This position, located at the Montana VA HCS, serves as a Health Technician for the Pathology and Laboratory Medical Services providing medical administrative support and certain types of nursing assistant functions within the laboratory and administrative VA staff. To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/22/2024. Individual Occupational Requirements Positions in this series range widely in type and include support duties to medical or health personnel such as audiologists, speech pathologists, medical officers, and optometrists. Therefore, technician experience is experience that required application of the knowledge, methods, and techniques of the position to be filled. 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-5 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-4. 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: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS4 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Knowledge of management's objectives, goals, decisions, policies, and of medical and technical terminology; knowledge of clinic organization, functions, specialties, and programs such as social work, nursing laboratory, supply business offices functions, etc.: knowledge of medical and administrative records system, Privacy Act and Freedom of information Act and HIPPA as it relates to release of information on patients and protecting the privacy of patient information; in depth knowledge of College of American Pathology regulations of proficiency testing; ability to interpret rules, regulations, policies and procedures to make sound decisions using good judgment; ability to adapt to situations quickly, precisely and accurately; ability to cope with wide variety of problems and to resolve them quickly and decisively; skilled in exercising initiative and originality; ability to deal with a variety of individuals with tact and diplomacy; ability to deal with individuals who are under the influence of alcohol, drugs or has severe psychiatric problems; ability to present self in a professional attitude and to create positive impressions management's representative; ability to complete assigned projects, studies, narrative and statistical reports and reviews in a thorough, accurate and timely manner; skill and precision in use of the tools, materials and specialized laboratory equipment; and knowledge of critical lab values and the procedure for documentation of follow-up care. -OR- Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successful completion of a full 4 year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree, with major study or at least 24 semester hours in subject directly related to the position. -OR- Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond high school. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Attention to Detail Clerical Customer Service Manages and Organizes Information Technical Competence 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 requires extensive and recurring physical exertion such as standing for long periods of time, bending, lifting, walking, stooping and stretching. The work requires manual dexterity and a large degree of concentration. 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/. ["Major Duties of this position include but are not limited to... Coordinates and prioritizes phlebotomy tasks to ensure inpatient and outpatient phlebotomy and sample processing are accomplished. Answer phone calls for the laboratory and relay accurate information or refers to the caller. Assist with autopsy examinations. Provide professional and courteous customer service. Perform venipuncture and arterial blood collections for laboratory testing. Collecting proper tubes using correct order of draw procedures. Labels samples accurately while protecting sensitive data. Provide verbal collection instructions for urine, stool, and other sample. Operate and maintain centrifuge. Complete testing requisitions and pack samples using proper shipping labels according to the specimen types. Perform proper body site preparation for venipuncture and arterial blood collections. Perform proper application of personal protective equipment for routine and isolation blood collections. Recognize signs, symptoms or reactions to phlebotomy procedures (i.e. fainting or vomiting). Prints out appointment list for the lab clinics. Prepares the lab appointment lists for veterans at least one week ahead of schedule to ensure prompt attention to the patient when they present for specimen collection. Investigates missing or incomplete patient laboratory orders. Contacts the nurse or provider involved to ensure missing or incomplete orders are placed or corrected prior to the patient presenting for sample collection. Provides order numbers to technical staff for orders that need to be canceled for various reasons, i.e. duplicated order, patient no longer on medications, etc. Reviews orders in CPRS to ensure that all necessary orders are drawn. Work Schedule: 8:00 am - 4:30 pm Position Description Title/PD#: Health Technician/PD14551-A Physical Requirements: The work requires extensive and recurring physical exertion such as standing for long periods of time, bending, lifting, walking, stooping and stretching. The work requires manual dexterity and a large degree of concentration."]
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the largest integrated health care system in the United States, providing care at 1,321 health care facilities, including 172 VA Medical Centers and 1,138 outpatient sites of care of varying complexity (VHA outpatient clinics) to over 9 million Veterans enrolled in the VA health care program. VHA Medical Centers provide a wide range of services including traditional hospital-based services such as surgery, critical care, mental health, orthopedics, pharmacy, radiology and physical therapy. In addition, most of our medical centers offer additional medical and surgical specialty services including audiology & speech pathology, dermatology, dental, geriatrics, neurology, oncology, podiatry, prosthetics, urology, and vision care. Some medical centers also offer advanced services such as organ transplants and plastic surgery.