Purchasing Agent

About the role

This position is organizationally located in the Prosthetic Service within the Medical Center. Work will be under the supervision of the Supervisory Prosthetic Representative. The incumbent receives and analyzes Prosthetic Consults and prescriptions for items, services and home medical equipment from physicians, therapists, medical center personnel, patients or their representatives.

Responsibilities

• Quickly deduce from written prescriptions or oral requests what items or services are needed, selecting the most appropriate cost-effective source to deliver the items/service in the most reliable manner
• Manages the collection of data to be used in numerous reports to ensure adequate resource funding and compliance
• Researches the use of different solicitation methods, ordering or reporting procedures, and purchasing methods to distinguish between different purchasing strategies
• Documents the services required per the contractual agreement and monitors, tracks, and trends contractor performance
• Completes transaction on the patient's medical record to ensure documentation of exactly what was purchased and issued
• Conduct face-to-face and telephone conversations with patients, family members, and private medical staff, contractors, vendors, and co-workers
• Speaks calmly and compassionately to severely disabled patients from all walks of life
• Skills in dealing with a large community base, vendors, hospital staff and the public is required to display a positive image of the organization
• Providing patient care and support services to an adult population and serves as the point of contact for external customer service inventory needs and support
• Resolves conflicts in administering purchase orders, such as protests, claims, duplicate billing & terminations for convenience or default
• Examines contracts, purchasing policies, equipment sources, shipping procedures and corresponding terminology to rapidly find the most reasonably priced item to meet requirement
• Works independently to complete purchase orders and reconcile charges
• Maintains accurate records of transactions and completes all adjustments to computerized system before final payment to vendor is certified
• Maintains an inventory of all purchased and consignment equipment with expiration date, imitate exchange and/or replacement of expired stock
• Completes written procurement and support notes in medical records to ensure order status is provided to the clinical requester to reduce delivery delays
• Performs technical level purchasing support adhering to the Service Directives and Handbooks, policy and memorandums to acquire patient specific medical equipment, supplies and services
• Initiates procurement of all outpatient medical requirements
• Initiates recall action of identified recall products provided and communicates all findings to the appropriate offices
• Verifies accountability of all prosthetics expenditures in both the purchase menu and the prosthetics program and associates all obligations to the individual patient
• Ensures the services provided are documented as the type of service and duration

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 07/27/2026.

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-06 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05. 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.

Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-05 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to:

• Applying knowledge of supply and procurement regulations policies, procedures, and instructions
• Analyzing unique and critical patient equipment orders
• Interpreting and applying purchase card management related policies
• Purchasing specialized medical equipment
• Proficient in medical terminology

Schedule

8:00 am - 4:30 pm, Monday - Friday