Summary The Health Systems Specialist functions in the Medicine Department at the VA Western New York Healthcare System. The incumbent serves as the nexus between the clinical and administrative operations of the Medicine Department. Responsibilities The duties include, but may not be limited to the following: Administrative/Budget Responsibilities: Develops the need for and maintains an awareness of available budgetary resource, makes recommendations to the Chief of Medicine, service chiefs and the Health System Specialist to the Chief of Staff. Develops, monitors, and makes recommendations to adjust plans to accomplish the mission and enhance the delivery of health care services with budgetary constraints effectively and cost-efficiently. Provides active and well-informed administrative support for the delivery of health care by taking the initiative to identify needs and potential issues/concerns, then devising flexibilities in operations and constructive, cost-effective approaches to the resolution of problems. Serves on various department and/or facility committees. Analyzes the workload, staffing, space utilization, and other data used in resource planning. Conducts training relative to business practices, operations management, data gathering and analysis, and improvement strategies to facility staff and other as needed. Management Improvement Studies: Analyzes management techniques, processes, and styles for improving departmental effectives and to further the delivery of exceptional health services to Veterans. Studies and implements management improvement in administrative areas identified through such means as internal control views and management studies. Provides direction and oversight of all Medicine Department Specialties in assessing performance monitors and measures that best support quality health care delivery service. Forms teams to address problems areas, collect data referring to the problem, identifies external benchmarks or best practices and presents final recommendations to Senior Leaders. Strategic Planning: Assists with planning functions, including the collection of required information and materials. Performs strategic planning analysis of the internal and external environment including demographics, productivity, and resources to develop goals and objectives consistent with the needs of VAWNYHS, and VA National performance measures and constituent needs. Performs other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday; 8:00am - 4:30pm Telework: Ad-hoc Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required Position Description Title/PD#: Health System Specialist (Medicine)/PD09187A Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary, although some slight physical effort may be required. Requirements Conditions of Employment Qualifications To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement 05/15/2026. 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-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. 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 as described below: Individual Occupational Requirements Undergraduate and Graduate Education: Major study -- hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration. OR Specialized Experience Progressively responsible analytical or administrative, or clinical management or supervisory experience in the health care field. This work may have been performed in an operating health care facility or a higher organizational echelon with advisory or directional authority over such facilities. Work must have involved a close working relationship with facility managers and analysis and/or coordination of administrative, clinical, or other service activities, and provided knowledge of the following: Missions, organizations, programs, and requirements of health care delivery systems; Regulations and standards of various regulatory and credentialing groups; and Government-wide, agency, and facility systems and requirements in various administrative areas such as budget, personnel, and procurement. Special Provision for Inservice Placement: Successful completion of an agency-sponsored on-the-job training program may be substituted for qualifying experience, provided it included a formal individualized training plan. Such a training program must have been conducted in an operating health care system and included: Assignments providing a knowledge of basic health system administration philosophies, practices, and procedures, and basic government administrative policies and requirements; Practical assignments providing an opportunity to apply health system administration skills and principles (as the individual progresses, work assignments must be characteristic of the grade level to which he or she is assigned); and Oversight by an experienced health system administrator with periodic evaluation of the individual's progress and appropriate adjustment of the training program. Note: A full year of work is 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited based on time spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must clearly indicates the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. 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. 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/. Education There is no educational substitution at this grade level. NOTE: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html. Additional Information Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer (TJO). Please visit the Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP), va.gov/EMPLOYEE/docs/The-Fair-Chance-to-Compete-Act.pdf for more information. VA supports the use of telework as a way to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be well-qualified, applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors if applicable, and must be proficient in most of the requirements of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website which can be found at https://www.opm.gov/. Receiving Service Credit for Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. VA may offer newly-appointed Federal employee's credit for their job-related non-federal experience or active duty uniformed military service. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.
