Advanced Medical Support Assistant

About the role

The Advanced Medical Support Assistant (AMSA) is responsible for a range of clerical and administrative duties that demonstrate the advanced level of the MSA. The San Francisco VA Health Care System uses a practice group concept that combines managed care and primary care treatment models. This position is located at the VA Clinic South Santa Rosa, California Ambulatory Care Service.

Responsibilities

• Scheduling, cancelling, and re-scheduling patient appointments by managing appointment requests (including but not limited to Return-to-Clinic Orders (RTC), Recall Reminders, Veteran's Appointment Requests (VAR), Consults, and Patient initiated requests in accordance with scheduling business rules as outlined in VHA Directive 1230, Outpatient Scheduling Management, and VHA Directive 1232, Consult Management, utilizing scheduling programs as mandated by your supervisor.
• Consult Management: Coordinate the scheduling/rescheduling of consults or forwarding of consults to community care using the various scheduling systems and tools. Contacts the Veteran to discuss VA and community care options, gathering the Veteran's scheduling preferences and appropriately documenting all mandatory consult scheduling elements as outlined in VHA Directive 1232, Consult Management. Responsible for tracking consult progress from file entry date to the scheduled date or cancellation of the consult.
• Documenting all patient related correspondences and outreach for scheduling in the electronic medical record.
• Check-in/check-out procedures for patient visits and ensuring patient demographics (to include but not limited to mailing address, contact information, email, etc.) are validated and up to date in the patient's record. Responsible for capturing Non-VA health insurance utilizing the Insurance Capture Buffer software.
• Login into phone system application, (multiline phone system application) as directed by the supervisor, to answer incoming calls in accordance with standard operating procedures and customer service policy.
• Managing incoming and outgoing digital and physical faxes. Distributing, receiving, sorting, and delivering incoming and outgoing mail or other documents to the appropriate individuals.
• Responding to incoming correspondences, including, but not limited to, VA emails, Instant Messages, Voicemails, and Secure Messaging within the timeliness parameters as outlined by department.
• Responsible for Lobby Management, including, but not limited to monitoring the reception patient check-in/check-out line, general cleanliness of the lobby (if needed escalating concerns to other departments as necessary), restocking flyers and brochures, and addressing Veterans that have been waiting longer than 15 minutes.
• Appropriately completing initial paperwork for same day walk-in "triage" patient's, notifying the appropriate nursing staff members and alerting clinical staff immediately of any urgent/emergent issues. Collaborates effectively with fellow SFVAHCS staff to ensure patient concerns are addressed.
• Responsible for processing view alerts per VHA policy timelines.
• Completing no-show reconciliation at the end of each clinic period, including the rescheduling of patients per VHA policy.
• Reviewing upcoming pending appointments, as necessary, to ensure patients are being seen appropriately.
• Other related duties may be assigned.

Requirements

• One year of experience equivalent to the GS-5 grade level.
• Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
• (a) Advanced knowledge of the technical health care process (including, but not limited to, scheduling across interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery and/or care in the community models and patient health care portals) as it relates to access to care.
• (b) Advanced knowledge of policies and procedures associated with interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery and/or care in the community operational activities that affect patient flow, and patient support care administrative functions to include, but not limited to appointment cycles, outside patient referrals, follow-up care, overbooking, provider availability, etc.
• (c) Advanced knowledge of medical terminology due to the technical nature of language utilized by clinicians.
• (d) Ability to collaborate and communicate with a wide range of medical clinicians across multiple disciplines (e.g., medical doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, clinical pharmacists, and nursing staff) to accomplish team goal setting to ensure medical care to patients is met.
• (e) Ability to independently set priorities and organize work to meet deadlines, ensuring compliance with established processes, policies, and regulations.
• (f) Ability to communicate tactfully and effectively, electronically, by phone, in person, and in writing, with internal and external customers. This may include preparing reports in various formats and presenting data to various organizational levels, as well as resolving patient concerns.

Qualifications

• Advanced Medical Support Assistant,GS-6