Medical Support Assistant (Advanced)

Summary

Incumbent serves as the Mental Health Service Advanced Medical Support Assistant (MSA) and provides clerical and administrative support for multiple clinical programs within Mental Health Service at the San Francisco VAMC, Santa Rosa South VA Clinic.

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Duties

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The Advanced MSA for Mental Health Service enters, manipulates, and retrieves information and data from the Vista and other clinical information systems as appropriate to the area assigned. They schedule and coordinate appointments for patients with various clinics, ensuring all treatment requested by the clinicians have been scheduled, and rescheduling appointments when necessary.

• Coordinates the scheduling to avoid conflicts in different clinic schedules.
• Ensures appointments are timely and in accordance with physicians and clinician's requests.
• Ensures preappointment letters and three follow reminder appointment calls are made as the action plan to address the Missed Opportunity Performance Measure for Mental Health Service.
• Receives telephonic requests for information and transmits requests to the appropriate physician and/or clinician.
• Assists clinic administrator and other personnel with workload accountability information such as the Encounter Action Required Reports, and Electronic Waitlists.
• Responsible for answering calls received and are professional, courteous, and tactful in nature, and that responses given are appropriate.
• Responsible for developing, maintaining and monitoring standards for appropriate responses to patient requests for assistance.
• Ensures staff is knowledgeable of the services provided and are prepared to furnish information such as: telephone numbers, locations of offices and personnel and clinic hours of operation.
• Receives patients via telephone calls and visitors to clinics, as the initial point of contact, ascertaining the nature of the call or visit, obtaining identifying information, and determining the nature and urgency of the patient's request.
• Applies clinic guidelines concerning release of patient information.
• Interviews new patients to the clinic, determining nature of visit and providing information on appointment, clinic hours, and services. Refers urgent messages and patient results for immediate actions.

• Provides information regarding unit, clinic and hospital policies, procedures, and locations to patients, family members, staff, etc., or refers to other resources for difficult questions or concerns.
• Monitors and communicates delays in scheduled appointments to the appropriate staff and patients.
• Attempts to resolve complaints of a local administrative nature and refers other complaints to appropriate authorities.
• Responsible for the clerical duties inherent in the admission, care and discharge of inpatients or the in processing, care and out-processing, of outpatients and guests.
• Reconciles end-of-shift/end-of-day processing and reports such as documentation of daily no-shows and cancelled appointments.
• As required types routine correspondence, progress reports, memorandum and statistical reports using VISTA and Excel.
• May perform various duties in making arrangements for travel.
• Maintains the space utilization calendar for staff, scheduling and preventing double booking of clinical space for patient care based on staff schedules for the day and during leave of absence.
• Maintains all patients' records, either electronic or paper, according to regulation insuring each entry contains proper patient and health care proper identification.
• Performs duties as a timekeeper and will provide administrative assistance with Engineering work orders and non-ADPAC related computer work orders.

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

Recruitment/Relocation Incentives (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized

Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized

Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases

Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year)

Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior [work experience] or military service experience.

Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child.

Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66 .

Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA

Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement)

Telework : Not Available

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Functional Statement # : 662-09517F

Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements ( Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Must pass pre-employment physical evaluation.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1 or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• your performance and conduct;
• the needs and interests of the agency;
• whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Upon completion of your trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.

Basic Requirements :

United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.

English Language Proficiency: Dental assistants must be proficient in spoken and written English.

Education. High school diploma, General Education Development equivalency certificate, or proficiency certificate from a State or territorial-level Board or Department of Education..

Certification. None.

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 :

GS-6 Medical Support Assistant (Advanced)

(1) Experience . One year of creditable experience equivalent to the next lower grade of GS-05.

(2) Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) . In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs:

(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

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit

The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-06.

Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019. This is mostly a sedentary position. There was be some light lifting up to 25lbs, bending, standing, stooping, walking. This position will require you to work in from of a computer screen for 90% of your day.

Education

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit:

Additional information

Receiving Service Credit for Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed.

Reasonable Accommodation (RA) Requests: If you believe you have a disability (i.e., physical or mental), covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended that would interfere with completing the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be granted the opportunity to request a RA in your online application. Requests for RA for the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments and appropriate supporting documentation for RA must be received prior to starting the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. Decisions on requests for RA are made on a case-by-case basis. If you meet the minimum qualifications of the position, after notification of the adjudication of your request, you will receive an email invitation to complete the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, based on your adjudication decision. You must complete all assessments within 48 hours of receiving the URL to access the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments if you received the link after the close of the announcement. To determine if you need a RA, please review the Procedures for Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation for Online Assessments.

During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status.

VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply. The health-related positions in VA are covered by Title 38, and are not covered by the Schedule A excepted appointment authority.

If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.

Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

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