Patient Representative

Summary

The Patient Representative is primarily responsible for complaint resolution with service recovery, receiving compliments, working with Service Level Advocates to help resolve issues and concerns and communicating with patients about their experiences of care. Works exclusively in the Patient Advocate Tracking System (PATS-R).Collaborating with other facility staff in the creation, development, and implementation of initiatives and actions that improve the patient experience throughout the VAMC.

Duties

Primary Duties include but are not limited to: Collaborates with facility staff in the creation, development, and implementation of initiatives and actions that improve the patient experience. Serves as the liaison between the facility, patients, staff, and the community to ensure Patient Rights and Responsibilities and advocacy services are available. Assists patients in understanding their rights, in addition to, their responsibilities. Explains a variety of government laws, directives, and policies to individuals of varying levels of educational and cultural backgrounds. Communicates patients' concerns, opinions, and needs to appropriate staff and management. Communicates trends to facility leadership to help drive system improvements. Presents patient issue data and patient inquiry trends at meetings and/or to committees. Explores all avenues, crossing all lines of authority and responsibility within a medical facility, in order to properly identify the nature and scope of the problem and to initiate appropriate action to expedite a resolution. Facilitates resolution to problems beyond the capability of front-line staff. Resolves difficult and complex patient complaints. Preferred Experience: Comprehensive knowledge of the PATS-R system, with a demonstrated ability to effectively navigate, apply, and utilize its features in support of patient advocacy operations. Candidates should be able to showcase hands- on proficiency in data entry, case management workflows, reporting functions, and system-driven documentation processes to ensure accuracy, compliance, and timely resolution of patient concerns. The ability to use Microsoft Excel to extract and analyze PATS data in order to create clear, accurate reports. Candidates should be able to develop trend analyses, identify patterns in patient complaints, and present concise, data -driven summaries to leadership to support informed decision making and improve service delivery. Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. Work Schedule: Monday- Friday 8:00am to 4:30pm Telework: Ad-Hoc Only Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Patient Representative/PD99864S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized PCS Appraised Value Offer (AVO): Not Authorized

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/06/2026. 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-09 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. For a GS-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09. 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. Examples of appropriate SF-50's include: Within grade increases at the highest grade held; or Promotions with an effective date more than one year old; or SF-50's at the highest grade held with an effective date more than one year old. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: GS-09 Level Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-07 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Assists patients in understanding their rights, in addition to, their responsibilities. Communicates patients' opinions, and needs to appropriate staff and management. Collects, analyzes, and evaluates patient complaint data. Prepares reports to identify process improvement opportunites. Reviews and interprets information contained in medical and administrative records. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a master's or equivalent graduate degree or, 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree, or, LL.B. or J.D., if related. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an an appropriate combination of specialized experience and education. 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. GS-11 Level Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-09 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Facilitates resolution to problems beyond the capability of front-line staff. Resolves difficult and complex patient complaints Recommends changes which will reduce or eliminate substantiated complaints. Communicates trends to facility leadership to help drive system improvements. Produces reports to track patient inquiries and the patterns to identify area of improvement needed. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree, or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree, or LL.M., if related. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an an appropriate combination of specialized experience and education. 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

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. 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/.