Safety & Occupational Health Specialist

Full Job Description

Employee will serve as a Safety & Occupational Health Specialist located at the Charlie Norrwood Veterans Healthcare System in Augusta, GA.

To qualify for this Safety & Occupational Health Specialist at the GS-11 grade level, applicants must meet at least one of the following minimum requirements.

EXPERIENCE: Requires one full year of specialized experience in or related to safety and occupational health that provided the specific knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position.

Qualifying specialized experience includes: Managing safety or occupational health program elements. Developing and recommending safety and occupational health policy to higher levels of management.

Applying safety and occupational health laws, regulations, principles, theories, practices, and procedures to advise on or resolve technical matters dealing with occupational safety and health requirements.

Developing safety and occupational health standards, regulations, practices, and procedures to eliminate or control potential hazards.

Developing or implementing programs to reduce the frequency, severity, and cost of accidents and occupational illnesses.

Analyzing or evaluating new and existing jobs, processes, products, or other systems to determine the existence, severity, probability, and outcome of hazards.

Designing or modifying workplaces, processes, products, or other systems to control or eliminate hazards.

Inspecting or surveying workplaces, processes, products, or other systems for compliance with established safety and occupational health policies or standards and to identify potential new hazards.

Training of workers, supervisors, managers, or other safety and occupational health personnel in safety or occupational health subjects.

Work in occupational fields such as industrial hygienist, safety engineer, fire prevention engineer, health physicist, and occupational health nurse.

OR EDUCATION (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED): Requires a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related.

The Major study must be - safety or occupational health fields (safety, occupational health, industrial hygiene), or degree in other related fields that included or was supplemented by at least 24 semester hours of study from among the following (or closely related) disciplines: safety, occupational health, industrial hygiene, occupational medicine, toxicology, public health, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biological sciences, engineering, and industrial psychology.

OR COMBINATION (TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED): Requires equivalent combinations of successfully completed graduate level education and experience may be used to meet total qualification requirements.

Both education/experience must be related to the position, as described above. Only graduate education in excess of a 2 full years or a Master's degree may be used to meet this requirement.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS: Position requires working in an office, as well as field work.

Field inspections require moderate physical exertion in carrying equipment, as well as extended periods of walking and standing.

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:

***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION, YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION*** Employee will primarily be responsible for the implementation of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Codes and Life Safety Code (LSC) requirements, inspections of all medical center and contract facilities, and recommending actions to remediate deficiencies.

Duties will include, but may not be limited to the following: Inspects and evaluates various environments for occupational health and safety hazards and to determine compliance with applicable regulations, standards, codes, and requirements.

Identifies hazards and assesses their potential for harm to employees, patients and visitors. Recommends and initiates actions and ensures corrective action completed by follow-up inspections.

Recommends medical surveillance based on identified physical and environmental stressors or environmental conditions.

Arrange for shipment of samples to laboratory for analysis or perform limited analyses in-house.

Develops, reviews, and revises safety program policies for the planning, coordination, presentation of safety training programs.

Instructs/educates personnel on safety and occupations health subjects, including fire, vehicle, and physical safety.

Investigates all accidents and near misses, which may include fatalities and serious injury.

Evaluates the incident site, machine and equipment operations, environmental conditions, work practices, protective devices and safety procedures related to the incident.

Prepares summary reports of findings with recommendations regarding prevention of re-occurrence, abatement of hazard, or employee re-training.

Performs inspections of areas under demolition, renovations, or construction.

Accompanies inspectors and maintains liaison with fire department and emergency management personnel through meetings, special events, memorandum development and promotional activities to assure compliance with requirements mandated by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), The Joint Commission (TJC), Office of Inspector General (OIG), Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Services (CARF), NFPA, etc.

Serves as a reporting member of the Accident Review Board (ARB) and the Environment of Care Committee (EOCC), reporting summaries and correction action for hazard surveillance rounds, fire protection and suppression system testing, off-site nursing home/residential care/adult day care inspections and other identified safety issues.

Performs other duties as necessary working in occupational fields such as, Industrial Hygienist, environmental, occupational health and safety, and fire prevention.

Work Schedule: Full-Time, Monday-Friday, 7:30am - 4:00pm Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved