Telephone/Switchboard Operator

Job Description

Job Description

Work Schedule: Shift work providing 24-hour coverage, seven days a week, including weekends and Federal holidays. Schedules may include day, evening, overnight, relief, and emergency coverage.

Place of Performance

Services will be performed on-site at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, 3801 Miranda Avenue, Palo Alto, California 94304.

Period of Performance

Base Year: October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027..

Summary

The Telephone/Switchboard Operator will answer, process, and route calls for the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. The operator will use Cisco Finesse telephones, landlines, digital paging, radios, overhead paging, pocket paging, and emergency code-paging systems.

The position requires the professional handling of routine and emergency communications, including medical codes, alarms, bomb threats, fires, and disasters. Calls must be answered promptly and routed accurately while protecting patient and employee information.

Staffing Requirement: The solicitation calls for thirteen qualified telephone operators. Additional relief or backup personnel may be necessary to maintain uninterrupted 24-hour coverage.

Requirements

• Must be able to work on-site in Palo Alto, California.

• Must be dependable and available for rotating shifts, weekends, Federal holidays, and emergency coverage.

• Must communicate politely, clearly, efficiently, and professionally.

• Must be able to learn and operate telephone, paging, radio, and computer systems.

• Must be able to answer incoming calls within three rings and support an average answer time of less than 10 seconds.

• Must support an operator-line call abandonment rate below 5%.

• Must be able to follow medical-code, emergency, fire, disaster, and bomb-threat procedures.

• Must maintain accurate call, incident, complaint, and equipment-malfunction records.

• Must comply with the Privacy Act, Freedom of Information Act, VA privacy rules, and information-security requirements.

• Must complete required VA orientation, privacy, cybersecurity, and role-specific training before beginning work.

• Must satisfy applicable background-investigation, personnel-vetting, identification-badge, and credentialing requirements.

• Must be included on the approved personnel roster before working at the VA facility.

• Must maintain automobile liability insurance when driving or parking at the VA facility.

Duties

• Answer and process incoming internal and external calls in priority order.

• Route callers to the correct VA department, employee, or service.

• Assist VA employees and patients with authorized outgoing calls.

• Operate Cisco Finesse telephones, landlines, radios, and digital, overhead, pocket, and emergency code-paging systems.

• Respond immediately and professionally to emergency alarms, medical codes, bomb threats, fires, and disasters.

• Receive and transmit communications using two-way radios.

• Follow established bomb-threat and emergency-reporting procedures.

• Prevent unauthorized long-distance calls and unauthorized collect calls.

• Use an authorized computer terminal to locate patient or employee information.

• Maintain logs of telephone equipment malfunctions and service complaints.

• Verify reported telephone problems and notify the VA Office of Information and Technology.

• Prepare incident reports and other required operational reports.

• Keep telephone directories, manuals, policies, and communication procedures current.

• Maintain uninterrupted telephone service during heavy workloads, employee absences, inclement weather, and workload surges.

• Follow all applicable VA safety, fire-prevention, privacy, security, and facility procedures.

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