The incumbent serves as a Telephone Operator and is assigned to the Business Office at the Portland VA Medical Center (PVAMC) and reports to the Supervisor Telephone Operator. The operator's position involves technical work, performs duties as the emergency 911 operator. There is one supervisory operator that oversees incoming calls for the Medical Center, Vancouver campus and CBOCs. The Telephone Operator is responsible covering shifts which are 24 hours a day. 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement, 04/28/2025. 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-04 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-02. 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: You must have one year of general experience that has equipped you with the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the duties of a Telephone Operator GS-04. General experience is defined as progressively responsible clerical, office, or other work that indicates your ability to perform the duties of this position. 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. OR, Education: Two (2) years of education above the high school level for which high school graduation or the equivalent is the normal prerequisite. This education must have been obtained at an accredited business, secretarial or technical school, junior college, college or university. One year of full-time academic 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. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. OR, Combination: Equivalent combination of successfully completed post-high school education and general experience, as described above, which meet the total qualification requirements for this grade level. NOTE: Your experience must be documented in your resume and transcripts are required. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Attention to Detail Customer Service Oral Communication 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, although some slight physical effort such as walking, standing, 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. 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/.
Major duties include: The switchboard is located in Portland VAMC. The complexity of a tertiary care Medical Center demands attention to detail, accuracy and efficiency when providing a full range of telecommunication options to clinical providers, administrative staff, veterans and family members, community hospitals, private practitioners, OHSU departmental staff and clinicians, and other members of the general public. The frequency of the Resident rotations and the detail oriented clinical specialties on-call schedules necessitate that the incumbent must constantly· update and track information relevant to these on-call and Resident rotations schedules. The schedules are provided by each clinical specialty in various formats and must be organized and data entered into a user­ friendly on-call .schedule. The rotation schedules and calendars must also be organized and entered into either Network based on call schedule and made available in conjunction with a quick reference guide and multiple reference lists. Each Operator is trained in how to prepare these reference materials and is coordinated through the Supervisor. An accurate, Daily Record Log of events and incidents must be maintained on a daily basis for each shift. This includes, but is not limited to emergency medical and behavioral Codes intrusion alarms, panic alarms,, problems with the Call manager, IP/ARC console, emergency 911 phone, , or any other telecommunications equipment in the office, insuring that all · pertinent details are documented. Organizational skills are necessary to be able to prioritize the variety of tasks and work requests that must be accomplished on a daily l:>asis on each shift. It is important to be able to respond to numerous demands in a diplomatic and efficient manner. Different and unrelated processes are required ·to accomplish the work. A high degree of judgment will be required to determine the urgency/emergent nature of the issue and ensuring that the appropriate Medical Center personnel are notified. Decisions concerning .what needs to be done and how it must be done are based on understanding the relationship between different organizations, people and issues involved. Must be able to handle multiple calls under pressure· in a stressful setting and exhibit a high degree of interpersonal communication. The work is performed in a communication center setting assisting callers, dispensing information to veterans, medical staff, nursing staff, administrative personnel, and the general public. Individual must possess the ability to function with a variety of demands, making changes and adjustments in activities to ensure that calls are processed in an organized, expeditious and efficient manner. Customer service skills will be utilized within the office environment with co-workers, clinical and administrative staff and on each telephone interaction. The complexity of the position directly relates to answering and directing numerous and varied calls including processing emergency calls for a Code situation. Accomplishment of these tasks requires an expeditious time frame within the· context of potential emergency interruptions and changes in priorities of calls. 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· \ISS and facility level messages. VISTA messages are also received. 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, Ensures that there is an accurate network based, daily Record Log of events and incidents to include, but not limited to emergency medical and behavioral Codes, panic alarms, problems with the Cisco, IP console, emergency 911 phone, or any other telecommunications equipment in the office, insuring that all pertinent details are documented all automatic, etc. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday; 7:30am-4:00pm (PST). Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Telephone Operator/PD20743A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized. Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required.