Healthcare IT Direct Messaging Specialist Mid.

Make a difference in the future of global healthcare!  Join our JPSys team!  “Our mission is to standardize, manage and improve the interoperability and usability of clinical data.”

Task Area 1: VA Direct Business & Partner Operations

Healthcare IT Direct Messaging Specialist Mid.

J P Systems provides professional services for large Federal Healthcare IT projects.  Be part of a team influencing the future of clinical data management by helping us to analyze and improve workflows across the Federal Government. 

 
Our client, the VA, is committed to improving Veteran care by enabling the secure exchange of health information with external providers, partners, and other government agencies. Direct Messaging, (based on the Direct Project protocols), is a key component of this strategy, providing safe, secure, encrypted point-to-point exchange of clinical documents between trusted recipients. Implementation of Direct Messaging is scalable, reliable, and is essential to support this mission.

Direct Messaging services are generally provided to external provider organizations by a Health Information Service Provider (HISP). Any external provider organization utilizing a DirectTrust accredited HISP has the potential to exchange Direct Messages with VA. DirectTrust has 230,000+ external provider organizations within their trusted network. VA is a member of DirectTrust who provides guidance and requirements to ensure security, privacy, etc. standards are upheld within the trusted network. 

More than 75% of Veterans who receive VA health care also get care from non-VA providers.  Increasing VA’s ability to electronically share Veteran health information in a secure, standard, and efficient way is vital. VA Direct is used to share various types of information to help coordinate Veteran patient care no matter where the patient gets their healthcare.  

Responsibilities of the Healthcare IT Direct Messaging Specialist Mid.

Must have a deep understanding of and experience with the Direct Messaging Protocols, message payloads and familiarity with the DirectTrust.

The responsibilities include the transition of the Legacy VA Direct users to Oracle Health:

• Work with internal and external client partners to understand system capabilities and translate them into training guides, user guides, and best practices documents. 
• As needed, participate in DirectTrust's work group calls to support work on provider directories, Event Notifications and Trusted Instant Messaging (TIM+), among others. 
• Provide outreach engagement and implementation expertise to support VAMCs transition to Oracle Health
• Perform Content and Attachment Validation (CAV) Testing to ensure message payload interoperability with Non-VA Providers.
• Contribute to the implementation of Section 108 of the Elizabeth Dole Act and Suicide Prevention efforts nationally or any other federally mandated initiative involving the VHIE VA Direct program.  
• Identify operational inefficiencies and make recommendations for improvement.
• Identify and mitigate gaps in technical and operational workflow structure for VA Direct between EHRM and Legacy systems.
• Act as a liaison between the Non-VA providers, VHIE Engagement Coordinators and the VA Direct National team. This may include delivering updates and guidance to all interested parties.
• Identify and document Best Practices and Lessons Learned.
• Capture and report Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies (RAID) to support project management reporting.
• Engage the Non-VA provider and VA end user troubleshooting payload inconsistencies and clinical workflows or Direct Messaging software issues.
• Perform pre & post prod validation testing and provide validation results to VA Direct business and technical teams.
• Be a POC for tracking VA Direct product software issues on behalf of VA end users, submitting service tickets when appropriate.
• Explore new outreach engagement, functional use cases, and other opportunities as directed by the VHIE Direct PM and Team Leads (Business Operations and Partner Management).
• Continually coordinate with Business Operations and Partner Management Outreach/Engagement teams, CAV testers, VHIE Implementation team, OI&T, Electronic Health Record Modernization Interoperability (EHRM IO), FEHRM, DOD and other VHIE teams.
• Document activities in all approved information management systems.
• Contribute to national strategy expansion, business requirement development, and outreach/engagement initiatives.
• Collaborate with internal client partners around topics that may affect the VHIE/VLER Health Program, to include new or updated data exchange business-level artifacts and recommend new or updated Direct Messaging functions.
• Interface with all stakeholders on Direct Messaging functionality and relevant outreach/engagement, use cases to help increase their understanding of Direct and support capability adoption. 
• Develop training guides for the transition, conduct training sessions, and develop other training materials as needed by users

 Project Requirements: 

• Support VA Direct Business Operations and Partner Management activities internally and externally.
• Understanding of Legacy VistA and Oracle Health (was Cerner Millennium) Direct systems
• Provide training and education on tools and processes to bring users to a Subject Matter Expert level.
• Identify and create various artifacts including SOPs, guidance, and other program documentation as assigned.
• Supports strategic development and implementation of national VA Direct workflows and projects. 

• Provide content/input/reviews Direct’s software requirements.
• Act as a liaison between VHIE Implementation Coordinators, national VA Direct team, and external organizations
• Identify and document lessons learned. 
• Document weekly activities and compile monthly reports to better achieve project goals
• Support metric collection, reporting and analysis using various tools.
• Coordinate, schedule, and facilitate meetings with external organizations (i.e., HIEs, hospital systems, small practices)
• Perform troubleshooting internally and externally for Direct Messaging software issues.
• Document and track external organization and Direct software related issues in VHA system.
• Maintain clear, timely, and professional communication with internal and external stakeholders.
• Support continuity and accuracy of Direct Messaging operations through consistent information exchange.
• Coordinate availability and engagement to ensure smooth collaboration across teams.
• Foster strong partnerships internally and externally enhance operational reliability and workflow efficiency.
• Contribute to a cohesive healthcare communication environment by promoting alignment and cooperation.
• Support Project Manager and Technical Team Leads when needed. Provide coverage, may manage Direct team members, and submit deliverables / reports.
• Troubleshoot, document, escalate, and track Direct software related issues.
• Other duties as assigned in support of Direct Business Operations and Direct Partner Management Leads.

 Skills and Qualifications:

• Must have 2 - 5 years' experience for this role.
• Deep understanding of the Direct Messaging Protocol 
• Experience representing stakeholder concerns while participating in Standards Development Organization (SDO) and/or Standards Related Organization (SRO) work groups.
• Experience presenting to stakeholder groups.
• Ability to interface with both audiences with varying levels of technical expertise.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal
• Strong experience developing training guides, user guides, and other Direct Messaging collateral
• Work collaboratively with other team members to develop policy in support of business requirements
• Strong experience managing and tracking multiple initiatives across a diverse stakeholder group
• Excellent time management skills as reporting and deliverable requirements must be met
• Experience serving as a liaison among internal and external partner groups
• Must have stakeholder engagement skills as well as an understanding of Direct messaging processes to facilitate diagnosis of the origin of problems.

Travel:

Travel up to 10% domestically may be required for this position. Written travel approval must be obtained for every trip.

Educational Requirements: 

A master’s or Bachelor’s plus 2 years relevant experience, or Associate’s + 4 years relevant experience in Clinical Informatics, Health Systems, Healthcare, Business, or other related scientific discipline is required.

Educational Equivalents:

A bachelor's degree plus 2 years' experience may be used as an equivalent to a master's degree or an associate degree plus 4 years' experience may be used as an equivalent to a master's degree.

Although we are 100% virtual, you must be located in one of our hiring states of AZ, CO, FL, GA, ID, IL, MD, MI, TX, VA, or WI. 

Must have high speed internet connection.  

Relocation: Not paid

J P Systems does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service, or other non-merit factor.

Please note that our pay ranges are carefully researched and set based on the requirements of the position.  The salary range is displayed under Compensation for each position.  If you feel you qualify for a more senior level position than the ones advertised, please feel free to instead submit your resume from our Open Jobs webpage for consideration.