Lead Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical)

The Lead Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical) provides direct leadership to a team of Telehealth Clinical Technicians as well as leading initiatives designed to improve the delivery of care to Veterans using telehealth. The incumbent provides high level support, training, and advanced management of telehealth operations and is typically stationed at a clinical care delivery site (VA Medical Center, CBOC, VA Outreach Clinic, etc.); with duties that may require travel.

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 for all dimensions of virtual care and telehealth initiatives. In addition to lead duties, maintains responsibility for day-to-day operation of telehealth services at the assigned location and between the assigned location and remote sites of care as well as participating in the programmatic development and advanced support of the facility-wide telehealth program. Is expected to be able to exercise independent judgement and is responsible to regularly provide oversight and guidance to other staff members and will require minimal direct supervision. This lead position functions above the full performance level and therefore requires the performance of higher-level duties which must consist of significant scope, complexity (difficulty) and range of variety and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time.

Duties of the Lead Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical) include, but are not limited to:

• Leads a team of telehealth staff by providing guidance and technical direction related to telehealth program.
• Works with the supervisor to develop assignments for team members in order to meet routine and unusual deadlines and priorities.
• Distributes and balances workload and tasks among employees in accordance with established workflow and/or job specialization and required rotations.
• Serves as a work leader, monitors status and progress of team members' work and makes day-to-day adjustments in accordance with established priorities.
• Gives on-the-job training to new employees (local and at the CBOC sites). Instructs employees in specific tasks and job techniques, making available written instructions and reference materials for use by team members in the accomplishment of tasks or projects.
• Monitors and reports on the status and progress of work to ensure that the supervisor's instructions on work priorities, methods, deadlines and quality have been met.
• Provides information to the supervisor concerning promotions, reassignment, recognition of outstanding performance, and personal needs.
• Utilizes needs assessment, service agreements, and other tools when collaborating with stakeholders to develop new programs and processes to ensure telehealth programs are meeting the strategic plans of the healthcare system.
• Independently reviews quality and performance data (i.e. patient satisfaction surveys, image quality, performance metrics, clinical wait times) for telehealth programs effectiveness and satisfaction on developing process improvements as required.
• Coordinates with vendors, Biomed and IT to upgrade and/or replace telehealth technologies to minimize impact on patient care.
• Develops and coordinates a wide variety of standard operating procedures with full and complete technical advice to ensure telehealth operations are timely, efficient, and appropriate.
• Serves as a telehealth preceptor to independently plan and carry out standardized developed training in accordance with established telehealth program policies and directives. Conducts reviews to ensure technologies and systems are functioning prior to training and that trainees have completed prerequisites. Evaluates skills and competencies for initial certification and on-going performance evaluation. Provides remedial training as needed and reports to supervisor regarding ongoing performance.
• Maintains responsibility for facility inventory management and registering and maintaining telehealth end points and scheduling of multi-point video conference calls in the Telepresence Management System or other similar application.
• Leads performance improvement activities aimed at improving the efficiency of the patient telehealth processes.
• Develops reporting procedures, sampling techniques and measurements at various points in the telehealth processes to identify/analyze inherent weaknesses in work and procedures and advises others as to trends in the processes of patient telehealth services.

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8am-4:30pm PST.
Telework: Not available.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized.
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized.

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: 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:
  • 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
  • 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.
• Certification: None.

Grade Determinations: GS-8 Lead Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical)

Experience: One year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade level.** In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs.

1. 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.
2. Skill in leadership and interpersonal relations and conflict resolution to deal with employees, team leaders, providers, and managers.
3. 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.
4. Knowledge of quality control and assurance procedures and principles of performance improvement.
5. Skill in the assessment and resolution of complex workload capture issues using multiple data sources.
6. Ability to develop and compose complex written instructions.
7. Knowledge of analytical and evaluative processes to independently resolve complex issues.

Preferred Experience: Patient care, Telehealth, and/or Cerner experience is preferred.

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-08.

Physical Requirements: Light carrying, under 15 pounds, reaching above shoulders, use of fingers, both hands required, walking, standing, both legs required, operation of motor vehicle, both eyes required, depth perception, ability to distinguish basic colors, ability to distinguish shades of colors, hearing (aid may be permitted), emotional/mental stability, prolonged sitting, prolonged use of computer, prolonged looking at computer screen.

Environmental Factors: Working closely with others and working alone.

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/.

• 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. In addition to the application and questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job.
• 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 have an unrestricted State Driver's License.
• 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).
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1 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 trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.