Health Technician (Advanced Telehealth Clinical)

Summary

This position functions above the full performance level for the Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical) position and serves in an advanced role at the Albany VA Health Care Center. The incumbent performs a full range of duties and is responsible 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.

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
• 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: 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 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: Health Technician -Telehealth Clinical - GS-7 (Advanced): Experience
• One year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade level
• Demonstrated Knowledge - Skills - and Abilities
• Ability to use independent technical judgment to analyze - evaluate and resolve problems
• Knowledge of quality control and assurance procedures and principles of performance improvement
• Ability to function effectively between competing priorities
• Knowledge of proper maintenance and troubleshooting of telehealth equipment
• Ability to work with a team to provide technical guidance - plan - organize and coordinate activities of a health technician in order to effectively complete job duties of assignment such as distributing workload - monitoring the status and progress of work - monitoring accuracy of work
• Ability to assist in Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical) development - outcome management and strategic planning
• Ability to perform successful knowledge transfer regarding the use of telehealth technologies 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-06
• This vacancy is above the full performance level
• Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019

Duties

• The incumbent is expected to be able to exercise independent judgement and will often provide guidance to less experienced staff members and will require minimal direct supervision
• This advanced 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
• The higher-level duties associated with this advanced-level position may include - but are not limited to: Coordinating - installing - maintaining and managing the inventory of telehealth technologies including hardware and software with assistance of Biomed and IT
• Providing established standardized competency-based training - guidance and information on the use of advanced telehealth technologies to patients - staff - and providers
• Providing established standardized competency-based training for telehealth technology - facilitating interactive simulations for clinical staff participating in telehealth programs
• Participating in performance improvement activities aimed at improving the efficiency of the patient telehealth processes
• Developing reporting procedures - sampling techniques and measurements at various points in the telehealth processes to identify/analyze inherent weaknesses in work and procedures
• Coordinating clinic set up and monitoring of workload capture and issues for assigned patient and provider clinics including telehealth resource-based scheduling
• Supporting designated complex telehealth programs that require advanced technical skillsets'
• Full performance level assignments associated with this position include - but are not limited to: Preparing the clinical environment - which may include preparing medical and telecommunications equipment to be used for clinical examinations and treatments
• Serving as a telepresenter - within scope of practice - during clinical video telehealth (CVT) and VA Video Connect (VVC) encounters including tasks such
• As establishing and maintaining video conferencing connections - making introductions between patient sites and provider sites - following instructions of a clinician to facilitate an effective clinical encounter
• Serving as an imager and manager of clinical data for store and forward telehealth (SFT) clinical encounters including tasks such as capturing images - collecting data and transmitting them electronically for clinical review in accordance with VHA national guidelines
• Coordinating and/or directly configuring - installing - troubleshooting - inventory management - cleaning - and performing minor routine maintenance of assigned telehealth technology
• Ensuring assigned telehealth technologies are secured - ready for use - and accounted for by preparing and tracking maintenance work orders - information systems - inventory records - and communicating with National Telehealth Technology Help Desk to facilitate troubleshooting - repair - and coordination of replacement equipment as necessary
• Arranging and completing test video calls with Veterans to prepare the Veterans for clinical encounters using telehealth technologies
• Ensuring information and resources are maintained for local and remote telehealth providers so they can effectively execute contingency and emergency plans
• Completing other duties as assigned
• Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional Work Schedule: Monday - Friday (8:00am - 4:30pm) Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases 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) 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: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position
• Functional Statement #: 14077F Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized