Lead Medical Support Assistant

Full Job Description

The Lead MSA will serve in the Care in the Community Service at VA Central Texas Health Care System (CTXVHCS), Temple, TX.

The Lead Medical Support Assistant (LMSA) is a highly, specialized position and performs multiple duties.

The incumbent will act in the capacity of liaison/expeditor between patients and clinical staff as well as specialty staff and ancillary services.

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. Certification. None required.

Physical Requirements. See VA Directive and Handbook 5019. English Language Proficiency.

MSAs must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Chapter 3, Section A, paragraph 3.j.

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-7: Experience: One year of experience equivalent to the GS-6 grade level.

Experience includes, but is not limited to: schedule, cancel, or re-schedule patient appointments and/or consults; enter no-show information; monitor appointment requests from multiple electronic sources; participate in huddles with other MSAs and/or clinic staff to determine the daily needs of the clinic; monitor both inpatient and outpatient appointments in areas of responsibility; verify and update demographics and insurance information when patients check-in for appointments; enter appropriate information into the electronic record; manage patient systems to verify and validate accuracy and resolve issues.

Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities.

Candidates must demonstrate all of the Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs) below: Advanced knowledge of medical terminology and a wide range of clinical flow processes relating to access to care across multiple clinics, specialties, and/or community resources.

Ability to utilize numerous advanced patient systems in support of multiple clinics in an interdisciplinary setting.

Ability to organize work, set priorities, and delegate tasks/responsibilities in order to meet deadlines.

Skill in communicating with individuals to obtain the desired effect and coordinating with a variety of interdisciplinary care team staff. Ability to provide staff development and training.

Ability to manage staffing requirements, manage workflow priorities, and adjust the flow of work to meet team and patient needs.

This includes the ability to follow-up on pending issues and demonstrate an understanding of the impact of incomplete work across multiple clinics.

Preferred Experience: Ability to work independently to accomplish a wide variety of duties, including setting & leading priorities, coordinating tasks, training and organizing workflow.

Ability to communicate tactfully and effectively, both orally and in writing, to meet program objectives.

This may include preparing reports in various formats and presenting data to various organizational levels. Ability to gather and trend data to determine efficiency of internal processes.

Ability to operate computerized programs and databases to enter, modify and retrieve sensitive information/data into or from electronic medical records, scheduling systems and/or reports.

Excel most importantly. Independently utilizes reference sources, decision making and lead team work to collaborate and resolve problems within a complex systems environment.

Ability to identify customer's concerns, perform the tasks required to resolve the issue accurately and timely, and follow-up as necessary to ensure a satisfactory resolution.

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/. The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-7.

Physical Requirements: The work is sedentary. Some work may require movement between offices, hospitals, warehouses, and similar areas for meetings and to conduct work.

Work may also require walking/standing, in conjunctions with travel to and attendance at meetings and/or conferences away from the work site.

Incumbent may carry and lift light items weighing less than 15 pounds. Major Duties:

Major duties include, but are not limited to: Responsible for reviewing the workflow of the OCC service. This includes all Community Care medical care functions.

Works collaboratively in an interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery model in Community care.

Administratively coordinates Community Care through a variety of health care delivery systems including the Mission Act, Patient Centered Community Care, Department of Defense (DoD) and traditional non-VA medical care.

Independently manage position responsibilities with little supervision as well as set priorities and deadlines adjusting the flow and sequencing of the work to meet team and patient needs.

Frontline contact with patients and staff, the incumbent sets the tone for perception concerning quality of healthcare services at the VA.

He/she must determine the nature of requests and provide the information desired using privacy rules and established clinic processes.

Schedule appointments in accordance with current established VA/VHA Directives, Handbooks, policies, and procedures.

Conducts special studies and works on special projects, specifically with the implementation of new programs and software.

Serve an additional training source of new staff and be responsible for the development of standards of work, provide input to job aids and materials used in the orientation process.

Develops the Service training plan each fiscal year and the monthly training calendar of the days, times, and location of training programs for the service.

Completes quality assurance studies of programs as required. Incumbent assesses training program quality and effectiveness for continuous improvement.

This requires the incumbent to monitor newly released Directives, Facility Policies, and released patches for their potential effect on end- users and employees on a regular basis.

Monitors specific measures, quality, and quantity of documentation with the computerized medical record (CPRS), and the accuracy of medical documents attached within CPRS.

Updates Veterans' demographic information as appropriate.

Participates in the staff huddles and other team meetings to manage and plan patient care; setting priorities and deadlines, adjusting workflow and sequencing of the work to meet team and patient and unit needs.

Analyzes segments of business process or transaction, and identifies indicators, progress measures, objectives, and emphasis areas for action for improvement.

Assists in the development, interpretation, application, and integration of objective criteria and acceptable standards for use in monitoring activities.

Identifies problems and/or opportunities to improve care through such avenues as informal meetings, committee meetings, statistical data, occurrence screens, incident reporting, procedure case review, etc.

Provide leadership and expertise to committees, study groups, and project assignments. Additional duties or tasks may be assigned by the supervisor to ensure efficient daily operations.

Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 7:30am - 4:00pm or 8:00am - 4:30pm Recruitment Incentive (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).

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 #: 53372F/Lead Medical Support Assistant Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized