Health System Specialist - Project Manager

Clarification from the agency

ALL US CITIZENS DIRECT HIRE AUTHORITY: This position is being filled using Direct-Hire Authority (5 CFR 337.201) for this occupation.

This position is for the Junction City, KS as their duty location.

• Provides comprehensive operational oversight and coordination for Junction City, Iola, and Lawrence VA Clinics, ensuring efficient day-to-day functioning and continuous improvement of clinical and administrative operations.
• Evaluates outpatient service delivery models and develops recommendations to improve access, efficiency, and patient experience within assigned clinics and market areas.
• Supports the delivery of high-quality, accessible, cost-effective health care services by coordinating resources, workflow processes, access initiatives, and support functions across multiple clinical disciplines to promote efficient clinic operations, timely access to care, and effective utilization of available resources.
• . Leads and supports advanced analytical studies to evaluate clinical workload trends, patient flow, scheduling practices, and capacity management across assigned clinics.
• Uses data-driven methodologies to identify inefficiencies, forecast demand, and recommend organizational improvements.
• Optimizes provider and care team scheduling by assessing clinic grid utilization, supply demand alignment, face to face and virtual visit distributions, staffing acuity, and clinical productivity indicators.
• Evaluates the impact of Community Care referrals on internal capacity, access to care, patient wait times, and care continuity.
• Collaborates with clinical leaders to rebalance services between VA-delivered care, virtual modalities, and purchased care when appropriate.
• Leads efforts to improve patient workflows by partnering with Primary Care, Mental Health, Specialty Care, and Nursing leadership to evaluate room utilization, care team composition, visit modality mix, appointment cycle times, and bottlenecks impacting throughput.
• Develop operational solutions such as standardized workflows, enhanced scheduling procedures, process redesign, escalation pathways, and care coordination practices to enhance access and patient experience. Identifies and implements improvements to optimize clinic management processes and access strategies.
• Standardizes, implements, and sustains key operational and business processes, including scheduling practices, to support efficient clinic operations and enhance the Veteran experience
• Incorporates remote healthcare considerations, including telehealth demand, virtual care readiness, space requirements for telehealth operations, and staffing support, to ensure seamless integration of virtual modalities into clinic operations.
• Conducts analyses of telehealth utilization patterns, no show rates, broadband limitations, and patient adoption trends to support operational decision-making and service delivery planning.
• Administers management reporting systems and dashboards to support data informed decision making related to organizational performance, staffing models, access metrics, quality indicators, and workload distribution.
• Develops and coordinates quality assurance and performance improvement activities ensuring compliance with accrediting and regulatory bodies (e.g., Joint Commission, OIG, CARF).
• The HSS measures and assesses clinical business activities with an emphasis on improving clinical product line performance.
• The HSS is responsible for regularly presenting key management indicators to the Executive Staff.
• Integrates administrative services-including Finance, HR, Acquisition, Facilities, Environmental of Care, and Health Administration Service-in support of clinic goals and market objectives.
• Resolves complex operational, personnel, and cross service issues that impact patient care, staff performance, and organizational effectiveness.
• Provides leadership during change management initiatives, operational disruptions, and emergent contingencies that affect clinic operations.
• The incumbent collaborates closely with key clinical leadership officials as an impartial facilitator in addressing disagreements related to scheduling practices, workload distribution, resource prioritization, and workflow redesign. Employs conflict resolution strategies, mediation techniques, and interest-based problem solving to ensure concerns are addressed objectively, respectfully, and in alignment with EKHCS policies and organizational values.

Work Schedule: 7:30 AM - 4:00PM or 8:00AM - 4:30PM, Monday through Friday
Telework: Ad-hoc

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for this job
• Subject to a background/suitability investigation
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• A complete application package; Resume, Transcripts, etc. is required
• 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.

Upon completion of your probationary period (OR INSERT "trial period"), your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period (OR INSERT "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

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 09/08/2026.

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-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. 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. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

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

Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR): An IOR is a basic requirement that must be met in order to qualify for entry into this job series and it is something that can't be waived. To qualify for the GS 0671 occupational series, applicants MUST possess one of the following:

(for positions above GS-5): 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.

In addition to the individual occupational requirement, you must meet the specialized experience for the position as well:GS-12

• Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-11 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.
  • Demonstrated mastery in applying analytical and evaluative methods and techniques to issues or studies concerning the efficiency and effectiveness of agency and program operations.
  • Expert knowledge of pertinent laws, regulations, policies and precedents, major issues, program goals and objectives, work processes, and administrative operations which affect the administration of GBO program and committee functions.
  • Mastery of VHA organization structure and operations to support VHA-wide assessments to improve the VHA system for health care.
  • Expert knowledge of missions, organizations, programs, and requirements of health care delivery systems in general and in the country at large.
  • Excellent interpersonal skills to facilitate and coordinate vast needs for communications and information, between and among the stakeholders, including the Department, VHACO, VISNs, facilities and non-VA groups.

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. Applicants will be referred in the order in which they were received.

Documents Accepted:

• Cover Letter
• DD-214/ Statement of Service
• Disability Letter (Schedule A)
• Disability Letter (VA)
• License
• Other (1)
• PCS Orders
• Performance Appraisal
• Professional Certification
• Resume
• Separation Notice (RIF)
• SF-15
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
• Transcript

Documents Required:

• Resume

Please review the above list(s) to ensure you have included all necessary documents required for your application.Not every applicant will require the same documents, therefore it is the applicants responsibility to ensure that their application package includes all necessary documents to determine qualifications and eligibility for appointment, such as a copy of your SF-50, transcript, ICTAP/CTAP documentation (for displaced Federal employees).You will not be contacted for additional information. Applicants will be deemed ineligible if supporting documentation is not submitted.

Veterans' Preference: Since the Direct-Hire Recruitment Authority is being used, traditional Veterans' Preference rules do not apply. Qualified veterans will, however, be given full consideration for this position.

Applications are accepted online. Applying online will allow you to review and track the status of your application.

Next steps