Administrative Officer

Full Job Description

The incumbent is located in the Department of Surgery.

The incumbent is responsible for the operational and administrative functions of the Surgical Service at VA Connecticut Healthcare System (VACT) which includes the West Haven Campus and Newington Campus, which includes 14 sub-specialties.

70% of this position will be performing duties for the Surgical Service, and 25% will be reporting to the Chief of Staff.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 01/30/2026.

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-11 position, you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-9. 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.

You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-09 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Specialized experience is experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled.

To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Knowledge of the function's priorities, and interrelationships of the Operating Room, Surgical specialties, and support services, in order to assure effective utilization of operating room resources and resolve conflicts and problems arising in the OR.

Knowledge of Medical Center operations, policies, organization, and function sufficient to be able to interpret the impact of change and reorganization, urgent or routine, on the operation of the Service.

Knowledge of current workload reimbursement mechanism and knowledge of how changes and/or adverse shifts in those schemes will affect the operation of Perioperative Services.

Knowledge of the various program and reporting requirements imposed on the Services by VACO, JCAHO, and the Yale Department of Anesthesiology and Surgery as well as other inspection and accreditation programs that impact the management and record keeping systems of the Services.

Knowledge of the organization and clinical, research and teaching requirements of the staff of Services, of the affiliated University and its residency educational system, and of the impact of those needs and demands upon the administrative management of the service.

Working knowledge of the VA's automated data processing programs and information available through each.

Skill in gathering, assembling, and analyzing various types of data (program, organization, and budgetary), drawing conclusions; developing alternative approaches and presenting the conclusions and approaches with recommendations in such a form and manner as to be most useful to operating and management officials.

Knowledge of basic statistical and cost accounting methods and techniques. Knowledge of basic principles and methodologies of management and organizational theory and behavior.

Skill in applying management theory and methodology to improve operational effectiveness.

Ability to project the effects and ramifications of changes recommended on quality of care, program goals, resource utilization and individual staff.

Ability to work effectively with others and to communicate in an effective manner through both oral and written presentations. OR, Education: Ph.D.

or equivalent doctoral degree or three (3) full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related.

Degree must be relevant to the position to be filled. Completion of graduate level education is qualifying if it provided the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work.

One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 1 year of full­time study.

If that number cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester hours should be considered an academic year of graduate study.

Part-time graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended.

OR, Combination: Combinations of successfully completed post-high school education and experience may be used to meet total qualification requirements, and may be computed by first determining the applicant's total qualifying experience as a percentage of the experience required for the grade level; then determining the applicant's education as a percentage of the education required for the grade level; and then adding the two percentages.

The total percentages must equal at least 100 percent to qualify an applicant for that grade level.

Only graduate education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be used to qualify applicants for positions at grade GS-11.

(When crediting education that requires specific course work, prorate the number of hours of related courses required as a proportion of the total education to be used.) The following is an example of how education and experience may be combined.

This is an example only, and is not all-inclusive. The position to be filled is a Administrative Officer, GS-0341-11.

An applicant has 9 months of specialized experience equivalent to GS-9 and 2 1 /2 years of creditable graduate level education in business management or related field of study.

The applicant meets 75 percent of the required experience and 50 percent of the required education, i.e., the applicant has 1 /2 year of graduate study beyond that required for GS-9.

Therefore, the applicant exceeds the total requirement and is qualified for the position.

(The applicant's first 2 years of graduate study are not qualifying for GS-11.) You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Administration and Management Computer Skills Contract Administration Managing Human Resources Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social).

Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment.

You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week.

Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities.

Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

Physical Requirements: Most of the incumbent's duties are sedentary in nature with occasional walking, climbing, stooping, bending and reaching as required.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Major Duties:

Responsibilities fall into the following major areas: Since the Surgical Service line manages the general health and coordination of the VACT patient population and is intertwined with many other clinical and administrative areas of the healthcare system, the incumbent will be reporting to the Chief of Staff for 25% of their duties Incumbent will report to the COS and working with other services to synchronize and coordinate data with other parts of the healthcare system.

He/she will work with the Informatics department and other services to create flow and consistency with data capture in the healthcare system.

This would include but not limited to data validation to/from other areas of the hospital, reviewing and analyzing the flow of consults to the surgical services within VACT (14 subspecialties) assessing the downstream impact or potential impact of initiatives, and extracting and analyzing data that supports improvement work where there is Surgical service involvement but is also aligned with other services within the hospital and/or VISN.

Supervisory- The incumbent is the supervisor of the Surgical service line - Program Specialist GS 0301-11

Program Analyst (GS 0301-09)

, Program Support Assistant, GS 0344-06

, Secretary, GS-0318-07, and a Medical Supply Technician, GS- 0622-06 (administrative only). The incumbent will oversee the day-to-day administrative functions of the Surgical service.

Management of the Surgical Service Line - The incumbent encompasses an overview of the process, validation, and timeliness of all data in relationship to the Surgical service line.

The incumbent uses qualitative and quantitative statistical data analysis techniques to analyze the surgical service line, 14 sub-specialties and related data and make recommendations to management and the Group Practice Manager.

He/she reviews findings with the Chief of Surgery and section chiefs to develop long term improvement plans for management.

The incumbent compiles, analyzes, and tracks data related to a vast array of outpatient and inpatient operations such as but not limited to new consults, future care consults, stat consults, new/established patient access, data for clinics not associated with the specialty care staff, consults to and from other services, workload capture and RVU's.

The incumbent is responsible for monitoring and ensuring all inpatient, e- cons and clinical workload (not associated with clinic coordinators) is properly captured via encounter forms.

He/she monitors all data related to VERA reimbursement. He/she ensures all service line personnel are properly mapped in the Decision Support System (DSS).

He/she is responsible for all data related to personnel administration and ongoing monitoring for Pay-For-Performance, Focused and Ongoing Periodic Performance Evaluations (PPE's), Executive Career Field (ECF), and other data documented personnel evaluations and appraisals.

He/she maintains master data files to provide ad hoc data support as needed for individual needs, committees, performance improvement work, and VISN monitors.

Incumbent is responsible for tracking and monitoring all Performance Assessment and Improvement activities against established targets.

Work Schedule: Full-Time; Monday-Friday 8:00 am - 4:30 pm Compressed/Flexible: Not available. Telework: Maybe authorized at supervisor's discretion. Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Position Description/PD#: Administrative Officer/PD081990 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not available. This position is a not a bargaining unit position.

May be required to attend conference at other facilities or other VA sites on occasion. Current Federal employees must submit copies of their most recent SF-50, (Notice of Personnel Action).

The SF-50 must identify the position title, series, grade, step, tenure and type of service (Competitive or Excepted).

In some cases, more than one SF-50 may be required to show a higher grade previously held. This position is in the Competitive Service.

Time-in-Grade Restriction: 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.

The grade may have been in any occupation but must have been held in the Federal service.

Interchange Agreements with Other Merit System: Employees who occupy medical or medical-related positions and were appointed under 38 U.S.C. 4701

or

[formerly 38 U.S.C. 4104

and

] must be serving in a full-time position without time limit and have served continuously for at least one year in this other merit system to be eligible to convert to the Title 5 System. Some exceptions to this rule may apply if you have previously acquired tenure under a Title 5 appointment.