Total 3 job vacancies by Veterans Health Administration

Major duties include, but are not limited to:

• Provide support by analyzing, evaluating, advising on, and/or coordinating health care delivery operations to support improvements in the effectiveness and efficiency of patient care. This includes integrating local, state, federal, VISN and VHA needs into the long-range planning at the Health Care System to include all areas of employee and labor relations (i.e. labor mapping, staffing methodology).
• Clinical resource analysis and cost containment efforts, planning, management information systems, organizational functional analysis, and professional support programs. This includes space needs analysis (from the clinical perspective), resource management and planning, including equipment and specialized items with special controls, and plans for future development. Budgetary oversight responsibilities as they pertain to all clinical service including FTEE oversight, overtime monitoring, and productivity review and analysis.
• Extensive and thorough knowledge of VHA initiatives, Strategic Priorities, healthcare delivery models, such as the operational tenants of multi/interdisciplinary teams, (Primary Care, Community Managed Care, Mental Health Care, Social Work, Physical Rehabilitation Medicine, Pharmacy, etc.).
• Periodic assessment of the efficiency and effectiveness of the delivery model will be accomplished to ensure optimal performance.
• Direct involvement of the development and implementation of alterations and/or modification in operational processes, for example Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACT), Behavioral Health Integration Programs (BHIP), annual staffing and/or team integration methodology process.
• Performs staff support work in short and long-range planning efforts related to NAVAHCS.
• Complies with directives in preparing annual and cyclic planning documents.
• Obtains and consolidates planning information from subordinate units.
• Administers planning processes and provides authoritative recommendations to the COS regarding possible need for revision of regulations and policies governing planning activities.
• Assesses priorities to best meet Veterans' health care delivery needs.
• Directs and assists Health Care System leadership and staff in administrative research, management analyses and development of reports pertaining to program plans, development operations, and assessments of any planning phase of the Health Care System's activities.
• Conducts special studies on staffing methodology, space, clinical informatics, software applications, reusable medical equipment, service contracts, cost benefit analysis and equipment utilization.
• Knowledge and skill in applying analytical and evaluative methods and techniques to issues or studies concerning the efficiency and effectiveness of program operations carried out by administrative or professional personnel which requires knowledge of pertinent laws, regulations, policies and precedents that affect the use of program and related support resources in the area studied.
• Examines programs and recommends expanding, contracting, combining, separating, or realigning them to best meet patient health care needs most economically.
• Ensures and coordinates the appropriate completion of special studies required by the COS, collaborating with, and providing guidance to clinical and administrative Service Chiefs, Program Managers and other Health Care System personnel as required. Conclusions and recommendations from special studies are consolidated as necessary for presentation to the COS and/or Executive Leadership Team (ELT). These studies may require the integration of information drawn from direct interaction with Network, Regional and Central Office levels of VHA, from educational affiliates, and from State and Federal agencies. Results of these studies can have significant impact on future directions of Health Care System programs, resource utilization and relationships within the agency and throughout the community.
• Analyzes and evaluates, on a quantitative or qualitative basis, the effectiveness of programs or operations in meeting established goals and objectives.
• Evaluates agency wide programs against short and long range objectives.
• Conducts meetings for the Administrative Support and Business Managers in service lines reporting to COS in order to ensure continuity of medical, programmatic, administrative, women's health, mental health and specialty and diagnostic programs.

