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Telephone Operator

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Seattle, Washington

Salary Range: $40517.0 - $52678.0 Per Year

Job Summary: The incumbent is assigned to the VA Police, Executive Office Service Line of the VA Puget Sound Health Care System (VAPSHCS). Occupation involves administrative work such as receiving different requests for information from staff, patients, Veterans, and family members of Veterans, and being able to determine where calls are directed to within the VA Puget Sound, and facilities outside the VA facility.

Major Duties:

• Duties include but are not limited to: Provides a centralized continuous point of contact for Veterans and clinical providers in all areas of patient care at VA Puget Sound Health Care System. The incumbent is a key member for ensuring continuity of care in a customer friendly way by extending courtesy and professionalism to all callers. Incumbent represents VA to Veterans as a first point of contact for customer service. Serves as patient information resource for staff and Veterans, provides necessary look up of Medical Center staff phone numbers and pager numbers. Information is gathered utilizing VAcinity and/or VISTA. Will at all times be cognizant of the need to safeguard personal information and especially insure the privacy rights of Veterans and employees and the HIPAA guidelines. Operates the voice and digital paging system, long distance pagers, and hospital wide overhead voice paging system. This includes calling the emergency code pagers in the event of an emergency and also for testing the voice paging system twice on a daily basis. Provides new pagers and exchanges old pagers, as needed for medical center staff. Communicate on a daily basis with the VA Police, Facilities Management using the high frequency radio to notify them of all emergency situations, Responsible for the communication of information and dispatches of the VA Police when they are out of the office by answering calls that "roll-over" to the operator when the police are out of the office. Comprehends and compiles a complex set of more than 25 different daily and monthly clinical staff and Resident rotation and on-call schedules for all clinical areas in the Medical Center. Organizes, prepares and prints out the computerized on-call schedules, quick reference guides, and other organizational telephone and reference lists utilizing Word and Excel computer program Works on a daily basis with the Medical Center computer network by accessing VISTA, VAcinity, Outlook, Word, Excel and related computer applications for data entry of on-call schedules, quick reference guides, organizational and reference lists and retrieval of information. Primarily uses Outlook to receive, reply and send email messages related to on-call schedules, procedural updates, patient and staff safety, security issues, and other important VA Police and facilrry level messages. VISTA messages are also received. Gathers enough detailed information from caller to determine most efficient way to provide assistance. Information may include both administrative and clinical. Provide exceptional customer service. The incumbent will actively listen to customers with respecl and will pay attention to the details of the customer's needs or problems. Will clearly and comprehensively communicate with the Veterans, family members, employees and any other caller on the telephone in order to provide assistance, guidance, and information in order to resolve the issue where possible. Maintains a professional demeanor and is responsible for keeping Executive Office management informed of matters affecting a smooth, cooperative workflow. Maintains a current knowledge of and ability to answer inquiries from other employees on procedures, policies, directives, and information related to Veteran benefits, eligibility, pharmacy refill options, outpatient clinic locations, code procedures, etc. Obtains needed information or decisions from the Supervisor on problems that may occur. Maintains an accurate, daily Record Log of events and incidents to include, but not limited to emergency medical and behavioral Codes, fire alarms, panic alarms, expirations of inpatient Veterans, problems with the NEC console, emergency 911 phone, by-pass phone, or any other telecommunications equipment in the office, insuring that all pertinent details are documented with correct date, time and employees initials. Comprehends and utilizes the information in the Medical Center Cascade Call Back notebook either to activate the Cascade Call Back procedure as directed by the Director's office. Maintains privacy of all Information as prescribed by HIPPA. Performs other duties as necessary to ensure the full functionality of the Medical Center switchboard as assigned by the Supervisor. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 3:30 pm - 12:00 am Virtual: This is not a virtual position Position Description/PD#: Telephone Operator/PD40555A 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 within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement, 03/17/2025. 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 within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-4 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-3. 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/or education as described below: General Experience: Applicants must possess one (1) year of general experience that equipped you with the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to successfully perform the duties of this position. General experience is customer service; place, receive, and transfer local, regular, and special long-distance calls; progressively responsible clerical, office, or other work that indicates ability to acquire the particular knowledge and skills needed to perform the duties of the position to be filled. NOTE: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. OR Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed two (2) years of education above the high school level in any field. This education must have been obtained in an accredited business, secretarial or technical school, junior college, college or university for which high school graduation or the equivalent is the normal prerequisite. One year of full-time undergraduate study is defined as 30 semester hours, 45 quarter hours, or the equivalent in a college or university or at least 20 hours of classroom instruction per week for approximately 36 weeks in a business, secretarial or technical school. (TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED). OR Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of successfully completed post-high school education and experience to meet total qualification requirements at the GS-4 level. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify for this grade level (TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED). You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Communications Customer Service Telecommunications 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. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary with reaching, dialing numbers on the console, keyboarding, carrying of light supplies required. Because calls received are emergent and so varied, the position can be emotionally taxing. Work Environment: Work is performed in an office setting. Work involves everyday risks or discomforts that require normal safety precautions that are typical of a Medical Center. 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/.

How to Apply: All applicants are encouraged to apply online. To apply for this position, you must complete the questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section below. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on 03/17/2025 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12707400. To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents and complete the occupational questionnaire. Click Submit My Answers to submit your application package. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. To verify your application is complete, log into your USA JOBS account, https://my.usajobs.gov/Account/Login, select the Application Status link and then select the more information link for this position. The Application page will display the status of your application, the documentation received and processed, and any correspondence the agency has sent related to this application. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process. To return to an incomplete application, log into your USA JOBS account and click Update Application in the vacancy announcement. You must re-select your resume and/or other documents from your USA JOBS account or your application will be incomplete. Special Employment Consideration: VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply, including those eligible for hiring under 5 CFR 213.3102(u), Schedule A, Appointment of persons with disabilities [i.e., intellectual disabilities, severe physical disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities], and/or Disabled veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more. Contact the Agency Contact for information on how to apply under this appointment authority via the Selective Placement Coordinator. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well-qualified: applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the required competencies of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/. During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

Application Deadline: 2025-03-17