Program Specialist

Full Job Description

The purpose of this position is to provide administrative support which includes, but not limited to performing automated data processing responsibilities for Ambulatory Care Service staff, workload reports and preparing workload analysis based on statistics from Vista reports, preparing personnel actions forms for staff changes i.e.

separations, transfers, etc., OPPE data for credentialing, and conducting in-service orientation for new employees.

Upon completion of your probationary period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 02/27/2026.

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-09 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. 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: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-07 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Identifying a need for and gathering information, organizing, and maintaining information or information management systems.

Planning, coordinating, and executing business functions, resource allocation, and production; gathering, organizing, and maintaining information; determining importance and accuracy of information, and communicating it by a variety of methods.

preparing workload reports and conducting analyses on provider productivity and maximum clinic utilization for administrative functions, processing automated data to research and analyze problems, issues and program requirements unique to a clinical setting.

Working and communicating with clients and customers to satisfy their expectations.

Providing quality services; Showing understanding, friendliness, courtesy, tact, empathy, cooperation, concern, and politeness to others; relating well to different people from varied backgrounds and different situations.

OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience.

To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.B.

or J.D., directly related to the work of the position. (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED). OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level.

You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond a master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.B.

or J.D., directly related to the position. (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED)..

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Information Management Administration and Management Manages and Organizes Information Customer Service Interpersonal Skills 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: 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.

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:

Major duties include, but are not limited to: Collects and analyzes data to include clinic visits, encounters, and workloads.

Incumbent will collect data and identify trends pertaining to patient wait times and patient satisfaction in a clinical setting.

Makes recommendations to leadership on scheduling adjustments and staffing requirements.

Conducts analyses on workload data, which includes Primary Care wait times, access, procedures, and Emergency Department workload.

Serves as secondary human resources liaison within Ambulatory Care Service to ensure accurate accounting of assigned FTEE and staff authorization.

Incumbent has delegated staff responsibility for developing plans revising provider clinic profiles to ensure maximum clinic usage in each primary care clinic.

Incumbent participates on performance improvement teams to evaluate and promote better administrative practices.

Incumbent will evaluate areas in performance measures for clinic access missed opportunities for appointments and patient no-show rates, and unsigned medical documentation where policies and operational procedures are needed or revisions indicated.

Determines pertinent issues based on VHA Directives, and collects and analyzed relevant information that concerns patients' safety, wait time statistics, and compliance with performance measure standards.

This information will be collected from a variety of sources to include wait time repots, access reports, patient safety committee meeting minutes, credentialing information, etc., to ensure quality of care for Veterans.

Incumbent serves as expert resource point, working with other serves in the medical center and other VAMC's on administrative initiatives.

Provides support to computer hardware and automated data processing applications utilized IT users within Ambulatory Care service.

Incumbent is responsible for providing knowledgeable answers to all application modules and packages related to VISTA, CPRS, and Microsoft products utilized by Ambulatory Care Service Staff.

Incumbent uses standard approaches to perform a variety of duties involving computer related administrative and support issues.

Incumbent must review and ensure new personnel have access only to clinical computer menus that are required for their daily duties and are relevant to their positions and ensure departing personnel's access is terminated upon departure from Ambulatory Care Service.

Provides program and management support and advisory services for the Ambulatory Care Service.

Prepares periodic workload reports, call back cascade spreadsheets, and creates relative variable unit data reports for use by the AO and ACOS to perform productivity and workload analyzes.

Identifies and determines training priorities, provides training, and administers training programs.

Responsible for testing all menu options for accuracy and problems, and notify OI&T when applications are ready to be placed into production.

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday; 8:00am - 4:30pm Telework: Ad-Hoc telework only. Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Position Description/PD#: Program Specialist/PD052000 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized