Health Systems Specialist

Description:

This position is located within the office of the Director, Mental Health Service at the VA Boston Healthcare System (VABHS), and reports directly to the Clinical Associate Director, Mental Health Service. VABHS is one of only 30 "1A" facilities in the VHA system and is an active tertiary care and teaching facility with a comprehensive Mental Health Service.

Requirements:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 04/25/2025.

Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR): The 0671 series requires specific education or experience to be met in order to be appointed into a position of this series. You must meet one of the pre-determined Education or Experience Individual Occupational Requirements listed below as set by Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
Undergraduate and Graduate Education: Major study of hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration.
OR
Specialized Experience: 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.

OR
Special Provision for Inservice Placement: Successful completion of an agency-sponsored on-the-job training program may be substituted for qualifying experience, provided it included a formal individualized training plan. Such a training program must have been conducted in an operating health care system and included:

• Assignments providing a knowledge of basic health system administration philosophies, practices, and procedures, and basic government administrative policies and requirements;
• Practical assignments providing an opportunity to apply health system administration skills and principles (as the individual progresses, work assignments must be characteristic of the grade level to which he or she is assigned); and
• Oversight by an experienced health system administrator with periodic evaluation of the individual's progress and appropriate adjustment of the training program.

In addition to meeting both the IOR and Time-In-grade, you must meet the experience as described below:

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-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09. 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:

• To qualify for the GS-671-11 based on specialized experience: You must have one (1) year of specialized experience at the GS-09 level or equivalent for this position. Specialized experience is experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. At the GS-11 full performance level, the incumbent demonstrates:
• Knowledge of the concepts, principles, and practices of the health care delivery systems, including an understanding of the concepts of medical care organization, financial management, and data application.
• Knowledge of the mission, organizations, programs, and requirements specific to the VHA health care delivery system so as to be able to analyze and recommend solutions to the problems which arise within a complex Medical Center.
• Knowledge of the VHA regulations, standards, policies, and procedures in order to advise on and interface the clinical administrative functions.
• Knowledge of local, state, and federal laws governing the healthcare delivery system in order to insure compliance with laws and prevent medical legal complications.
• Knowledge of qualitative and quantitative techniques for analyzing and measuring the effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity of administrative and technical programs.
• Knowledge of budgeting concepts and procedures, knowledge of methodologies for determining unit costs and understanding of procedures for forecasting workload.
• Knowledge of the principles of Quality Assurance in healthcare in order to implement, evaluate, and coordinate Quality Assurance activities for the Mental Health Service.
• Ability to work well with people of varying educational and socioeconomic backgrounds in activities involving critical or sensitive issues

To qualify for the GS-671-11 based on education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or three (3) full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related.
To qualify for the GS-671-11 based on combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. Combinations of successfully completed post-high school education and experience may be used to meet total qualification requirements and may be computed by first determining the applicant's total qualifying experience as a percentage of the experience required for the grade level; then determining the applicant's education as a percentage of the education required for the grade level; and then adding the two percentages. The total percentages must equal at least 100 percent to qualify an applicant for that grade level. Only graduate education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be used to qualify applicants for positions at grades GS-9 and GS-11. When crediting education that requires specific course work, prorate the number of hours of related courses required as a proportion of the total education to be used.
You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Analysis and Problem Solving
• Critical Thinking
• Customer Service (Clerical/Technical)
• Information 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.

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