Supervisory Medical Support Assistant

The STVHCS is a modern health care facility with computerized programs (CPRS, VISTA, etc.), for all activities required in the performance of duties. The incumbent will normally work at one of the locations above but may be required to work at other location as necessary. Incumbent may be required to work various tours of duty on a rotating or as needed basis to provide required coverage, five (or seven) days a week and /or evening,
night, and weekends.

Major Duties:

• Has delegated authority necessary to manage assigned clinical administration areas, performing the full range of supervisory duties and responsibilities to effectively utilize the manpower and resources allocated to HAS. This includes setting team goals and technically directing the work of subordinates. It requires planning, - assigning, reviewing, and accepting/rejecting work done by subordinates.
• Makes work assignments, set, or negotiate deadlines, and designate completion dates.
• Develops work schedules for employees to support workload.
• Evaluates work performance and completes performance appraisals and disciplinary actions for all employees assigned to section.
• Performs administrative and personnel management functions for staff supervised.
• Establishes and clearly communicates performance plans and expectations to staff.
• Provides informal feedback and periodically reviews employee performance.
• Resolves informal complaints and grievances.
• Reviews and approves or disapproves routine leave requests.
• Provides information and input to the Chief of HAS concerning promotions, reassignments, recognition of outstanding performance and other personnel issues.
• Coordinates and approves the leave of HAS clinical administrative staff and arranges cross coverage to provide adequate clerical coverage for outpatient and primary care clinics and other related activities.
• Instructs employees in assigned tasks and job techniques, conducts formal and informal on-the-job training, and answers questions on procedures, policies, and directives.
• Sets up clinic profiles in consultation with the appropriate clinical and administrative staff; in addition, he/she cancels, reschedules, and blocks clinic appointments based on provider schedules in accordance with approved provider leave and facility policy. This will require tracking leave of administrative and clinical staff. In the event of clinic cancellations.
• Ensures that patients are notified according to policy.
• Reschedules patients with special needs or issues.
• Responsible for administrative support to clinics. This includes composing letters as part of supervisory duties (e.g., advanced sick leave requests, donated sick leave request, personnel actions, etc.), composing and sending letters to patients when necessary and helping patients get necessary forms or letters processed correctly.
• Attend staff meetings for all the clinics he/she supports, including provider meetings, and will meet daily or weekly with the nurse team leader and clinic director. This ensures that the Supervisory MSA is working with the clinical staff as an integral part of the team and that communication is constantly flowing with the nurse team leader, clinic director, and Chief of HAS.
• Expected to be a communication facilitator, arranging meetings and in-services as necessary to ensure that information and knowledge are communicated to all staff.
• Responsible for providing input to the Chief of HAS concerning policy, and manual updates applicable to the clinic.
• Ensures that all annual training requirements are completed by all staff under his/her supervision in accordance with VA policy.
• Serves as the clinic system coordinator for areas of responsibility, this will include ensuring Veterans Health Information System and Technology Architecture (VistA) access is requested for new employees, ensuring VistA access to continuing employees, and reporting any hardware, software or printer problems as needed within HAS.
• Provides ongoing refresher training to employees with access to HAS VistA packages. These could include Appointment Management, MEANS Test, Pre-registration, Electronic Wait List, Clinic recall, email, and Rx profiles. For CPRS: notes, medication lists, consults lab and clinical notes.
• Ensure that staff enters all information pertaining to patient care correctly.
• Responsible for updating clinic mapping monthly.
• Accesses to the Veteran Health Information Systems and technology Architecture (VistA) Scheduling Package and supervises individuals who have access and is responsible for:
  • Following all local and VHA policies and procedures (e.g., VHA Directive 2006-055) dealing with access and utilization of the Scheduling Package and Advanced Clinic Access.
  • Completing all mandatory training and assessments.
  • Assuring the VistA Scheduling Package is used to schedule all outpatient clinic appointments (including appointments made for clinic visits or consultations for medical, surgical, dental, psychiatric, home care, and diagnostic procedures).
  • Assuring informal patient appointment scheduling systems are not used.
  • Assuring only the approved VistA Electronic Wait List program is used for clinics having backlogs. No other wait lists or informal system is used for clinical services.

Major Duties continuned in Qualifications section below.

Major duties continued:

• Responsible for data collection and validation. He/she will ensure that encounter errors (e.g., open encounters) and appointment wait time errors are corrected timely.
• Ensure that consults are addressed by staff in a timely manner. This will include setting goals, assigning, and reviewing work, setting deadlines, and taking corrective ' action when goals are not met.
• Serves as Customer Service Ambassador, working with staff to ensure that patients receive optimal care and service.
• Works with the Chief of HAS, Assistant Chief of HAS, and his/her supervisor to ensure that processes and procedures work efficiently to the benefit of patients. This requires managing clinic patient flow and communication flow. It also includes enforcing rules of etiquette between staff members.
• Makes every attempt to solve concerns of individual Veterans as situations arise.
• Is the Environmental Management Department (EMD) liaison for the clinics he/she supports and will put in work orders as needed. In addition, he/she will ensure equipment is maintained, communicating with the Engineering Department as necessary.
• Ensure that all staff update demographics, collect insurance information at every appointment and required means tests are completed when needed.
• Monitors timely documentation of no-shows and cancellations and scheduling for recall appointments. Incumbent develops detailed procedures and guidelines to supplement established administrative regulations or program guidance, which are like the programs administered by the incumbent.

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 7:00AM-3:30PM or 7:30AM-4:00PM
Recruitment/Relocation Incentives (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: Ad-Hoc only.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: 54407F
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.
• Experience: None.
• Education: High school diploma, General Education Development equivalency certificate, or proficiency certificate from a State or territorial-level Board or Department of Education.
• Licensure/Certification/Registration: None.

May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria).

Grade Determinations: Supervisory Medical Support Assistant, GS-07

• Experience: One year of creditable experience equivalent to the next lower grade.
• Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs): In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs:
  1. Ability to provide the full range of administrative and supervisory duties in a patient support setting, which includes assignment of work, performance evaluations, selection of staff, and recommendation of awards and/or advancements.
  2. Ability to collaborate, communicate, and demonstrate customer service and interpersonal skills with internal and external customers to ensure quality/continuity of care and ensure compliance with established policies and regulations.
  3. Ability to provide briefings, orientations, staff development, and training related to administrative functions in a patient support setting.
  4. Ability to delegate authority, evaluate and oversee people and programs, accomplish program goals, and adapt to changing priorities.

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.

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-07.

Physical Requirements: May be required, depending on the needs of the organization.

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/.

NOTE: If your school has changed names, or is no longer in existence, you must provide this information in your application.

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

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.