The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is releasing the draft Job Family Position Classification Standard (JFS) for Professional Work in the Medical and Healthcare Group. This draft proposes substantial changes to the structure of federal medical and healthcare work. These jobs have evolved significantly since many of them were last reviewed; therefore, we propose to consolidate occupational series, cancel several functional classification guides, and update position titles to reflect current terminology. Please provide your comments in response to the attached request by June 29, 2012.

The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs have agreed to serve as lead agencies in reviewing and testing the draft JFS. In addition, we encourage all other agencies with positions covered by this draft standard to conduct a general review of the professional medical and healthcare work and to provide us feedback.

We rely on agency human resources officials with positions covered by this draft position classification standard to contact subject matter experts and program management officials to ensure they are aware of the release of this draft standard and to seek their input. We depend on your input to assist us in making the appropriate adjustments to ensure the final standard meets your needs.

If you have questions or would like to discuss this draft standard please contact April Davis at (202) 606-3600 or by email to fedclass@opm.gov.

Attachment - Draft Job Family Position Classification Standard for Professional Work in the Medical and Healthcare Group, 0600

REQUEST FOR COMMENTS

DRAFT JOB FAMILY POSITION CLASSIFICATION STANDARD FOR PROFESSIONAL WORK IN THE MEDICAL AND HEALTHCARE GROUP, 0600

Please provide your comments and suggestions to OPM by June 29, 2012.

Note: Do not use the grade level criteria in the attached draft to classify positions until the Office of Personnel Management issues the standard in final form.

We would like subject matter experts and human resources officials to answer the following questions about this draft job family standard (JFS):

1. Is the occupational information for each series appropriate and sufficient? If not, please provide any additional narrative information you believe we should add.

2. Are the proposed series names appropriate? If they are not appropriate, please provide appropriate series names and written justification.

3. Do the proposed titles reflect the medical and healthcare work in your agency? Please explain why or why not.

4. Do you see a need to establish specialty areas (i.e., parenthetical titles) in any of the covered series? If so, please explain in detail, and provide titling suggestions.

5. Do you concur with the two proposed series realignments (i.e., GS-0637 and GS-0639 to the GS-0601 series)? If not, please explain.

6. Are additional illustrations necessary for any series? If so, please submit suggested illustrations with your comments.

7. Do you recommend any additional series consolidations? Please explain.

Please test-apply the draft JFS to a sufficient number of positions to determine if it meets your classification needs and support your estimates of potential impact. The results of your test application will provide vital information we need to produce the final standard. Please provide information on the following:

1. The position descriptions (PDs) by title, series, and grade level that you evaluated using the draft standard. In addition, provide the number of positions covered by each PD you tested. For example, one standardized PD may cover 7 positions.

2. The potential impact on each position description, i.e., whether it would be upgraded, downgraded, or remain the same, and the number of employees that will be affected.

3. Copies of PDs that would change in grade level. Include an evaluation statement or an explanation of:

(a) How the position was classified using the present standard; and

(b) Why the grade changed after applying the draft criteria?

As you conduct the test application, do not include positions if there is any question about the accuracy of the current grade. However, if you have positions that have been especially difficult to classify under the existing standards, please apply the draft JFS to these positions and provide copies of the position descriptions. In addition, tell us if the draft JFS was easier or more difficult to apply than the existing standard.

How Do You Submit Comments?

In response to the requests outlined above, provide a consolidated set of agency comments, including both:

(a) Comments representing the agency’s overall feedback; and

(b) Representative comments from subject matter experts and subordinate locations to support your feedback.

Please submit comments in accordance with your agency’s guidelines. Suggestions for change will be particularly helpful if you include the rationale and examples for the suggested change.

Please send your response by email to fedclass@opm.gov or mail a hard-copy to the address below:

U.S. Office of Personnel Management

Recruitment and Hiring

Classification and Assessment Policy

1900 E Street, NW, Room 6H31

Washington, DC 20415-8330

Individuals who wish to send personal comments should send them to the same address.