Program Support Assistant (OA)

Full Job Description

This position serves as a Program Support Assistant for Ophthalmology in Surgical Service.

This complex service consists of multiple types of surgery activities including: inpatient, outpatient, purchasing, clinical and research functions.

The extreme complexity of this service requires an assistant who can coordinate, gather information and write reports for the Chief of Surgical Service, Administrative Officer, Chief of Ophthalmology, Chief of Optometry and Ophthalmology Clinic Manager.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 04/16/2026.

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-06 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05. 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 as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-05 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: knowledge of management principles and processes as well as the ability to analyze and evaluate methods and techniques; knowledge of the basic skills and understanding of methods and techniques of management/program analysis and program support; extensive knowledge of surgery clinic management practices and/or surgery programs, guidelines, regulations and precedents; ability to apply basic data gathering methods; and the ability to organize, write and prepare reports that describe data collection.

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/.

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: Work is mostly sedentary with some walking, bending, standing in completing various stages of the daily tasks and carrying of light objects such as supplies and documentation manuals and records.

There will be some light lifting and transferring of baskets or boxes of supplies and records in excess of 15 pounds.

Incumbent will be required to travel to multiple sites, some greater than 50 miles away, to complete assignments.

The incumbent must have adequate eyesight and hand dexterity to allow for reading and operating a computer keyboard.

The incumbent is required to answer numerous personal/telephonic inquiries and must have adequate eyesight and hand dexterity to allow for reading and operating a computer. Major Duties:

Duties may include but are not limited to: Administrative Functions (40%) The incumbent works closely with the Supervisory Management Analyst, Subspecialty Chiefs, the Administrative Officer (AO) and the Chief of Surgical Service.

The incumbent provides key day to day support of Surgical Service to include clerical duties such as meeting minutes, mailings, faxing, reception, in addition to more advanced responsibilities such as timekeeping, purchasing, clinical and research data collection at multiple sites, equipment management, support of Human Resource (HR) and Medical Staff Office (MSO) processes, and interfacing with patients by phone and face to face.

In addition, Surgical Service has both professional as well as managerial/financial responsibilities.

The incumbent will draft memos, reports and other documents for subspecialty programs and aid with development of reports to VACO.

Incumbent will develop, administer and summarize feedback on patient experience within various programs including, but not limited to tumor board and cancer navigation.

The incumbent is required to maintain files, respond to routine correspondence, and reports.

The incumbent may be required to take minutes of meetings, arrange for travel, coordinate funding for education and conferences, and assist staff with the submission of travel requests and approvals.

The incumbent is the primary timekeeper for the staff within his/her specialties and the back-up for the other timekeepers within Surgical Service.

Collect, submit, and update clinical on-call rosters in a timely manner.

Administrative duties include the upkeep of administrative continuity books, memorandums, service line agreements, and service policies, preparation of clinic activations, changes, deactivations, and routing of clinic cancellation forms.

Ensure updates to emergency cascade rosters and the emergency and safety plans and attend associated meetings. Assist with evaluation and maintenance related to environment of care requirements.

Among the primary duties is to perform the routine, procedural, or standard assignments that support management/program functions.

The incumbent will perform many different kinds and combinations of work at different organizational levels.

Works independently to control and maintain office and/or information systems such as forms, records, mail distribution, directives or publications, and management systems.

The incumbent will apply policies and procedures to assist physicians, nursing staff, technicians and other personnel in understanding and using the systems.

The incumbent will submit work order requests, requests for supplies, pagers, scrub attire, etc. as required by the specialties assigned.

Through constant surveillance, maintains contact with medical and administrative staff in various areas/services to resolve delays and misunderstandings in the medical administrative aspects of providing medical care.

Investigates problems or situations which require special action such as Congressional inquiries or formal complaints and aids in preparing the necessary reply.

The Program Support Assistant will perform work related to the purchasing, processing, distribution, collection and inventory of supplies and equipment, as well as, the processing and maintenance of Surgical Service Equipment Inventory Lists (EIL).

Creates models for organizational charts and understand the principles of management, to perform work required by the Service Chief, Administrative Officer and the Supervisory Management Analyst.

Assists professional staff and handles administrative functions for the office. Assists with CONCUR process and serves as an alternate preparer for the web based travel system.

Also, serves as coordinator for all travel arrangements of full-time physicians, part-time physicians, Title 5 staff and Title Hybrid 38 staff.

Determines per diem costs and obtains airfare information to ensure all travel forms, memos and funding requests are submitted accurately and in a timely manner.

Upon return, ensures claim forms are accurately submitted for reimbursement of all expenses.

Searches historical files for readily available background information such as recent staff or functional changes, organizational charts, mission and function statements, and position descriptions.

Verifies that position descriptions and functional statements are appropriate and updated with respect to title and grade and verifies codes and symbols are correct.

Verifies and corrects discrepancies with HR and Fiscal Service memos and other documentation.

Duties continued under the Education section Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 7:30am - 4:00pm Telework: Available Ad-hoc. Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Position Description/PD#: Program Support Assistant (OA)/PD03794A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized