Lead Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical)
The Lead Health Technician (Telehealth Clinical) at the Minneapolis VA provides an array of complex and specialized duties related to leadership, staff education, technology management, as well as project and program management for all dimensions of virtual care and telehealth initiatives. In addition to lead duties, the incumbent maintains responsibility for day-to-day operation of telehealth services at the assigned location and between the assigned location and remote sites of care as well as participating in the programmatic development and advanced support of the facility-wide telehealth program. The incumbent is expected to be able to exercise independent judgment and is responsible to regularly provide oversight and guidance to other staff members and will require minimal direct supervision. This position will be will be split between the VISN 23 Telehealth Hub and VISN 23. The Lead TCT will report to the VISN 23 Telehealth Hub Associate Director Operations with dotted line responsibility to the VISN 23 Telehealth Technology Program Manager
Primary responsibilities of the incumbent include: Maintaining certification as a telehealth preceptor in order to deliver advanced telehealth training and evaluation of the competencies of clinicians and/or less experienced telehealth staff members, supporting clinical telehealth encounters for both the patient and provider locations by serving as the telepresenter within scope of practice, functioning as an imager and data manager for telehealth store and forward applications, managing real time clinical telehealth events, providing established patient education, and providing technical and administrative support of telehealth operations. Additional responsibilities will include: evaluating telehealth operations and supporting performance improvement efforts, providing technical support to end-users, scheduling simple and complex intra-facility and inter-facility telehealth appointments, installing, configuring, maintaining, and troubleshooting technology, and performing a variety of program support duties as assigned.
Work Schedule: Administrative Days, travel may be outside of regular duty hours.
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required
This position may be authorized for Telework. Telework, if approved, would be on an AD-HOC basis
Responsibilities
Major duties include, but are not limited to:
- Giving on-the-job training to new employees (local and at the CBOC sites). Instructing employees in specific tasks and job techniques, making available written instructions and reference materials for use by team members in the accomplishment of tasks or projects.
- Using a needs assessment, service agreements and other tools, collaborating with stakeholders to develop new programs and processes to ensure Telehealth programs are meeting the strategic plans of the healthcare system.
- Identifying and recommending ways of eliminating, combining, simplifying procedures and processes of the Telehealth program. Supporting efforts to effect necessary change.
- Independently reviewing quality and performance data (e.g. patient satisfaction surveys, image quality, performance metrics, clinic wait times) for Telehealth programs effectiveness and satisfaction and developing process improvements as required;
- Developing and coordinating a wide variety of standard operating procedures with full and complete technical advice to ensure Telehealth operations are timely, efficient, and appropriate.
- Preparing the clinical environment, which may include preparing medical and telecommunications equipment to be used for clinical examination and treatment.
- Serving as a telepresenter, within scope of practice, during clinical video Telehealth (CVT) and VA Video Connect (VVC) encounters including tasks such as establishing and maintaining video conferencing connections, making introductions between patient site and provider site, following instructions of a clinician to facilitate an effective clinical encounter.
- Serving as an imager and data manager for store and forward Telehealth (SFT) clinical encounters including tasks such as capturing images, collecting data and transmitting them electronically for clinical review in accordance with VHA national guidelines.
- Receiving and scheduling requests for simple and complex intra-facility, and inter-facility Telehealth appointments using an electronic resource-based scheduling system.
- Screening patients for Telehealth modality and referring patients that do not meet established criteria to appropriate care.
- Providing education and training to Veterans and clinicians on the use of Telehealth technologies and serving as a point of contact to answer questions and address concerns related to these technologies.
Travel Required
25% or less - Travel to various VA and non-VA sites to provide instruction/ assistance with telehealth services.
Supervisory status: No
Promotion Potential: 8
CBDO-10220259-18-AHU