Lead Patient Representative

Summary

This position is located at the Central Western Massachusetts VA Healthcare System, Leeds campus serving as the Facility Lead Patient Representative. This position is a key point of contact for patients and staff and to work in collaboration with facility Patient Representatives on complex issues or complaints where use of tact, diplomacy, sound judgment, compassion, flexibility, and a good sense of humor are extremely important.

Duties

• Patient Advocacy within VA exists to ensure patient concerns are heard and addressed to improve the overall experience and quality of care for patients. Effective, high-functioning Patient Advocacy is integral to fulfilling the goal of providing Veterans with world-class health care. Major duties and responsibilities include: Leads the team and provides the day-to-day work direction, review, and distribution, balance, and adjustment of workload. Monitors and reports on the progress of the team's work and provides updates to the supervisor. Coaches and develops the team using appropriate tools and techniques to address a variety of issues and situations. Oversees general administrative issues regarding subordinates' leave, scheduling, appointments, etc. Provides the team formal and informal training information related to patient advocacy service, customer service, techniques, and resources needed to educate themselves. Provides higher-level data management and analysis function for the Patient Advocate team. Develops and maintains organizational dashboards and data sets. Regularly produces cumulative reports which includes a categorization of patient inquiries to track and trend the patterns to identify opportunities for improvement. Leads and oversees the facility Veteran Centered Complaint Resolution (VCCR) process, including complaint resolution, data capture, and analysis of issues/complaints to make system improvements. Works in collaboration with Patient Advocates, Service-Level Advocates (SLAs), and front-line staff to resolve complex issues that occur at the point of service or due to further investigation of the problem(s). Addresses complaints and proactively explores all avenues to identify the nature and scope of the problems and initiates appropriate action to expedite resolutions. Serves as the liaison between the facility, patients, staff, and the community, ensuring patients understand their rights, in addition to, their responsibilities. Determines causes of patient dissatisfaction, misinformation, or complaints and documents patient encounters and contacts appropriate services to establish resolutions. Leads and ensures that rounds throughout the facility are conducted on a routine basis to solicit patient feedback and build strong relationships with SLAs and service leadership. Leads staff in responding to patients' inquiries through multiple VA approved forms of contact (e.g., Inquiry Routing and Information System (IRIS), My HealtheVet, Secure Messaging, E-mail, Phone, Walk-in, Town Halls, etc.), where patients pose questions, complaints, compliments, and suggestions. Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 7:30am to 4:00pm. Telework: This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Lead Patient Representative/PD99734S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized. Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved. Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/12/2026. 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 as described below: To qualify for the GS-301-12 based on specialized experience: You must have one (1) year of specialized experience at the GS-11 level or equivalent for this position. Specialized experience is experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. At the GS-12 full performance level, the incumbent demonstrates: NOTE: Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hours worked per week. working directly with health care teams and management as a patient advocate to facilitate resolution to problems; ensuring patient advocacy goals, policy and requirements are met; collecting, analyzing, and evaluating relevant data; identifying existing or potential problem areas and suggesting solutions or alternatives; serving as a liaison between a medical facility, patients, and staff to ensure Patient Rights and Responsibilities, advocacy, and services are available. NOTE: Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hours worked per week. 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: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.