HEALTH SYSTEM SPECIALIST

Full Job Description

About the Position: The Health System Specialist position with the Defense Health Agency is located at Army Health Clinic Vicenza and includes duties related to Patient Advocacy, Public Affairs, and Performance Improvement.

This is a Direct Hire Solicitation Who May Apply: US Citizens In order to qualify, you must meet the education and/or experience requirements described below.

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; religious; spiritual; community; student; social).

You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Your resume must clearly describe your relevant experience; if qualifying based on education, your transcripts will be required as part of your application.

Additional information about transcripts is in this document.

Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience which includes progressively responsible analytical, administrative, or clinical management in the health care field managing the day-to-day operations of a clinic or practice.

The work must have involved a close working relationship with facility managers and analysis and/or coordination of administrative, clinical, or other service activities.

This definition of specialized experience is typical of work performed at the second lower grade/level position in the federal service (GS-09).

OR Education: Ph.D or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree with a major study in hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration.

OR Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience may be used to qualify for this position as long as the computed percentage of the requirements is at least 100%.

To compute the percentage of the requirements, divide your total months of experience by 12.

Then divide the total number of completed graduate semester hours (or equivalent) beyond the second year (total graduate semester hours minus 36) by 18. Add the two percentages. Major Duties:

• Update and maintain official online communications, responding to inquiries, comments, and questions.
• Develop, analyze, and coordinate short, mid, and long-range plans and programs in support of the Health Center’s Performance Improvement.
• Monitor compliance of ongoing programs designed to monitor, evaluate, and improve the quality and appropriateness of patient care provided for both inpatients and outpatients.
• Interpret the patient advocacy mission, policies, procedures and available resources/services to the patient, presenting the patients' problems, opinions and needs to appropriate staff and management.
• Assist patients, their families/representatives, and facility staff members in recognizing institutional barriers to the provision of optimum health care.
• Work with health care providers and administrative support staff to resolve or minimize patient complaints, reporting on corrective measures taken on behalf of the patient and monitoring the outcome.
• Receive and respond to complaints and grievances from patients (verbal or written via comment boxes), or from individuals on behalf of patients, identifying the elements of clinical or administrative practices contributing to patient dissatisfaction.
• Conduct special studies at the direction of the Deputy Commander for Administration that may have Health Center wide implication.
• Participate in committees and working groups whose recommendations impact policies and procedures which may affect the entire medical center and may be exported to other regional and DoD facilities.
• Assist the Department and Section Chiefs, and Chief Nurse in preparation for surveys and inspections, establishing control procedures to ensure compliance, and that corrective action is taken if necessary.
• Participate in program planning discussions to assure maximum public education and explanatory information by regularly updating written and visual material (i.e. handouts, flyers, news releases, articles) for publication.