Program Support Assistant

This position serves as the Tissue Coordinator for Operative Care division (OCD) for Portland VA Health Care System (VAPORHCS). Primary duty-station is Portland, but area of oversight includes Vancouver and Salem CBOC as well. Is responsible for the overall coordination and oversight of tissue inventory, stocking, ordering, quality assurance, regulatory compliance and overall operation of the OCD tissue implant monitoring program.

Qualifications:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement, 04/21/2026.

You may qualify based on your experience as described below:

GS-7

• Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-6 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Proficient in oral and written communication. Experienced with policies and procedures related to tissue ordering and tracking, including gathering and documenting information in medical records. Expert in written and oral medical terminology, with the ability to effectively communicate with clinicians and transplant staff on issues affecting patient care. Skilled in responding to providers by phone or in person, regarding policies and procedures related to tissue referral and follow-up. Accurate in spelling, grammar, correspondence arrangement, and formatting. Experienced in applying analytical and evaluative methods to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of program operations.

NOTE: 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.

Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), your responses on the application questionnaire, and your responses to all assessments required for this position. You will be assessed on the following Competencies for this position:

• Accountability
• Attention to Detail
• Customer Service
• Decision Making
• Flexibility
• Integrity/Honesty
• Interpersonal Skills
• Learning
• Reading Comprehension
• Reasoning
• Self-Management
• Stress Tolerance
• Teamwork

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.

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/.

Responsibilities:

Major duties include but are not limited to:

Inventory Program Administration

• The incumbent is recognized as an authority and subject matter expert to the tissue program within OCD.
• Acts as a central point of contact for the coordination of commodity support related to tissue.
• Develops and maintains Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
• The incumbent is also responsible for considerable analysis, database creation, reporting, tracking, monitoring, documentation of monitoring, regulation compliance and training related to tissue.
• Analyzes data to include demand history, program requirements, procurement lead-time, current stock levels and other factors which impact tissue management decisions.
• Advanced planning requires significant interaction and coordination with service lines and other stakeholders to balance competing priorities, including clinical requirements.
• Performs analytical work to manage, regulate, coordinate, or otherwise exercise control over the tissue program.
• The incumbent conducts data analysis for acquisition planning associated with tissue.

Quality Improvement Programs

• The incumbent must possess a thorough working knowledge of the regulations, policies, procedures and guidelines governing the tissue program. The level of knowledge must be enough to allow the incumbent to analyze inventory usage, control the level and flow of supplies, and provide recommendations.
• Incumbent provides quality assurance monitoring for the tissue process ensuring that proper procedures are followed and that items are safe for use, delivered on time at the proper place and in a condition to be properly used for VA patient care.
• Performs work related to developing processes and procedures for monitoring tissue expiration and recall, analyzing effectiveness by comparison of goals and results in terms of program compliance.
• Incumbent is responsible for recall processing including, identifying location of recalled tissue, identity of patients affected.
• Establishes and maintains production statistics, which depict information on progress and/or evaluation of inventories. He/she maintains quality control and quality assurance activities of the Tissue Program.
• Ensures inventory of tissue cited on the custodial balance file are kept current and reflect the actual physical posture of the stock.

Training-Education

• The incumbent has the responsibility of maintaining a current knowledge to answer questions for employees on procedures, policies and directives and to obtain needed information on decisions from management on major problems and issues that arise.
• The incumbent is responsible for reporting to his/her supervisor on performance, progress of work and training needs of employees and on any issues related to the tissue program.

Performs Program Planning Work

• Performs administrative work, which includes management of an office's schedule or day-to-day plans.
• Develops new plans or schedules using standard references.
• Identifies objectives based on understanding of program and overall priorities. Determines specific steps, input required, and/or meetings. Identifies schedule and milestones; and estimates resources required.
• The incumbent sets administrative and policy direction for tissue through discussion of programs goals with the MSA Supervisor.
• The incumbent must have knowledge of analytical processes and deductive reasoning to conduct problem and trend identification and resolution.
• Works with Operating Room Management and VISN 20 Contracting to identify items appropriate for consignment.
• Prepares and submits documents for consignment consideration.
• Computes and analyses material requirements for special. programs such as procurement, planning and initiating actions to meet the materiel requirements of using activities.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday; 5:30am - 3:00pm, tour varies per the needs of the service.(PST)
Telework: This is not a Telework position.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Program Support Assistant/PD215250
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Approved

Salary : $54,370