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WALTER REED GETS RAPID-HIRE AUTHORITY FOR PATIENT

CARE VACANCIES -- The Pentagon can bypass normal

competitive hiring rules to fill 115 civil service positions.

 

 

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Army’s Walter Reed gets rapid-hire authority for patient care vacancies

By TIM KAUFFMAN

The Pentagon can bypass normal competitive hiring rules to fill 115 civil service positions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which has been rocked by scandal over the treatment of wounded war veterans.

Office of Personnel Management Director Linda Springer approved the Defense Department’s request for direct hiring authority, which is limited to specific positions directly related to patient care. The authority is good for one year.

Filling the positions using traditional hiring methods has taken between 40 days and 147 days, Springer said in a March 29 memo to David Chu, undersecretary of Defense for personnel.

“The timeframes that it has taken to fill the positions in the past using traditional hiring authorities are no longer acceptable in meeting the center’s immediate patient care needs,” Springer said.

The most common jobs to be filled using the authority are nursing assistants, medical support assistants and pathology technicians.

Positions range in grade from GS-4 to GS-14 and can be filled as career, career conditional, term or temporary appointments.

In using the direct-hire authority, Defense must advertise the positions being filled but can bypass the normal assessment process that’s used to determine who qualifies for the jobs.

Instead, Defense can review the applications and make job offers without formal assessments.

Defense also can ignore veterans preference rules, although Springer encouraged the Pentagon to fill the jobs using qualified veterans whenever possible.

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Larry Scott  --