Veterans Health Administration (VHA)

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Health Science Officer

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Security Clearance: None

This position serves as the Director for the Office of Medical-Legal Risk Management (MLRM) which aligns under the Office of Quality Management, Veterans Health Administration (VHA). This is a program office in VHA Central Office (VHACO), Office of Quality Management. This position is responsible for policy and program matters pertaining to his/her area of assignment. Incumbent is responsible for advising and providing consultation to medical centers, networks, and VHACO program officials.

Duties
This announcement will close on 10/30/2023, the first 50 applications received will receive first consideration. Applications that are submitted after 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the date in which the initial cut-off number has been reached will not receive consideration unless otherwise requested by management.

Duties will include:

Functioning as the program expert responsible for developing VHA policies and procedures related to the medical-legal risk management program.
Managing multiple workflows relevant to medical-legal risk including the peer review for quality management program, disclosure of adverse events to patients, and tort claim processing (pre-payment and post-payment).
Providing expert knowledge in medical-legal risk management as well as health care principles, theories and practices, executive level communication, negotiation and analytical skills.
Interpreting and developing strategic goals and objectives related to processes and reports from external review organizations such as the Joint Commission, OIG, GAO, NPDB, VA and other special purpose review bodies.
Working with the Executive Director/Deputy Director, Office of Quality Management to identify major program needs, develop new programs, and develop necessary policy and procedures to meet the changing needs.
Staying abreast of policies and procedures from VHA oversight bodies (e.g., OIG) that affect the medical-legal risk management program.
Participating in agency-wide and interagency activities involving medical-legal risk management. This includes participation in national level workgroups and committees with other VHACO program offices and consolidating enterprise medical-legal risk management related report results for reporting to VHACO and VA committees, e.g., Governance Board.
Communicating with the Office of the Inspector General, Office of General Counsel, National Practitioner Data Bank, VHA officials, and leadership from field facilities and other agencies on medical-legal risk management issues.
Developing and implementing outreach materials and training programs, e.g., Risk Management Boot Camps for Risk Managers and Physician Leaders.
Traveling to field facilities for implementation or oversight of program deployment, and may also include special purpose visits to assure adequate implementation and training.
Serving as direct supervisor for the Senior Medical Advisor (physician), Executive Career Field (ECF) Supervising Nurses, and senior administrative staff.
Work Schedule: 8:00am-4:30pm, Mon-Fri.
Compressed/Flexible: Available
Virtual: This is a 100% remote location.
Position Description/PD#: Health Science Officer/PD863780
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Authorized
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized
PCS Appraised Value Offer (AVO): Not Authorized
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements
Conditions of Employment
You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
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
Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP)
Participation in the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination program is a requirement for all Veterans Health Administration Health Care Personnel (HCP) - See "Additional Information" below for details.
Qualifications
To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 10/30/2023.

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-15 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-14. 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:

BASIC EDUCATION REQUIREMENT- You must first meet Basic Education Requirements for this position as described below. Transcripts are REQUIRED.

Basic Education Requirement
Bachelor's or graduate/higher level degree: major study in an academic field related to the medical field, health sciences or allied sciences appropriate to the work of the position. This degree must be from an educational program from an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education at the time the degree was obtained. TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED

OR

Combination of education and specialized experience: Appropriate combination of education and experience generally requires that an applicant possess a core of educational credit, such as described above, plus additional education and/or experience. The quality of the combination of education and experience must be sufficient to demonstrate that the applicant possesses the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform work in the occupation, and is comparable to that normally acquired through the successful completion of a full 4-year course of study with a major in the appropriate field. In addition to courses in the major and related fields, a typical college degree would have included courses that involved analysis, writing, critical thinking, research, etc. TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED

AND

ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS- In addition to meeting the basic education requirement, you must have specialized experience or directly related education as described below.
GS-15 Qualifications
Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-14 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

NOTE: To be minimally qualified for this position, you must meet 5 of the 7 examples of specialized experience listed below. Specialized experience is:

Assisting in the planning, designing and overseeing of clinical risk management and medical legal affairs programs nationally.
Ability to serve as the national authority and represent clinical risk management and medical legal affairs on a national scale with large and complex issues and problems.
Coordinating, managing and improving clinical risk management and medical legal national program policies, standards, activities, etc.
Developing and implementing outreach materials and training programs, e.g., risk management boot camps for risk manager sand physician leaders related to medical-legal risk management.
Developing detailed plans, tasks, milestone dates and schedules to ensure effective and efficient sequencing of events and tracking of processes and costs throughout the life cycle of the programs/projects.
Providing administrative supervision to employees under purview, conducting periodic performance reviews, performance coaching and mentoring, and assigning work.
Applying expert knowledge of medical-legal risk management, including expert knowledge of policies and procedures of VHA and other federal agencies specifically as they relate to program development, implementation, review, and evaluation.
PREFERRED: Legal degree (e.g., Juris Doctor (JD) degree)

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:
Legal, Government and Jurisprudence
Leadership
Critical Thinking
Risk Management
Communication
Organizational Stewardship
Quality Management
Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary; frequently requiring extended periods of time at a computer. Occasionally involves walking, bending, climbing stairs. The work involves managing complex, persistent demands from a variety of sources that may be considered high-pressure work. May require frequent travel with estimated 20% overnight travel.

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/.
Education
A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

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: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.