Summary

The Health Technician provides cross-coverage to all clinical - administrative and procedural assistance that aids all Cardiology Providers (General Cardiologists - Interventional and Electrophysiology Cardiologists - Cardiology Subspecialty Nurse Practitioners - Cardiology Fellows) in the Cardiology Procedure areas and Outpatient Cardiology Clinics. This is an OPEN CONTINUOUS ANNOUNCEMENT. Applications will be accepted and referred until the position is filled or once there are 50 applicants.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position - applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement. 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-07 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-06. 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. Grade Requirements GS-07 You may qualify based on your experience as described below: Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience (equivalent to the GS-06 grade level in the federal service); experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge - skills and abilities (KSA's) and other characteristics to perform successfully the duties of the position - and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled - in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized experience includes: Assisting and aiding during visits and procedures - doing initial assessment and triage on walk-in urgent patients - entering data in patient chart - preparing patients for procedures - entering orders within their scope of practice; opens and sets up and prepares clinic rooms - maintains and operates monitoring equipment for procedure follow up visits; operates monitoring equipment for procedure follow up visits ultrasound machines - vital sign machines - monitoring equipment); performs daily Quality Assurance checks on all equipment - including: Calibrating glucose monitoring equipment to yield accurate blood sugar results for patient symptoms - verifying the Crash Cart Defibrillator battery compliance and expiration dates on all supplies in preparation of any emergency - performing initial operator preventive maintenance and care on other equipment (interrogation devices - EKG machines - Coordinating patient's appointments - subspecialty procedures - tracking no-shows - calling patients with reminders - sending follow- up notification and reminder letters; obtains and reconciles patient medication lists prior to the visit or over the phone when patients have questions - assists and works with Clinical Pharmacist as needed; schedules complex arrhythmia procedures in the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and maintains the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory schedule in electronic scheduling package; and Aids Electrophysiology Attending Cardiologist - Cardiology Fellow - Electrophysiology Nurse Practitioner - and Pacer Medical Instrument Technician to support Remote Device Surveillance Program and walk-in Device monitoring clinic. OR Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed one year of progressively higher-level graduate education - leading to such a degree - in a major field of study related to the work of the position such health technician and a related allied health care field with courses which provided the knowledge - skills - and abilities necessary to perform the duties of this position. TRANSCRIPT(S) MUST BE SUBMITTED IF EDUCATION IS BEING USED TO QUALIFY OR - Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education to meet the total requirements of this position. 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.

Duties

• The Health Technician maintains a full range of clinical knowledge about cardiac conditions and procedures - including recognizing life threatening cardiac arrhythmias - and taking appropriate action
• Health technician maintains a procedural skill set to be able to assist and aid General Cardiologists - Interventional and Electrophysiology Cardiologists - Cardiology Subspecialty Nurse Practitioners - Cardiology Fellows during subspecialty clinic visits and procedures - including electrophysiology/arrhythmia consults and follow-up visits - assisting with monitoring patients in pacemaker and defibrillator follow-up visits - aiding with remote pacemaker/defibrillator monitoring - assisting and aiding during intra-cardiac dual chamber and biventricular pacemaker and defibrillator placement - ablation procedures for atrial flutter - atrial fibrillation - re-entrant supraventricular tachycardia and ventricular tachycardia - invasive ambulatory ECG monitoring device placement - tilt table testing - cardioversions - Transesophageal Echocardiography and Echocardiography procedures
• Health Technician provides direct support and assistance to all members of the Cardiology Service that includes Electrophysiology Attending Cardiologist - Interventional Cardiologists Invasive Cardiologist - General Cardiologist - Cardiology Fellows - Subspecialty Nurse Practitioners - Pacer Medical Instrument Technician - Stress and Echo Medical Instrument Technicians - Cardiology Case Managers and Social Worker - and administrative clinic support staff
• These services - programs and clinics function under Cardiology Section - with close relationships to other functions - clinics and procedures in Cardiology Section - as well as other services in the hospital
• Duties include but are not limited to: Health Technician will select - set up and calibrate subspecialty instruments and devices - monitor equipment for preventive maintenance and care of equipment
• Health Technician will prepare patients for subspecialty procedures - perform - and coordinate with other services such as Anesthesiology - Imaging and Surgery Services - answer urgent symptomatic phone calls requiring patient triage and perform initial triage regarding abnormal tests
• Assist during visits and procedures - doing initial assessment and triage on walk-in urgent patients - entering data in patient chart - preparing patients for procedures - entering orders within their scope of practice
• Opens and sets up and prepares clinic rooms - maintains and operates monitoring equipment for procedure follow up visits and performs daily Quality Assurance Checks on all equipment
• Coordinates patient's appointments - subspecialty procedures - tracking no-shows - calling patients with reminders - sending follow- up notification and reminder letters - prepares patient lists and records for the following clinic day and is the first contact for patients who call with scheduling or questions - triages simple clinical symptoms or questions over the phone
• Confirms procedure dates and pre-procedural instructions with patients and their families - assists in coordination of patient procedures with VA Travel if necessary and gives patients peri-procedural instructions regarding preparation for the procedure - including medications
• Enrolls and monitors patients in the National Cardiac Device Surveillance Program Database - ensures patient information is correctly reflected in the National Cardiac Device Surveillance Program database - follows up with patients regarding the data battery life notifications - and makes changes in the National Program as needed
• Coordinates with patients and the National Cardiac Device Surveillance Program and places orders for cellular adapters along with remote monitoring equipment for remote pacemaker and defibrillator monitoring
• Health Technician may be asked to perform the following duties - collecting - recording - managing and storing of research data - obtaining - processing and shipping of laboratory specimens - managing study drug and laboratory supply inventories - Work Schedule: Monday-Friday - 8:00am-4:30pm Position Description Title/PD#: Health Technician/PD11503A Physical Requirements: The work requires regular and recurring physical exertion
• it may involve walking - frequent bending - reaching and stretching to set up and take apart equipment
• lifting and positioning patients: and carrying - pushing - or pulling moderately heavy objects
• Duties may require above average dexterity
• Work Environment: The work is performed in an office or similar setting requiring normal safety precautions against everyday risks or discomforts
• Patient Contact is frequent
• The work area adequately lighted - heated - and ventilated
• There may be exposure to contagious diseases.