Clarification from the agency

Current and Permanent Employees of the Buffalo VAMC Current and Permanent Federal Employees

The incumbent's assignments at this level includes, but are not limited to: assigning and evaluating the work of subordinate staff, performance evaluations, selection of staff, and recommendation of awards and/or advancements; resolving complex problems to ensure patient services are met; evaluating new products, equipment, and systems in order to make recommendations for improved operations; identifying educational or training needs; making final decisions on selections; evaluating performance, and taking disciplinary action when necessary. The employee has full administrative and professional responsibility for planning and directing the MSA's activities and is responsible for extracting and analyzing data to provide reports in support of performance measures to senior management.

It is expected that the GS-8 Supervisory Medical Support Assistant (MSA) works collaboratively with all clinical business managers and frontline staff throughout the Primary Care and Specialty Clinics, in the Specialty Clinics Call Center and Primary Care Call Center.

The Supervisory MSA develops and maintains effective and efficient communication with all departmental leadership, respective Care Line Managers and service line managers and frontline staff, serving as a core member of the HAS and Clinical Service leadership. Successful performance in this position requires knowledge of administrative policies and procedures at facility and network level that impact HAS and Business Operations, information security and exchange, management of reports and data, scheduling directives, telephone care, and public relations/customer service.

The Supervisory MSA is knowledgeable and skilled in the operation of a personal computer utilizing a wide variety of software, utilizing multiple computer applications in the performance of all duties including Vista (entry and retrieval of administrative and clinical data to include numerous existing report options and specialized queries), VSSC, CPRS (to include monitoring of outpatient workload data capture), Microsoft Office products for word processing, spreadsheets, and relational data base programs.

The Supervisory MSA serves as a resource to HAS staff in use of applications, and must have the ability to extract, correlate and analyze patient encounter and provider workload data make recommendations to the Leadership team and acts as a customer service representative for HAS.

• The HAS Supervisory MSA has detailed knowledge of outpatient administrative processes, release of information, records management schedules for ambulatory care clinics, workload data capture, encounter forms, and VISTA scheduling package, maintaining full responsibility and accountability for the scheduling practices.
• Work closely with department business managers to communicate implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of all administrative procedures related to HAS.
• Provide recommendations and suggestions to management as necessary to ensure timely completion of reports, related performance monitors/measures are met, and to ensure the HAS team adheres to local, VISN and national guidelines, memorandums and directives.
• Provide training, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all administrative procedures related to HAS operations
• Serve as HAS subject matter expert, working closely with the clerks in all clinical and administrative settings.

The Supervisory MSA maintains full accountability and oversight of the utilization, adjusting clinic setup and grids to effectively support the needs of the Service, keeping the clinic profiles updated as new clinics are set-up and current clinics are modified and certifying accuracy after review, with duties to include:

• Establish, monitor and maintain all clinic profiles for Primary Care Clinics, setting appointment length and overbook capacity, granting individuals scheduling access to restricted clinics, and assigning specific user class rights to providers, based on verified credentials.
• Create or modify team and position settings, assign provider user class based on verified credentials, link the associated clinic, program clinical alert notification levels, and establish preceptor to associate provider links.
• Work with respective clinical Business Managers to ensure the clinic set up and encounters are correctly established.
• Provide oversight and has programming responsibility for all automated and special patient correspondence letters generated through the Appointment Management computer program.

Aids with clinic set-up as needed/requested, for interdisciplinary staff aligned with Primary Care Clinic teams.

Work Schedule: Full-Time; Monday-Friday 8:00am-4:30pm
Position Description Title/PD#: SUPERVISORY MEDICAL SUPPORT AS/PD21S71A
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized.

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this 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.
• You may be required to serve a probationary period.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process.
• 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).

Qualifications

Supervisory Medical Support Assistant, GS-8

Experience.
One year of experience equivalent to the [GS-7] grade level [leading or supervising MSAs or equivalent administrative patient support staff in a non-VA medical inpatient, outpatient, or interdisciplinary setting.]

Assignment.[Supervisory MSAs at this level plan and direct programs at medical centers and/or satellite outpatient clinics. They have full responsibility for supervising at least one subordinate MSA team leader, supervisor, or equivalent administrative patient support staff in a non-VA medical inpatient, outpatient, or interdisciplinary setting. Assignments at this level include, but are not limited to: evaluating the work of subordinate staff; resolving complex problems to ensure patient services are met; evaluating new products, equipment, and systems to make recommendations for improved operations; identifying educational or training needs; making final decisions on hiring selections; evaluating performance, and taking disciplinary action when necessary. The employee has administrative and professional responsibility for planning and directing the subordinate lead, supervisor, and MSA's activities. Responsible for extracting and analyzing data to provide reports to senior management in support of tracking measures.] For all assignments above the full performance level, the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope, administrative independence, complexity (difficulty) and range of variety as described in this standard at the specified grade level and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time.

Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. Candidates must demonstrate [all of] the KSAs below:
i. Ability to provide the full range of administrative and supervisory duties [to at least one subordinate MSA supervisor or team leader in a patient support setting which includes assignment of work, performance evaluations, selection of staff, and recommendation of awards and/or advancements.]
ii. 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.
iii. Ability to provide briefings, orientations, staff development, and training [in a patient support setting].
iv. Ability to manage fiscal matters, forecast resource and equipment needs, and identify budget needs.
v. Advanced knowledge of managing or leading patient support staff in a clinic. This includes independently utilizing reference sources, decision making, and empowering the team to collaborate and resolve problems within a complex systems environment.]

References: VA Handbook 5005/117 PART II APPENDIX G45, August 1, 2019 The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-08. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-08.NOTE: Qualifications found within Appendix G are to be used without modification. Per WMC regulations, qualifications may not be added or removed.

Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

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
• 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.

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

Next steps