth operations are timely, effective and efficient. This includes the assessment and analysis of the impact, demand and utilization of telehealth services, the coordination of establishing telehealth clinics according to the Decision Support System and VHA guidelines, the monitoring of workload credit for interfacility workload credit and specialized encounters; responsible for the development or revision of diverse and complex standard operating procedures, and assisting stakeholders to develop new telehealth programs based on patient needs; serves in an official capacity as a telehealth preceptor and provides standardized training related to patient care, telehealth technology and quality assurance. This includes the facilitation of interactive simulations and referential documents, the assessment of competency of all clinical staff participating in telehealth programs and maintaining compliance with national VA standards established by the Office of Connected Care regarding training and operations. For all assignments above the full performance level, the higher level duties must consist of significant scope, complexity (difficulty) and range of variety and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time. Preferred Experience: Telehealth computer proficiency in Clinical Video Telehealth (CVT), VA Video Connect (VVC), Store and Forward Telehealth (SFT) Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/. The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-8 Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019. Education IMPORTANT: A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/. Additional Information Receiving Service Credit or Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed. During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status. VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply. The health-related positions in VA are covered by Title 38, and are not covered by the Schedule A excepted appointment authority. Pursuant to VHA Directive 1193.01, VHA health care personnel (HCP) are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 subject to such accommodations as required by law (i.e., medical, religious or pregnancy). VHA HCPs do not include remote workers who only infrequently enter VHA locations. If selected, you will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and submit documentation of proof of vaccination before your start date. The agency will provide additional information regarding what information or documentation will be needed and how you can request a legally required accommodation from this requirement using the reasonable accommodation process. If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement. Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act.