Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical) (Advanced)

About the role

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) supports the provision of patient care using telehealth technologies which increase a Veteran's access to care and support a Veteran's self-management. This includes developing and delivering virtual and digital technologies which help Veterans communicate synchronously and asynchronously with their health care teams and coordinate, track and manage their health care.

Responsibilities

• Coordinating, installing, maintaining, and managing the inventory of telehealth technologies including hardware and software with assistance of Biomed and IT.
• Providing established standardized competency-based training, guidance, and information on the use of advanced telehealth technologies to patients, staff, and providers.
• Providing established standardized competency-based training for telehealth technology, facilitating interactive simulations for clinical staff participating in telehealth programs.
• Participating in performance improvement activities aimed at improving the efficiency of the patient telehealth processes.
• Developing reporting procedures, sampling techniques and measurements at various points in the telehealth processes to identify/analyze inherent weaknesses in work and procedures.
• Coordinating clinic set up and monitoring of workload capture and issues for assigned patient and provider clinics including telehealth resource-based scheduling.
• Serving as a telepresenter, within scope of practice, during clinical video telehealth (CVT) and VA Video Connect (VVC) encounters.
• Serving as an imager and manager of clinical data for store and forward telehealth (SFT) clinical encounters including tasks such as capturing images, collecting data and transmitting them electronically for clinical review in accordance with VHA national guidelines.
• Ensuring assigned telehealth technologies are secured, ready for use, and accounted for by preparing and tracking maintenance work orders, information systems, inventory records, and communicating with National Telehealth Technology Help Desk to facilitate troubleshooting, repair, and coordination of replacement equipment as necessary.
• Arranging and completing test video calls with Veterans to prepare the Veterans for clinical encounters using telehealth technologies.
• Supporting designated complex telehealth programs that require advanced technical skillsets.
• Preparing the clinical environment, which may include preparing medical and telecommunications equipment to be used for clinical examination and treatment.

Requirements

This announcement is open to the public and employees of other Federal agencies. Current, permanent VA employees should apply to announcement CBSY-12997248-26-JE

Qualifications

• Basic Requirements:
• Experience and Education.
• Experience. One year of experience in a health care field that demonstrates the applicant's ability to perform the work or provides an understanding of the work such as but not limited to a medical or clinical assistant (or technician) or health technician. OR
• Education. Four academic years above high school leading to a bachelor's degree with courses related to the occupation. OR
• Experience/Education Combination. Equivalent combination of experience and education are qualifying for entry level for which both education and experience are acceptable. Examples are listed below:
• Six months of experience in the health care field and two years of education above high school that included at least six semester hours in health care related courses such as, biological science, surgical technician courses, nursing assistant or other courses related to the position; or an associate's degree in a health care related field; OR
• Six months of experience in the health care field and successful completion of a course for health care technicians, hospital corpsmen, or medical service specialists given by the U.S. Armed Forces.
• Certification. None
• English Language Proficiency. A candidate will not be appointed under authority of 38 U.S.C. chapters 73 or 74, to serve in a direct patient-care capacity in VHA who is not proficient in written and spoken English. See chapter 2, section D, paragraph 5a, this part.
• May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria).
• Grade Determinations:
• Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical), GS-7 (Advanced)
• Experience. One year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade level.
• Equivalent experience includes screening patients for Telehealth modality and referring patients that do not meet established criteria to appropriate care; communicating effectively with administrative and professional staff, and obtaining assistance for issues that may arise or backlogs that cannot be resolved in a timely manner; performing imaging duties in accordance with VHA national telehealth guidelines such as: capture and transmission of clinical images and/or data, obtains consent as necessary, generates consults according to established procedures for each telehealth specialty, transmits images or clinical data to the electronic medical record, provides patient education regarding general anatomy, disease processes and prevention as appropriate, and takes appropriate action based on the providers' findings and recommendations; facilitating real-time Telehealth encounters by providing hands on assistance and reporting clinical observations under the direction of a licensed independent Practitioner or clinical specialist; schedules, confirms and coordinates Telehealth services between internal and external VA and non-VA sites; analyzes own work flow to determine potential problem areas and recommends corrective action to improve coordination between various units/facilities; has regular contact with the Facility Telehealth Coordinator to work out process issues, equipment needs, problems, data collection and any other logistical issues; responsible for conducting routine inventories and consistently tracking location/status of Telehealth technology located at assigned site; and communicates with National Telehealth Technology Help Desk to facilitate troubleshooting, repair, and coordination of replacement equipment as necessary.
• Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs.
• (a) Ability to use independent technical judgment to analyze, evaluate and resolve problems.
• (b) Knowledge of quality control and assurance procedures and principles of performance improvement.
• (c) Ability to function effectively between competing priorities.
• (d) Knowledge of proper maintenance and troubleshooting of telehealth equipment.
• (e) Ability to work with a team to provide technical guidance, plan, organize and coordinate activities of a health technician in order to effectively complete job duties.