Medical Support Assistant - Advanced
What you'd do
The position is an Advanced Medical Support Assistant (AMSA) within the VISN 5 Clinical Resource Hub (CRH). The primary duties of the MSA are to perform a variety of administrative support functions in connection with Veteran's inpatient and outpatient visits, care, and treatment while working collaboratively in an interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery model.
Major duties
VA Careers - Medical Support Assistant: https://youtube.com/embed/EE9c4XkaELo Manage and plan patient care, prioritize deadlines, and adjust workflow to meet patient needs. Provides input and solves problems on operational issues or procedures and performs follow-up to administrative needs of the Veteran. Recommends changes to existing clinic procedures based on current administrative guidelines. Expertise in utilizing numerous advanced patient care systems in support of multiple clinics. Coordinates with the patient care team to review clinic availability and utilization. Supports patient safety standards through the correct identification of all patients by requiring two forms of identification. Interact with the patient to validate and update patient demographic information. Knowledgeable about a variety of clinic appointments including but not limited to all CRH appointments. Uses CPRS and VistA to access patient-specific information to answer patient inquiries. Documents call requiring action by a clinician using CPRS templates. Develops/maintains effective and efficient communication with the patient, interdisciplinary team, VA Medical Centers, and other agencies. Alerts appropriate staff members if clinical questions arise beyond the scope of the AMSA. Performs administrative duties required in the day-to-day operations of the CRH as necessary. Interpret and communicate requirements of VHA Scheduling Directives and complete accurate scheduling responsibilities Participates in the daily team huddles and team meetings to manage, plan, problem solve, and follow up with where patient care planning and management occur. Assist in coordinating with other VISN-05 VAMCs and CBOCs concerning short-notice coverage through virtual technology. Monitor pre-appointment requirements to assure readiness for virtual (CVT/VVC/phone) visits. Participate and provide input in problem-solving on operational issues or procedures . Evaluate patient information and clinic schedule lists to determine whether the patient is vested. Educate and bring to the attention of providers about shared patients (dual care patients). - Advanced MSA will maintain competency and assist and coordinate in clinics and meetings requiring the use of CVT, VVC, and modalities for virtual CRH clinic care. - Monitors incomplete encounters and/or telehealth orphans and communicates findings to providers to rectify and assist as needed. - Ability to receive and answer Veteran phone calls within 30 seconds and secure messages within 48hrs. Monitors pre-appointment information and/or requirements to assure readiness for patient visits/procedures/appointments. Relay information to appropriate team members based upon triaging of Veteran concerns. Work with the interdisciplinary team to schedule follow-up visits for inpatients and outpatients in the CRH Clinics with various providers and in a variety of modalities (face-to-face, VVC, and phone if needed). Coordinate care of Veterans at other VA facilities within the VISN. - Ability to coordinate video or phone visits based on CRH clinic and Veteran availability. Trying to negotiate feasibility for video over the phone. - Obtain appropriate inpatient and outpatient records and ensure they are appropriately entered into the VA computerized system to ensure availability for patient care - 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. Work Schedule: Monday to Friday - 8:00am - 4:30pm Telework: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 25048-F
What you need to qualify
BASIC REQUIREMENTS. To qualify for appointment to this position, all applicants must possess the following: 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. Physical Requirements. Work is partially sedentary, with frequent walking, standing, bending. carrying of light items such as papers and books, or small parts. Some slight physical effort may be required. Incumbent may be susceptible to eyestrain from working long hours on the computer. h. English Language Proficiency. Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with 38 U.S.C. § 7403(f). GRADE DETERMINATIONS. In addition to the basic requirements for employment, candidates must meet the following grade-determining criteria for placement at grade levels specified. Medical Support Assistant (Advanced), GS-06. (1) Experience. One year of creditable experience equivalent to the next lower grade. (2) Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs). In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs: (a) Advanced knowledge of the technical health care process (including, but not limited to, scheduling across interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery and/or care in the community models and patient health care portals) as it relates to access to care. (b) Advanced knowledge of policies and procedures associated with interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery and/or care in the community operational activities that affect patient flow, and patient support care administrative functions to include, but not limited to appointment cycles, outside patient referrals, follow-up care, overbooking, provider availability, etc. (c) Advanced knowledge of medical terminology due to the technical nature of language utilized by clinicians. (d) Ability to collaborate and communicate with a wide range of medical clinicians across multiple disciplines (e.g., medical doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, clinical pharmacists, and nursing staff) to accomplish team goal setting to ensure medical care to patients is met. (e) Ability to independently set priorities and organize work to meet deadlines, ensuring compliance with established processes, policies, and regulations. (f) Ability to communicate tactfully and effectively, electronically, by phone, in person, and in writing, with internal and external customers. This may include preparing reports in various formats and presenting data to various organizational levels, as well as resolving patient concerns. (3) Assignment. For all assignments above the FPL, the higher-level duties must be 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. At the advanced level, the Medical Support Assistant (Advanced) (AMSA) performs difficult and responsible specialized and expert administrative patient support while working collaboratively in an interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery model. Work involves specialized administrative judgment and the flexible use of a wide range of clinical flow processes relating to access to care across multiple clinics, specialties, and/or care in the community resources. Recommend changes to existing clinic procedures based on current administrative guidelines. Expertise in utilizing numerous advanced patient systems in support of multiple clinics involved in an interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery model. Coordinates with the patient care team to review clinic appointment availability (utilization) to ensure that clinic schedules are closely monitored to effectively support the needs of the clinics, and makes adjustments as necessary. MSAs at this level develop and/or maintain effective and efficient communication with the patient, interdisciplinary coordinated care delivery model teams, VA medical centers, and other agencies (e.g., assist with communications during the inpatient to outpatient discharge; communicate with non-VA medical facilities; prepare correspondence to notify patients of normal lab results; manage a system for follow-up care such as consults, tests, etc.). Other assignments at this level include, but are not limited to: processes incoming patient secure messaging through My Healthy Vet and coordinates with care team as appropriate; participates in team huddles and team meetings to manage, plan, problem solve, and follow-up with patient care by sharing information and collaborating with the interdisciplinary team; setting priorities and deadlines, adjusting the flow and sequencing of the work to meet team and patient needs; identifies incomplete encounters and communicates findings to providers; as needed; assists the team to reinforce the plan of care and self-help solutions; enters appropriate information into the electronic record; monitors pre-appointment information and/or requirements to assure readiness for patient visit/procedure; manages patient systems to verify and validate accuracy and resolve issues; evaluates patient information and clinic schedule lists to determine whether the patient requires an immediate appointment; informs team members about shared patients (i.e., those who receive their care at multiple VA centers or those who receive care in the community). 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). 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-06.
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