Patient Representative

Summary

Patient Representative (Advocate) reports to the Assistant Director's Office. Ensures patient concerns are heard and addressed to improve the overall experience and quality of care for patients. Covers a variety of difficult and or complex patient concerns, issues and contacts for the Facility with the goal of providing resolutions. Assists Senior Level Advocates and front line staff in resolving issues occurring at the point of service. Provides coverage for fellow patient advocates.

Duties

Include but not limited to: Serves as liaison with congressional offices, responding directly to their staff assistants on matters involving patient concerns or dissatisfaction. Present patient issues and data at various facility meetings and committee, providing trends of patient inquiries with recommendations for corrective action. Identify elements of clinical or administrative practices contributing to or creating an atmosphere for patient dissatisfaction and makes recommendations to correct issues. Responsible for complaint resolution with service recovery, receiving compliments, working with Senior Level Advocates to help resolve issues and concerns and communicating with patients about their experiences of care. Collaborate with other facility staff in the creation, development, and implementation of initiatives and actions that improve the patient experience throughout the organization. Manages the comprehensive Veteran Centered Complaint Resolution (VCCR) and service recovery processes, final resolutions, data capture, trend analysis of issues and complaints, and communication of trends to facility leadership for system improvements. Serves as the liaison between the Facility, patients, staff, and the community, ensuring Patient Rights and Responsibilities, advocacy, and services are available. Serves as a staff member directly supporting facility Executive Leadership responsible for planning, organization, development, direction and evaluation of VA Medical Facility administration. Maintains a strong and consistent focus on Complaint Resolution which must always be accompanied by attempts at Service Recovery. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Patient Representative/PD99864S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 10/02/2026. 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-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. For appropriate SF-50(s) to submit please see Required Documents section for examples of SF-50(s) to include. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former VA employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying. Preferred Experience: Proactively identifies existing or potential problem areas and suggest solutions or alternatives to existing procedures which contribute to these problems. The ability to comprehend and explain numerous government laws, directives, and policies is required to provide information to individuals representing various levels of educational and cultural backgrounds. Works to identify the elements of clinical or administrative practices which contribute to or create an atmosphere for patient dissatisfaction and makes recommendations to correct issues. Facilitate resolution to problems beyond the capability of front-line staff and participate in resolution of system problems by presenting the patient's perspective of the problem and the desired resolution. Minimum Qualification Requirement: 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. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Identifies existing or potential problem areas and suggest solutions or alternatives to existing procedures. Provides service recovery and resolution through assisting Veterans and care givers in understanding their benefits, rights, and responsibilities. Resolves the most difficult and complex complaints, expedite services and implement necessary corrective measures within facility policies. Collect, analyze and evaluate data to prepare reports based on data. Enhances assigned facility Veteran Experience through best practices and the implementation of VHA Patient Experience initiatives. Or, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or three full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M. Or, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of GS-09 level specialized experience and education beyond a master's degree may be used to qualify. 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/.