Health System Specialist-Experience Specialist

Full Job Description

The primary purpose of the Health Systems Specialist is to serve as an Experience Specialist at the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center.

The incumbent is responsible for all functions related to Patient & Employee Experience matters, including patient and employee experience efforts, policies, & activities that may be developed at the National, VISN, & HCS levels.

The mission of the VHA is to honor America's Veterans by providing exceptional health care that improves their health & well-being.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/24/2026.

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-09. For a GS-12 position, you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11.

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.

This occupational series has an Individual Occupational Requirement - for this series, the following Basic Requirement must be met in addition to the Specialized Experience.

Undergraduate and Graduate Education: Major study - hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration, with coursework in health care administration.

OR Specialized Experience (for positions above GS-5): Progressively responsible analytical or administrative, or clinical management or supervisory experience in the health care field.

This work may have been performed in an operating health care facility or a higher organizational echelon with advisory or directional authority over such facilities.

Work must have involved a close working relationship with facility managers and analysis and/or coordination of administrative, clinical, or other service activities, and provided knowledge of the following: Missions, organizations, programs, and requirements of health care delivery systems; Regulations and standards of various regulatory and credentialing groups; and Government-wide, agency, and facility systems and requirements in various administrative areas such as budget, personnel, and procurement.

OR Special Provision for Inservice Placement: Successful completion of an agency-sponsored on-the-job training program may be substituted for qualifying experience, provided it included a formal individualized training plan.

Such a training program must have been conducted in an operating health care system and included: Assignments providing a knowledge of basic health system administration philosophies, practices, and procedures, and basic government administrative policies and requirements; Practical assignments providing an opportunity to apply health system administration skills and principles (as the individual progresses, work assignments must be characteristic of the grade level to which he or she is assigned); and Oversight by an experienced health system administrator with periodic evaluation of the individual's progress and appropriate adjustment of the training program.

You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: GS-11 Specialized Experience/Education Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-9 level in the Federal service that has equipped me 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 this Health System Specialist.

Qualifying specialized experience is defined as progressively responsible analytical or administrative, or clinical management or supervisory experience in the health care field.

This work may have been performed in an operating health care facility or a higher organizational echelon with advisory or directional authority over such facilities.

Work must have involved a close working relationship with facility managers and analysis and/or coordination of administrative, clinical, or other service activities, and provided knowledge of the following: Missions, organizations, programs, and requirements of health care delivery systems; Regulations and standards of various regulatory and credentialing groups; and Government-wide, agency, and facility systems and requirements in various administrative areas such as budget, personnel, and procurement.

OR Special Provision for Inservice Placement: Successful completion of an agency-sponsored on-the-job training program may be substituted for qualifying experience, provided it included a formal individualized training plan.

Such a training program must have been conducted in an operating health care system and included: Assignments providing a knowledge of basic health system administration philosophies, practices, and procedures, and basic government administrative policies and requirements; Practical assignments providing an opportunity to apply health system administration skills and principles (as the individual progresses, work assignments must be characteristic of the grade level to which he or she is assigned); and Oversight by an experienced health system administrator with periodic evaluation of the individual's progress and appropriate adjustment of the training program.

At this level, applicants would have obtained this experience working within a health care setting, working directly with health care system administration and finance services to solve problems in support of policy compliance and program/operational functions; experience with extracting, analyzing, and organizing data from multiple sources, and assisting with fund disbursement procedures and processes.

OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have completed a 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 in the related field of the position to be filled (i.e., hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration).

The education portion must include courses that demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of this position.

Education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation.

OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level.

You must have a combination of specialized experience and education beyond a master's degree, and specialized experience as described above, to meet total experience requirements.

The education portion must include graduate courses that demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of this position (i.e., hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with coursework in health care administration).

NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. Experience must be clearly indicated in your resume. Major Duties:

The position serves as a subject-matter expert to other sources on patient experience & Patient-centered models of care at multiple levels within the organization, including, but not limited to, the VA Veterans Experience Office, Office of Patient Centered Care, Office of Patient Advocacy, etc.

Major Duties: Lead, coordinate, and monitor the continuous improvement of patient experience. Work with senior executives to establish strong commitment and support for improving patient experience.

Educate managers and line employees in the philosophy and techniques of patient experience improvement and service recovery.

Promote an organization-wide approach to patient-centeredness and engagement. Engage the workforce to sustain patient experience initiatives.

Serve as a change agent and work closely with hospital leaders in identifying priority areas, developing goals, planning improvement, and measuring effectiveness.

Serve as the subject matter expert on established and evolving best practices related to patient engagement and patient experience. Develop an organizational patient and employee experience strategy.

Facilitate the development of detailed work plans related to patients and employee experience. Collaborate with departments and units to operationalize the patient experience strategy.

Set objectives and benchmark performance.

Ability to build a culture of patient-centeredness, considering the significance and impact the experience has on overall Patient satisfaction, and the perspective of the care received.

Develop and manage programs based on data and analysis collected and representative of the voice of the Veteran, family members, caregivers, survivors, and staff.

Some of the data sources include, but are not limited to: the Patient Advocate Tracking System (PATS), Veteran Signals, Strategic Analytics for Improvement and Learning (SAIL), the Survey of Healthcare Experience of Patients (SHEP), and the All Employee Survey (AES).

Navigating multiple data sources is vital for this position and its program development and management.

Foster clear communication between the patient, family members, caregivers, survivors, staff, community members, and facility leadership to support positive experiences and a patient-centered culture.

Responsible for supporting proactive patient experience training and initiatives, which may include Own the Moment, patient-centered care training, customer service training, New Employee Orientation, New Patient Orientation, and supervisory training on the topic of Patient Experience and associated initiatives.

Responsible for addressing training needs and seeking tools to support the efforts to develop, build, implement, and manage programs to support a culture centered around the Patient and respect for employee needs to support such a culture.

Executes general knowledge of VHA operations, medical terminology, data sources, processes, and procedures.

The incumbent will provide feedback on administrative matters and education/awareness affecting patient-centered approaches and the Patient experience, including service recovery and conflict resolution.

Engage with staff to support ownership of Patient and Employee experience at all levels of the healthcare system and assist committees and program offices in efforts to develop and manage supportive patient experience programs.

Responsible for the continuous evaluation of program efforts, impact, and effectiveness.

Data sources such as the Patient Advocate Tracking System (PATS), Medallia, Strategic Analytics for Improvement and Learning (SAIL), and Survey of Healthcare Experience of Patients (SHEP) are vital resources that may be utilized to determine the effectiveness of efforts.

Develop and/or foster local practices for program and initiative evaluation. Lead or participate in committees or workgroups for these evaluations.

Evaluations will be utilized and shared with leadership and may be a factor to foster the spreading of successful practices.

Program evaluation may be used to determine resource allocation for Patient experience efforts. Performs other duties as assigned.

Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met.

Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. Work Schedule: 8:00 am - 4:30 pm, Monday - Friday Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Position Description/PD#: Health System Specialist-Experience Specialist/PD688-26468O and PD688-26467O Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized