Health Technician (Laboratory Assistant)

Full Job Description

The VA North Texas Healthcare System is a large tertiary healthcare system that provides acute, intermediate, and long-term care 24 hours a day, seven (7) days a week and on public holidays.

The incumbent is required to work regular hours of duty on a recurrent basis. To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/02/2026.

You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Individual Occupational Requirement: Positions in this series range widely in type and include support duties to medical or health personnel such as audiologists, speech pathologists, medical officers, and optometrists.

Therefore, technician experience is experience that required application of the knowledge, methods, and techniques of the position to be filled.

Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-04 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Performing blood collection using a variety of phlebotomy techniques including vacutainer systems, syringe, butterfly, and/or capillary finger sticks.

Interacting with patients, visitors, staff, students and volunteers in a courteous, helpful, tactful, cooperative, respectful and compassionate manner.

Assessing patient condition before, during, and after procedures.

Adhering to all universal precautions, infection control, and safety regulations associated with phlebotomy OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience.

To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successful completion of a four (4) year course of study above high school leading to a bachelor's degree with courses related to the occupation.

(TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED). 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 the first 60 semester hours of a course of study leading to a bachelor's degree is creditable toward meeting the specialized experience requirements.

Two full academic years of study, or 60 semester hours, beyond the second year is equivalent to l year of specialized experience.

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:

The Health Technician is responsible for receiving and processing specimens including computerized accessioning, centrifugation, aliquoting, determining specimen acceptability, and delivery to the point of analysis or, if analysis is to be delayed, ensuring proper storage conditions are utilized to preserve specimen integrity.

Additionally, they check-in/accession patients and collect specimens through phlebotomy procedures.

The individual must implement and follow proper protocols in the preanalytical stage of work including receiving/collecting, sorting, recording, storing and/or shipping of clinical laboratory specimens so that appropriate testing/diagnostic procedures can be performed.

The individual must support the goals of the service in infection control, continuous quality improvement, cost containment, and staff education.

In addition, the incumbent will obtain data or information from healthcare providers as required, and outpatient phlebotomy as necessary.

Additionally, the incumbent must exhibit above-average customer service skills as they will answer the main laboratory telephone number and meet and interact with customers at the main laboratory drop-off window.

The Health Technician will perform a variety of duties including but not limited to the following: Provides customer relation services when receiving laboratory specimens from patients and other services within the VA North Texas Healthcare System.

Serves as a subject matter expert for other healthcare professionals on the collection and processing of all laboratory testing.

Reviews and accepts test request orders for samples submitted for testing.

This includes accessioning samples into the laboratory Evaluates the suitability of specimens for analysis, requesting new specimens if determined to be unusable.

Prepares specimens for analysis, ensuring that the physiologic state of the specimen properties is maintained. Follows established protocol for handling of mislabeled/unlabeled specimens.

Separates and routes the specimen to the specific laboratory section that performs the ordered test. Ensures samples are prioritized according to P&LMS guidelines.

Recognizes emergency testing situations and takes necessary action to direct the sample to the proper location. Notifies the laboratory staff of the need for emergent testing.

Performs the processing of all clinical laboratory specimens and is responsible for the timely and proper distribution of specimens to the technical areas of the PLMS laboratory and the reference laboratories to assure specimen integrity.

Uses laboratory equipment such as centrifuges, refrigerators, and freezers, in addition to consumables such as transfer pipettes, laboratory pour-off tubes and reference laboratory specimen containers.

Communicates with the reference laboratories to research the requirements on new tests that are not identified in the reference laboratory directories.

Operates and performs periodic reviews on equipment including checking temperatures of laboratory refrigerators and freezers, etc.

The incumbent makes sound decisions independently and takes appropriate action to correct and solve problems pertaining to reference laboratory tests.

He/she serves as a reference for other healthcare professionals on the collection and processing of reference laboratory testing.

Responsible for order testing in the computer system provided by the major commercial reference laboratory and preparing any hard copy requisitions required by other reference laboratories.

Demonstrates knowledge of principles, techniques, and practices of phlebotomy, hemostasis, and requirement of blood collection for the various tests performed in the laboratory.

Obtains timely and appropriate blood samples as ordered per PLMS policies and procedures for both inpatient and outpatient orders.

Must understand isolation precautions and the proper personal protective equipment necessary to perform phlebotomy procedures.

Identifies tests that require special handling conditions and appropriately performs proper specimen collection.

Operate standard office equipment, such as multiline phone, copier, scanner, fax, page printers, label printers, etc.

Accepts or enters requests for reference laboratory testing in the laboratory information system.

This includes ordering specific tests in the computer system provided by the major commercial reference laboratory, and/or preparing any hard copy requisitions required by other reference laboratories Work Schedule: 4:30am - 10:30pm, with rotating weekends and holidays; based on the needs of the service Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Position Description/PD#: Health Technician (Laboratory Assistant)/PD00802A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized