Lead Medical Support Assistant

01Basic Requirements

To qualify for appointment to this position, all applicants must possess the following: United States Citizenship: Be a citizen of the United States (U.S.). Non-citizens may be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens according to 38 U.S.C. § 7407(a) Experience. None. Education. High school diploma, General Education Development equivalency certificate, or proficiency certificate from a State or territorial-level Board or Department of Education. Licensure/Certification/Registration. None.

Foreign Education. To be creditable, education completed outside the U.S. must be deemed at least equivalent to that gained in a conventional U.S. program by a private organization specializing in the interpretation of foreign educational credentials. English Language Proficiency. Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with 38 U.S.C. § 7403(f).

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). Experience. Creditable Experience. To be creditable, the experience must have required the use of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) associated with current MSA responsibilities or an equivalent administrative patient support role in a non-VA medical inpatient or outpatient setting.

Experience satisfying this requirement may be paid or non-paid employment as an MSA or an equivalent position in a non-VA hospital or clinic setting. Part-Time Experience. Part-time experience is creditable according to its relationship to a full-time workweek. For example, an individual employed 20 hours per week, or on a half-time basis, would receive credit for 1 full-time workweek for each 2 weeks of service. Quality of Experience.

Qualifying experience must be at a level comparable to MSA experience or equivalent administrative clinical support role in a non-VA medical inpatient or outpatient setting at the next lower grade level of the position being filled.

For all assignments above the full performance level (FPL), the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope, administrative independence, complexity, and range of variety as described in this standard at the specified grade level and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time.

02Grade Determinations

In addition to the basic requirements for employment, candidates must meet the following grade-determining criteria for placement at grade levels specified. Lead Medical Support Assistant, GS-07. Experience. One year of creditable experience equivalent to the next lower grade. Assignment. For all Lead assignments the Lead MSA must spend at least 25% or more of their time performing lead duties.

The Lead MSA is responsible for the coordination of Advanced MSA assignments and workflow found in an interdisciplinary unit. The Lead MSA is responsible for daily workload assessments, assigning work, and assuring proper staffing coverage; evaluating training records; and determining training needs of MSAs to provide support across interdisciplinary settings.

The Lead assists the unit with complex and non-standard procedures, including clinical flow processes related to access to care across multiple clinics, specialties, and/or community resources.

Assignments at this level include but are not limited to ensuring accurate and timely scheduling of appointments; providing guidance to staff members, to include changes in policies and procedures; creating and maintaining employee work schedules; and acting as a liaison among Advanced MSA staff, patients, and other interdisciplinary staff to resolve day-to-day conflicts. Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs).

In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs: (a) 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. (b) Skill in communicating with individuals to obtain the desired effect and coordinating with a variety of interdisciplinary care team staff. (c) Ability to utilize numerous advanced patient systems in support of multiple clinics in an interdisciplinary setting. (d) Ability to organize work, set priorities, and delegate tasks/responsibilities in order to meet deadlines. (e) Ability to provide staff development and training. (f) 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.

03Preferred Experience

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy at grade 7.

04Physical Requirements

See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Service for requirements.

The Lead assists the unit with complex and non-standard procedures, including clinical flow processes related to access to care across multiple clinics, specialties, and/or community resources.

The Lead MSA is also responsible for ensuring accurate and timely scheduling of clinic appointments; monitoring productivity of the schedulers, providing guidance to staff members, to include changes in policies and procedures; creating and maintaining employee work schedules; and acting as a liaison among Advanced MSA staff, patients, providers from a variety of specialties and other interdisciplinary staff to resolve day-to-day conflicts.

May be required to present at various meetings on behalf of the section or may be required to hold meetings to benefit the workload in the section. In addition to the above the Lead MSA will also function as a working scheduler and will be expected to cover any absent staff within the section. The Lead MSA may be asked to produce reports related to unscheduled surgeries, backlog, productivity, etc within the section.

Lists the major duties and responsibilities of the position: Incumbent is responsible for orientation and training of new schedulers including training on the applicable software applications, databases, and functions. The incumbent provides initial and continuing education to schedulers, providing training in the utilization of VISTA, VSE, VVC, and other software systems as well as how to run workload reports from VSSC and VISTA.

The work is administrative in nature and requires advanced knowledge of applicable systems as well as the ability to identify learning/training needs, provide training in a variety of manners, work directly with users, and trouble-shoot basic operating problems. In this role, the incumbent is responsible for the assignation of scheduling workload, ensuring that workload is balanced amongst the schedulers.

In addition to this, they are required to redistribute workload to ensure that scheduling backlog is kept to a minimum. They are the initial point of contact between providers and other schedulers, helping to troubleshoot any issues. Incumbent serves as a point of contact for questions regarding the scheduling of all clinical appointments. Additionally, the Lead is responsible for pulling workload, productivity, and report card date for each of the AMSA in the section.

May be required to perform other duties as assigned VA Careers - Medical Support Assistant: https://youtube.com/embed/EE9c4XkaELo Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional Work Schedule: Monday to Friday 8am - 4:30pm. Telework: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #:15141F Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized