www.va.govYou may be interested in applying for employment in one of Healthcare Inspections regional offices.
The Office of Healthcare Inspections evaluates quality assurance programs and patient care issues in the VA's health care delivery system. This office offers unique employment opportunities for proven, skilled health care professionals who are interested in helping to make VA health care safe and effective.
These dedicated physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals work in a collegial team environment to evaluate patient treatment and quality assurance activities and recommend actions to correct patient treatment problems in the VA's network of Medical Centers, Outpatient Clinics, Nursing Homes and Domiciliaries.
Working in the Healthcare Inspections office offers unique opportunities to become knowledgeable in every aspect of the largest government operated medical treatment system. Healthcare Inspections staff perform a broad spectrum of evaluation activities that foster improved nationwide health care programs and have significant impact on national health care policy.
What is the Function of a Healthcare Inspections Field Office?
To conduct inspections of patient care and quality assurance issues, conduct Veterans Health Administration (VHA health care program reviews, provide consultative evaluations of individual VA Medical Care (VAMC) operations, participate in Combined Assessment Program reviews and ensure that quality health care for veterans is VA's top priority.
You would:
- interview complainants and knowledgeable clinicians about health care-related issues;
- review patients' medical records to assess appropriateness and quality of care;
- collect and analyze medical process data such as waiting times, lengths-of-stay, etc. to evaluate medical centers' responsiveness to patients' needs;
- interview medical center executive and middle managers to assess hospital operations;
- review quality assurance and quality improvement documents to assess hospital-wide programs;
- present post-inspection briefings to VHA top managers and Congressional representatives; and
- develop written reports that discuss your findings, conclusions and recommendations for improvement.
Examples of recent assignments include investigations of:
- evaluation of VHA's policies and procedures for protecting wandering patients and searching for missing patients;
- oversight review of selected aspects of VHA's traumatic brain injury program;
- oversight review of VHA's policies and practice of overseeing State Veterans Homes;
- oversight review of VHA's application of patient safety policy and practices in patients who wear soft restraints;
- inspection of individual complaints of substandard or dangerous patient care, including alleged patient abuse and possible homicides; and
- quality program assistance review segments of the OIG's Combined Assessment Program reviews.
Recent investigative assignments have provided opportunities to work with a wide variety of law enforcement professionals, e.g., FBI, Secret Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, state and local police, assistant United States attorneys and state and local prosecutors.
We provide extensive basic and advanced criminal investigative training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Glynco, GA. The Criminal Investigator Basic Training Program is approximately 9 weeks and the Inspector General Basic Training Program is about 4 weeks.