• Develops a thorough, administrative and strategic operational initiatives of the health care groups within the organization that enables the specialist to identify problems, analyze data, and recommend resolutions based on specific knowledge of the organization's objectives and priorities, resources, and catchment area.
• Plans, organizes trends and review requests for clinical program resources within their assigned executive's chain of command and makes recommendations, based upon the relative needs while considering their ability to utilize the resources requested.
• Reviews policies and procedures that are in conformance with the overall philosophy of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) related to all aspects of healthcare programs.
• Provides guidance and advice on program specific matters such as handling legislative issues, the development and implementation of policy or program initiatives, protocol issues, and other important correspondence or VISN/VACO related matters.
• Coordinates and participates in strategic planning for clinical programs throughout the healthcare system, and with subordinate services and programs within their ELT members chain and scope of command, to produce decisions and actions that shape and guide the organization's purpose and activities, particularly with regard to the future - a fundamental component of organizational management and decision making.
• Makes recommendations regarding necessity of the project, and what elements are to be included in the scope of the project based on local, VISN, or national strategic initiatives and alignment.
• Reviews audits and evaluations which are conducted at the facility. This includes reviews by the Joint Commission, Medical Inspector, and Inspector General, and program evaluations which requires monitoring progress.
• Deals with problems arising from quality-of-care issues and consumer complaints arising from individual patients, Veterans groups, Congressional offices, and other stakeholders. He/she/they obtain data and prepares replies to correspondence.
• Serves as the primary liaison on behalf of all elements of the healthcare system between the VISN and headquarters.
• Resolves problems through personal contacts, obtains expedited decisions on urgent matters, and otherwise assists services/programs in obtaining responsive action for their requests.
• Maintains a broad knowledge of improved clinical healthcare operations issues, updates equipment, construction techniques, etc., that may be helpful to senior management.
• Participate and lead fact-finding and administrative board of investigations for useful, effective evidence-gathering and reliable, efficient fact-finding in a wide array of circumstances, as charged by the Medical Center Director.
• Conducts analytical studies on operational processes, issue topics, or related special projects. Studies and projects addressed are commonly so diverse and complex that they often require input and assistance from departmental or program offices.

The Biomedical Engineer assists with the overall operations of the Biomedical Engineering program at the Northern Arizona VA Health Care System (NAVAHCS). Incumbent provides engineering review, guidance, and development of the Medical Equipment Management Program encompassing professional engineering consulting with medical staff in all areas involving medical instrumentation. This includes in-house services for calibration, repair and safety of all medical instrumentation, and assurance of meeting guidelines set by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and other code-setting agencies regarding overall maintenance and safety of medical instrumentation. The incumbent gives critical support to the Biomedical Engineering program by interacting with professional and medical staff. The incumbent is a member of numerous committees that involve medical equipment issues, healthcare technology management processes, and emerging medical technology. The incumbent is able to develop material for continuing education program for clinical or research staff, that addresses the principles and application of medical technology, and/or biomedical theory to solve biomedical engineering problems. The incumbent is able to further support the clinical mission by contributing to the continuing education program for clinical staff and develop a curriculum for a continuing education program that addresses the safe and effective use of medical technology and/or research devices.

Major duties included but are not limited to:

• Supporting and conducting a comprehensive medical equipment management program that must ensure the safety, reliability, and diagnostic/therapeutic efficacy of all devices employed in the direct and indirect delivery of patient care.
• Assists in the development of an equipment management program at NAVAHCS. The incumbent is responsible for having knowledge of a medical equipment management program which includes complete life cycle management of medical equipment and systems.
• Have the knowledge of basic project management principles to coordinate and assist in managing NAVAHCS projects that require Biomedical Engineering as the lead or an interface such as those applies in the health care setting for medical equipment and information system implementation.
• Functions as the subject matter expert in the field of biomedical engineering to directly support specialized clinical technology, including service, system administration, training, quality assurance, and life-cycle management. The incumbent is responsible for advising clinical and administrative staff on medical technology including existing and emerging technology, addressing the viability, long-term suitability, compatibility and/or safety.
• Responsible for evaluation and assessment of major failure problems or inadequate performance of medical equipment and systems.
• Incumbent must be able to read, interpret, and apply technical data such as schematic drawings, wiring diagrams, tables, charts, and formulas to effect repairs and assist technical staff.
• Prepares material on current technical topics and trends, quality assurance monitoring reports and presentations, standard operating procedures, and preventive maintenance procedures as required.
• coordinates and assists with medical device hazard investigations to assure compliance with patient safety goals, Safe Medical Device Act (SMDA), and TJC requirements.
• Effectively communicate, both orally and in writing. This skill enables the incumbent to work with VA and vendor personnel to effectively document maintenance and administrative activities, as well as writing effective, clear, and concise technical and user instructions, policy memoranda, reports, project documentation, and position papers.
• Lifecycle management of network equipment including but not limited to network switches, servers, routers and related infrastructure for any and all networked complex medical devices and systems such as imaging, life support, dialysis, and monitoring.
• Manages, troubleshoots and maintains complete systems of computerized networks, databases and servers, including but not limited to biomedical information systems that store or facilitate patient information.
• Implements and plans for new and emerging technologies including but not limited to diagnostic modalities, network management and storage, and virtual data centers.
• Designs, implements and manages network incident response due to infection, loss of service or regional and local policy changes according to VA guidelines.
• Performs other duties as assigned.